Virgin media has launched a new 152Mbps broadband connection alongside the introduction of the controversial “porn filter” designed to censor the internet and make it “family-safe”.
Virgin claims that its new offering is the fastest in the UK, and they have also increased the entry-level speed up to 50Mbps, nearly twice the maximum speed available through traditional copper phone lines with ADSL2. Customers on 60Mbps will have their speed boosted to 100Mbps as well.
The company says that peak internet use by Virgin customers has increased by an impressive 1,000% since 2007, with more and more people streaming TV and movies through Netflix and BBC iPlayer, as well as music with services such as Spotify and Soundcloud.
Faster speeds are always good for the internet and as more people gain access to such connectivity, it pushed for the creation of more high-bandwidth services such as HD movie streaming, or game streaming across the web.
Controversially, the speed increases also come with the now infamous “porn filter” or Great Firewall of Britain, where internet users will have to opt-in to being able to access sites that someone believes to be morally questionable, from adult material to gambling to alcohol, or political material that is different from the norm, such as being gay.
The intended censorship is worrying enough, but as with every internet filter of the past, some sites that should have been bocked for extreme adult material are not, whilst some websites devoted to sex education where teens can ask their questions about sex have been blocked. The filter is a failure in design and a failure in implementation.
Photograph by Bill Burris