[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

Then how did this happen:
http://ccc.de/en/updates/2014/ccc-censored-in-uk

And this:
https://torrentfreak.com/largest-pir...k-isps-140910/

And this:
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20...atsoever.shtml

And this:
http://bsdly.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the...ds-access.html

You're conflating two entirely separate things:

1. Sites which are blocked by court order. This includes the major pirate torrent sites and their proxies.

2. Default blocking of adult content, which most ISPs introduced a while ago. This can be disabled by the user and, indeed, when you go to a site which is blocked by such a filter (eg porn sites), with my ISP at least you get a page telling you precisely how to disable the filter. This is adult content, not pirated material. It has nothing to do with piracy.

From the first link you posted:

Since July 2013, a government-backed so-called opt out list censors the open internet. These internet filters, authorized by Prime Minister David Cameron, are implemented by UK’s major internet service providers (ISPs). Dubbed as the "Great Firewall of Britain", the lists block adult content as well as material related to alcohol, drugs, smoking, and even opinions deemed "extremist". [2]

Users can opt-out of censorship, or bypass it by technical means, but only a minority of users know how to bypass those filters.

This last sentence is nonsense, as I said above: if you try to access a blocked site, you'll be told how to unblock it. In the case of my ISP, the process involves contacting the ISP with proof that you're over 18, and requesting that the block be lifted.

The first and third of your links are referring to these adult content blocks, for which the block can be lifted; the second (blocking of pirate site proxies) is court order stuff, which cannot.