The Home Office is in talks with web companies to refuse access to violent films hosted overseas 'at a network level', MailOnline can reveal.
The plans for what will effectively be ‘cyber border controls’ have been drawn up by James Brokenshire, promoted to immigration minister at the weekend.
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Banned: Ministers want to be able to block anyone in the UK from accessing videos which help to radicalise impressionable young men
Ministers have been spurred into action by the growing threat from jihadists in Syria.
Around 2,000 Europeans are thought to be fighting in Syria, including at least 200 known to the British security services.
It is feared that fighters returning to the UK will seek to radicalise young men in particular to launch terror attacks at home and abroad.
Anti-terror police and the Crown Prosecution Service can currently demand that vile videos posted on UK websites be removed.
Since February 2010, the Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU) has taken down more than 21,000 pieces of illegal terrorist online content.
If the CTIRU and prosecutors deem material to be illegal it can be blocked from parts of the public sector, including schools and hospitals but this does not extend to domestic users and filters can be turned off.
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Home Office minister James Brokenshire wants to further restrict access to material which is hosted overseas
It has also been difficult to act against sites hosted abroad, both in the Middle East and in the US where sites plead the Fifth Amendment which protects freedom of speech.
The Extremism Taskforce is examining how to further restrict access to illegal content hosted overseas, which would be much more effective in ensuring people in the UK were unable to access it.
If videos, photographs and texts is found to be illegal under the Terrorism Act, but hosted overseas, the security agencies will act to restrict access to it.
Mr Brokenshire, who became immigration minister on Saturday following the resignation of Mark Harper, said the new controls could also be used to block access to sick child pornography.
He told MailOnline: ‘Terrorist propaganda online has a direct impact on the radicalisation of individuals and we work closely with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to remove terrorist material hosted in the UK or overseas.
‘Through proposals from the Extremism Taskforce announced by the Prime Minister in November, we will look to further restrict access to material which is hosted overseas - but illegal under UK law - and help identify other harmful content to be included in family-friendly filters.’
Search engines like Google and Yahoo came under fire last year for not doing more to shut down hate-filled sites in the wake of the Woolwich attack on Drummer Lee Rigby.
Thousands of videos which help to radicalise impressionable young men are easily available on YouTube.
Today a search for beheadings on YouTube, which is owned by Google, brought up 129,000 results.
In October, Facebook bowed to pressure from David Cameron and child internet protection campaigners by taking down a graphic video of a woman being beheaded in Mexico.
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Threat: The government fears Britain could become vulnerable to a terror attack from fighters returning from fighting in Syria
The Prime Minister had accused Facebook of irresponsibility after it lifted a ban on users posting videos of beheadings - and demanded the social networking site explain its decision to parents.
Critics accused the firm of ‘taking leave of its senses’. Facebook had said that while the images must not be posted for ‘sadistic pleasure’ they should be available for those who wish to condemn them.
The Home Office also wants to make it easier for people to report extremist content online. Officials are working with industry to ‘help them identify harmful extremist content to include in family-friendly filters’.
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