Please, sir, I want some porn

UK consumers of porn will have to ask their ISP to provide them with access to X-rated content. As the government continues its futile bid to sanitize the web, new customers signing up for internet access with Sky will find that an adult content filter is enabled by default.

This means that anyone wanting to view content that has been deemed 'adult' will have to contact Sky to lift the block. The decision to make the content filter opt-out rather than opt-in was taken after it transpired that a mere 3 percent of existing users had taken the step of switching it on in the first year since its introduction in 2013.

A second line of attack saw Sky emailing its customers at the beginning of 2015. The email gave users the choice of enabling the filter if they wanted, but if the correspondence was ignored, Sky assumed the filter was wanted and automatically enabled it. 62 percent of people who did respond opted to enable filtering. Sky says this is a "significantly higher engagement than any other broadband provider".

But for new customers wanting to access porn, they will have to ask for it. The company says:

Following the customers' positive response to that initiative, in 2016 Sky will be the first broadband company to automatically provide filtering to all its new customers.

Sky will continue to highlight the benefits of Sky Broadband Shield for customers, but this is just one way of protecting children online. Sky continues to support www.internetmatters.org which provides guidance and resources for parents. It offers advice on a variety of parental concerns including inappropriate content, cyber bullying and radicalisation as well 'how-to' guides for setting up parental controls on a range of devices.

It is a move that is likely to be welcomed by parents -- and some non-parents -- but it will also spark debate about who decides what is classed as adult content and the repercussions that blocking could have on education and access to information.