ITV News Index

ComRes interviewed British adults on behalf of ITV News

Date Published: 17 Jun 2013

Categories: Energy | International | Media | Politics | Public and communities | Technology & Telecoms

Description

COMRES/ ITV NEWS POLL: MAJORITY OF BRITISH PUBLIC AGAINST ARMING SYRIAN REBELS

As the latest G8 Summit in Northern Ireland is set to be dominated by international division over the civil war in Syria, the latest Index poll conducted by ComRes for ITV News at Ten reveals that just 17% of the British population would support the British government providing arms to the Syrian rebels. A majority of 53% oppose the idea.

There is concern that there will be serious consequences in arming Syrian rebels. More than half (56%) believe that the British government should not arm the rebels because of the risk that the weapons will fall into the hands of terrorists. One in six (15%) disagree. The same proportion (56%) worry that arming Syrian rebels will increase the risk of terrorist attacks aimed at Britain. 13% disagree and one in three (31%) are not sure.

One in two believe (48%) believe that civil war in Syria is “none of our business” but one in four (27%) disagree.

While two in five (39%) say it is the responsibility of world leaders to help civilians under attack from the Assad regime by any means necessary, 28% disagree and just a quarter (25%) would support the use of British ground troops if they were deemed necessary to bring peace and stability. Half of the population (50%) would be against the use of British troops on the ground in Syria.

COMRES/ ITV NEWS POLL: 73% OF POPULATION CALL FOR SEARCH ENGINES TO FILTER OUT ALL PORNOGRAPHIC CONTENT UNLESS PEOPLE OPT IN TO ACCESS IT

Today the UK’s most well-known internet service providers, BT, Sky, Talk Talk and Virgin Media, signed up to an agreement to work more closely with police on proactively finding and blocking child abuse images and to provide £1 million funding to the Internet Watch Foundation. 

The latest Index poll conducted by ComRes for ITV News reveals that three quarters of the population (73%) believe that in order to reduce opportunities for people to access indecent images of children online, search engines should filter out all pornographic online content unless people specifically opt in to access it. Just 12% disagree and 15% are not sure. Results show that women (81%) are more likely than men (66%) to agree.

Seven in ten (72%) Brits think there is a link between viewing online child abuse and crimes committed against children by some of those who view such online content. A small percentage of 8% disagree with this idea and one in five (20%) are not sure.

An overwhelming majority of 77% believe the Government is right to demand more of internet service providers and search engines in the fight against the spread of indecent images of children online. Just 9% disagree and 14% don’t know.

More than half of the public say that they would consider changing their internet service provider (52%) or preferred search engine (57%) if their provider did not sign up to Government plans to limit the spread of indecent images of children online. Women are more likely to agree with this statement than men. 57% of women agree they would change their internet service provider compared with 47% of men, and 63% of women say that they would consider changing the search engine they use most often compared to 52% of men.

Finally, 55% believe that it doesn't matter what action is taken by internet service providers, indecent images of children will still be available online. 17% disagree and 28% could not decide.