MPs back David Cameron's internet porn stance

He was also setting out plans for every UK household to have pornography blocked unless they choose to receive it.

MPs in Shropshire today threw their weight behind Prime Minister David Cameron as he prepared for a showdown with internet giants over their failure to remove child pornography from the web.

The Prime Minister has said companies including Google have a "moral duty" to block such material.

He was speaking after a meeting last week with the families of murdered schoolgirls April Jones, from Machynlleth, and Tia Sharp, from London.

Both girls' killers had watched child pornography over the internet, and their parents have pleaded with the government to take action.

Ahead of a major speech today, in which he was set to call for search engines to agree to block results for a "blacklist" of terms, Mr Cameron told the firms "if we don't get what we need we'll have to look at legislation".

The Government has held a series of talks with internet companies, and from today searches for illegal sites that have been identified and removed will trigger a warning on the user's computer screen.

The companies have also pledged to commit more funds to weeding out such content.

But the Government is frustrated with the speed of progress and the excuses put forward by companies for failing to block illegal material, including freedom of speech.

The Prime Minister's stance was backed by Wrekin MP Mark Pritchard and Shrewsbury and Atcham MP Daniel Kawczynski.

Mr Pritchard said: "I fully support the Prime Minister in trying to get Google and other search engines, as well as Internet Search Providers, to clamp down on child pornography.

"These companies have the power and means to stop or reduce this diabolical evil and they need to act rather than make feeble excuses."

Mr Kawczynski said: "Any reasonable person in the UK would be very upset and horrified at the thought of a child being abused," he said.

Telford MP David Wright also supported the plan. He said: "Child welfare is of paramount importance of all spheres of life, and the internet is no different."

As part of today's announcement, every household in the UK is to have pornography blocked by their internet provider unless they choose to receive it. The prime minister is also announcing that possessing online pornography depicting rape will be illegal.

Search engines will be given until October to introduce further measures to block illegal content. Mr Cameron said each child porn image was a "crime scene" and companies needed to act to prevent people viewing them.