The availability of hardcore pornography online, including highly disturbing material depicting scenes of rape and child abuse, has finally risen to the top of the political agenda.
There can only be huge alarm about the circumstances in which the most shocking images were created, and the prospect that vulnerable individuals placed under duress, as opposed to actors, were involved.
Firm evidence has also emerged that a number of recently convicted child murderers in the UK had previously accessed legal pornography before committing their vile crimes.
There will therefore be a strong welcome for the initiative announced yesterday by David Cameron which will automatically block pornography from every household unless a specific exemption is requested for clearly defined reasons.
The UK's main internet providers have voluntarily agreed to introduce within a matter of months 'family friendly' filters covering both new and existing users.
Mr Cameron also said that possessing pornography relating to rape was to become a criminal offence in england and Wales, as is already the case in Scotland.
Related legal action in Northern Ireland is at an advanced stage, as we report today, and it is important that the authorities in the Republic take similar steps.
It is equally essential that the people responsible for originating and distributing extreme pornography are tracked down, although they could of course be based almost anywhere in the world.
What cannot be acceptable is that material which would result in a prosecution if it was sold in a shop should be readily accessible online in homes across Ireland and Britain.
Mr Cameron's intervention yesterday will not bring a particularly evil trade to an immediate end but it will make life much more difficult for some key perpetrators.
It represents a firm step in the right direction and the prime minister deserves credit for putting the spotlight on what he correctly referred to as "the darkest corners of the internet".