Sir, – You write in your editorial (July 24th),“Yet even if filters are imperfect, circumventable tools, better some defence against the tide than none? No substitute, however, for parents getting their own tech upgrading and eternal vigilance, however intrusive it may appear.”
As soon as we allow legal material to be censored at a general level as decided upon by the Government, we vest in them the power to censor any other legal material. And the list of the “opt-inners” shall have to be kept, safe and secure no doubt, by our internet service providers, in searchable and easily transferable format.
Surely, in the event that parents lack the technological ability to police their child’s internet use, or the parental ability to raise a child with an appropriate knowledge of sex, sexuality and the internet, the answer is for these individuals to opt in to a filter system, not to co-opt every user into a filter and have people opt out. The internet is a great and powerful source of information and allowing Governments to control our access to that legal information is a step that we should be very, very sure of before we take it. – Yours, etc,
JAMES SCULLY-LANE,
King Street North,
Smithfield, Dublin 7.