Earlier in the week we reported on the government’s plans to request ISPs block all websites considered pornographic in nature, and force the adults that pay for online access to request permission to view specific sites. Why was this being considered? Because, according to minister Ed Vaizey, the government wanted to relinquish the ISP’s customers of parental responsibility and ensure children couldn’t view inappropriate material.

So what forces may be behind this improbablyeattempt to censor the intamaweb and relieve those lazy parents who use it as a pacifier?

The website Liberal Conspiracy picked up on the BBC’s reporting of the story, and noted that a woman called Miranda Suit was quoted extensively in their coverage, a woman with very strong Christian values:

We must not forget the influence of the media: it needs much stronger regulation so that our young people are not constantly conditioned by violent films, video games and lyrics; pornography must be outlawed so that it cannot undermine marriage and the dignity of women and encourage sex crime. All schools should teach Christian values.

The BBC doesn’t mention Suit’s views are religiously motivated, or provide any background on the watchdog Suit co-founded, Safer Media. In fact there’s next to nothing about Safer Media online, except for on the website of an organisation called Media March:

Safermedia is a Charity seeking to reduce the harmful effects of the media on our children, families and society.

We engage in raising awareness, educating and supporting the public, monitoring the media, highlighting relevant academic research, and lobbying.

At least Media March comes forward in revealing it is a religiously motivated pressure group. But what of the link between violence and pornography in media, and the ‘harmful effects’ on society? Go no further than the Media March website, where ‘proof’ is delivered in the form of a quote from The Guardian:

The debate over the effect of violent films looks set to be revived after reports emerged that Derrick Bird watched the grisly Steven Seagal film On Deadly Ground hours before embarking on a shooting rampage last Wednesday in which he killed 12 other people and injured 11.

The 1994 film, which Seagal directed and starred in, centres on an environmentalist oil rig worker who, aggrieved after he learns faulty equipment is damaging Alaskan wildlife, goes on a murderous rampage against his co-workers and employees.

It’s all Steven Seagal’s fault, then.We suspected as much.

Out of interest, who founded the high profile Media March, which holds annual conferences at the Houses of Parliament, and has MPs not only speaking but sponsoring the events? Miranda Suit, that’s who.

Given their current flair for the idiotic, it’s possible the Government dreamt up their scheme to ban internet pornography themselves. However, it now seems that agenda dovetails perfectly with a religious campaign group already engaging MPs and recruiting them to their cause.