After months of debate, internet service providers have started to engage filters to protect children from porn at the behest of the UK government.

For new BT customers, TalkTalk customers and Sky subscribers these filters will be automatically switched on as default. And although you will be given the choice as to whether you want to continue with the default settings or turn them off , it's a move being seen by some as forcing people to admit they are perverts.

Worse still is that some reports claim that the adult content filters are not just stamping out pornography. Because they are making all sexual imagery a taboo, they are blocking sites that help people who are being sexually abused, or helping young people who are working out their sexuality.

According to the BBC and its Newsnight team, all the filters have failed at their jobs on occasions. TalkTalk missed seven per cent of the BBC's hardcore porn test sites, Sky filtered out support services for people with sex addiction and BT managed to filter out sexual health and domestic abuse support sites.

"It's really frustrating because I'm trying to provide a sex education site for young people and it's hard enough directing young people to good-quality information on the internet," said Justin Hancock who runs BishUK, one of the sites inappropriately blocked.

Of course, as parents to little Linters ourselves, we're very aware of the need to protect children. We do this through parenting though, and we make sure we supervise internet time and perhaps use some in-home software, or configure our routers, to make sure the worst of the internet is filtered out.