While there is little justification for the need to posses and access material the Brit. gov. claims it tries to block (violent porn) the fact that a filter is put in place by a government (with a track record of systematic / systemic eye and ear-dropping on private communications) is an unacceptable censorship mandate “in blank.”
It is laughable that only found claim (automatic filtering of adult material and illegal searches to be blocked ) is the same one given as justification by PRC government for the Great China Firewall.
One can arguably expect the main reason behind this move is actually the fact that with the current budget constraints, the government decided the only way to provide GSHQ with sufficient server space for it’s spying activities is to prevent it from being clogged with all the porn material that is currently intercepted (estimated at ~30% globally and ~80% in potential terrorist environments (Pakistan was number 1 in % google searches for porn)). The fact that political terms (Wicky leaks, Deep Throat, Oral Office) and unpleasant images could be easily added to the filter was just an afterthought….