"Cleanfeed" - UK ISP government censorware implemented

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Seth Finkelstein <sethf () sethf com>
Date: July 21, 2004 8:40:06 AM EDT
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: "Cleanfeed" - UK ISP government censorware implemented

[Note there is no way for anyone outside the law enforcement community
to verify or challenge the inflammatory statistics]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3908215.stm

Extent of child net porn revealed

BT says it is blocking up to 20,000 attempts each day to access child
porn.

Its figures provide the first firm evidence of the extent of web
paedophilia and BT is targeting the porn with its Clean Feed system.

The Internet Watch Foundation called the figures "staggering" and said
children were being abused in order to supply the hardcore images.

Police officials said the extent of the online porn problem was
"extremely disturbing".

Illegal images

BT said in its first three weeks its new system, which bars access to
particular sites, registered nearly 250,000 attempts to view web pages
containing images of child pornography.

That represents an average of about 10,000 requests each day.

Anyone trying to access such a site would be presented with a message
reading "Website not found".

Pierre Danon, chief executive of BT retail, said the company was
blocking access to hundreds of sites which had been identified by the
Internet Watch Foundation.

But he said BT did not track those trying to log onto the sites or
pass their details on to police.

   Every image of a child that appears on the internet is an image of
   a child that's abused
   Minister Paul Goggins

And he said the company had no way of telling how many users were
navigating to such sites by accident.

"We don't know their motives or who does it and honestly we don't want
to know," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

A BT spokesman added: "It could be that one dedicated pervert is
making hundreds of attempts to get on websites each day."

Currently the technology is only blocking BT Retail's 2.5 million
internet customers from viewing child porn sites but Mr Danon said the
company would make it available to other internet service providers on
a non-commercial basis.

Home Office minister Paul Goggins said the figures revealed by BT were
"deeply shocking" and he said he hoped other service providers would
take up the offer of using BT's blocking technology.

He told the Today programme: "Every image of a child that appears on
the internet is an image of a child that's abused."

The BBC's Neil Bennett said even allowing for some people making
repeated attempts, it is clear thousands of people are trying to see
such material daily.

BT is only one of the main service providers in the UK and police
leaders are calling on others to block paedophile websites.

Websites assessed by the IWF as "illegal to view" under the
1978 Child Protection Act were targeted by BT.

The IWF keeps a real-time live database which is updated every time an
illegal site is found. At any one time there are thousands of sites on
the database.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/3908215.stm

Published: 2004/07/20 09:58:55 GMT

--
Seth Finkelstein  Consulting Programmer  sethf () sethf com  
http://sethf.com
Interview: http://grep.law.harvard.edu/article.pl?sid=03/12/16/0526234
Seth Finkelstein's Infothought blog - http://sethf.com/infothought/blog/

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