LONDON — A British government child protection adviser is calling on Google to block access to hardcore porn sites.
John Carr, a member of the Internet Task Force on Child Protection reportedly blamed search engines as a gateway to websites advertising "Teen Sex" and "Barely Legal" that he said are code words for pedophiles seeking images of child abuse.
The Internet expert wants "default" blocking on search engines that would force users to register to view porn. He plans on raising the issue in a meeting with Google and the next gathering of the government's Internet task force.
"Google's moral leadership is essential here. They are the biggest players in this world. If they [were to block it], others would have to follow," Carr told the BBC Radio Four's Today program.
Carr’s actions have been sparked by Britain’s concern over the link between extreme porn and violent crime, citing the murder of five-year-old April Jones, whose murderer — Mark Bridger — reportedly had been looking at indecent online images of child abuse and rape shortly before the crime.
A Google spokesman said Internet companies are working "incredibly hard" to prevent people accessing images of child abuse.
Some child protection groups suggest that web companies introduce online warnings, threatening possible prosecution when users attempt to access explicit sites.
A confidential British hotline used to flag criminal content online revealed that it had seen a 32 percent increase in reports of images showing the rape and sexual torture of children.
Scott Rubin, the director of communications and public affairs at Google told The Telegraph, “Google has a zero-tolerance policy on child sexual abuse content. We are members and joint funders of the Internet Watch Foundation, an independent body that searches the web for child abuse imagery and then sends us links, which we remove from our search index. When we discover child abuse imagery or are made aware of it, we respond quickly to remove and report it to the appropriate law enforcement authorities.”