MK Shuli Moalem-Refaeli, who had proposed the bill, will now be updating her proposal to instead require ISPs to provide the option of free content filtering for those who want it.
“The original version of Moalem-Refaeli’s bill had broad support and may well have passed if it had been brought to a vote; 26 MKs from most of the Knesset factions had signed onto the bill, including from the opposition parties Zionist Union, Yesh Atid and the Joint List. Only Meretz MKs had refrained,” Haaretz reported.
Some who supported the bill, including MK Karin Elharrar admit that they had been uncomfortable with the original wording, but also wanted to protect children from accessing adult content.
“The obligation of the ISP will be intensified so that [it] will be required to inform the customer by text message and email when they sign up,” the new version of the bill, which is expected to be put forward this week, states.
The Communications Ministry seems to agree with her updated proposal.
“The position of the ministry was and remains that no content on the internet should be pre-filtered, and that the various ISPs are obligated to inform the customer of the existence of offensive content online and to supply customers with filtering programs for free,” the ministry said.