British Charities Discover Web Filters Don't Work

from the figuring-it-out dept

Tue, Feb 24th 2009 4:48pm — Carlo Longino

A number of British children's charities are complaining that some ISPs in the country aren't using the Internet Watch Foundation's blacklist to "block" access to child porn. Firms providing some 5% of the country's broadband connections haven't implemented the blacklist, either because they recognize that it doesn't work, or because of the expense. Keep in mind this is the same blacklist that blocked Wikipedia and screwed up UK edits of the site, and also blocked the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. The charities say that households connected by the non-conforming ISPs have "easy access" to child porn, but given the long history of filters and blacklists of not actually working, it's hard to imagine that the filters have a significant effect beyond breaking access to noninfringing content. There's no doubt that child porn is reprehensible, but by presenting the blacklist as the be-all, end-all solution, these charities risk pulling attention and resources away from better solutions. After all, blocking consumption of child porn seems a less satisfying solution than working to stop its production.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: charities, filters, uk
Companies: internet watch foundation

5 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

:Lobo Santo, 24 Feb 2009 @ 4:57pm

EZ access...
Fuck, you'd think these people were under the impression that without adequate filters, antivirus software, and a MI6 agent--as soon as you connect to the internet your computer is just over-run and overflowing with child pornography!

I have neither filters nor a secret agent; and yet I also have no child porn!! Of course, I'll check again tonight, yah never know.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 24 Feb 2009 @ 5:52pm

Lobo Santo The Federal Bureau of Investigation has logged a record of this chat along with the IP addresses of the participants due to potential violations of U.S. law. Reference no. 2334453436. Your IP address has been entered into our suspect database and may be sent to Child Protective Services. Please wait while memory ref. code 90637895 is entered into the database.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Guy One, 24 Feb 2009 @ 6:00pm

Re:
ohhh no my ip addy! i'm a scared!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 24 Feb 2009 @ 6:05pm

Charity ?
They do not sound like a charity to me.
Sounds more like a PAC.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mark Rosedale (profile), 25 Feb 2009 @ 7:57am

Is Child Porn that prevalent in UK?
Man I don't know, but I am pretty sure that my ISP in US is not blocking any of those sites and I blissfully avoid them every time I am on the internet. I think child porn is reprehensibly, but is it so prevalent in their society that it warrants a universal block aid of it? Not everyone on the internet is a nefarious lowlife. Stop treating them like kids and go after the real problem (which is to say go after the nefarious lowlifes).
[ link to this | view in thread ]