Only A Click Away

If China, tellingly the refuge of Edward Snowden, can co-operate with Google in order to block anything that her government happens to dislike, then Google can certainly prevent the accessing from the United Kingdom of pornographic material that is illegal here.

Certain record companies block YouTube access from British computers due to our copyright laws. When even the mighty New York Times runs articles that might contravene either or both of our libel laws and our secrecy laws, then they cannot be accessed from, for example, the computer at which I am writing this post.

Not only does the technology exist, but it is already in routine use on an enormous scale.

Would this block dissident material in North Korea, where who has the equipment, anyway? So be it. Would this block dissident material in Saudi Arabia, where the dissidents differ from the regime only in being even more Islamist than it is? So be it.

If that is the price to pay in order to stop anyone in the United Kingdom from looking at the torture and rape of women, children and indeed men, then so be it.

The power of the State against the "free" market. Thank God for it.