[pp.int.general] Dutch platform internet security

[W Tovey]

In the UK we have had something similar for years; the Internet Watch 
Foundation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Watch_Foundation)  was 
founded in the 90s and maintains a blacklist of sites considered to be 
"potentially illegal" (originally child abuse images, now also racist 
and "obscene" material - the latter defined by the rarely used Obscene 
Publication Acts 1959/64). They are technically a charity with no 
official ties to the government. They are answerable to no one. Their 
legal status is dubious (due to not being a law enforcement agency) as 
they presumably need to view the material before blacklisting it, and 
there is no shortage of other criticisms (and incidents, such as the 
Wikipedia mess). As far as I know, they haven't moved against "regular" 
porn sites ... yet (and only have around 450 sites in total).

For now, their service is voluntary; ISPs have the choice of subscribing 
to their list (although the list itself is kept secret and often when 
trying to access a blocked page a simple 404 error is given, rather than 
a proper warning). As far as I know, all the major ISPs subscribe, and 
the list covers about 95% of UK internet users (although our 
further/higher education network isn't covered). It is one of the thing 
that PPUK will be working on (although I think mainly about making it 
more transparent and accountable).

-Will (PPI/PPUK)

Reinier Bakels wrote:
> This afternoon I attended the kick-off meeting of a new Dutch 
> "platform internet security". One of its themes is a black list 
> (blocking list) for websites spreading child pornography. The minister 
> of justice spoke at the meeting an told that plans are under way to 
> create such a list centrally for distribution to providers.
>  
> IIRC similar projects in other countries (Scandinavia?) distributed 
> lists that contained mainly regular (adult) porno sites and few actual 
> child pornography sites. If that is true, the black list is mainly a 
> pretext to block adult pornography.
>  
> Could anbyone update me on this subject? What is the actual situation 
> in EU countries?
>  
> reinier

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