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In the UK we have had something similar for years; the Internet Watch
Foundation (<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Watch_Foundation">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Watch_Foundation</a>)
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).<br>
<br>
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).<br>
<br>
-Will (PPI/PPUK)<br>
<br>
Reinier Bakels wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:F9EA69061211401494798391D4DAA53B@RBB2009"
type="cite">
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<div><font color="#0000ff" face="Comic Sans MS" size="2">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.</font></div>
<div> </div>
<div><font color="#0000ff" face="Comic Sans MS" size="2">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.</font></div>
<div> </div>
<div><font color="#0000ff" face="Comic Sans MS" size="2">Could
anbyone update me on this subject? What is the actual situation in EU
countries?</font></div>
<div> </div>
<div><font color="#0000ff" face="Comic Sans MS" size="2">reinier</font></div>
</blockquote>
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