ISPs block Wikipedia for indecent pic

8 December 2008 10:31 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

British ISPs are blocking access to parts of Wikipedia said to be showing an image of child pornography.

The page that has caused the censorship is Wiki's entry on an album from rock band The Scorpions, called "Virgin Killer", that has an image of a young, naked girl on the front.

The image was added to the Internet Watch Foundation's (IWF) blacklist this month and as such, is being automatically blocked by some British ISPs.

Reports suggest Virgin Media and O2 are actively blocking the page, but BT users appear to be unaffected.

The IWF is insisting that the image should be blocked: "As with all child sexual abuse reports received by our Hotline analysts, the image was assessed according to the UK Sentencing Guidelines Council".

"The content was considered to be a potentially illegal indecent image of a child under the age of 18, but hosted outside the UK".

"The specific URL was then added to the list provided to ISPs and other companies in the online sector to protect their customers from inadvertent exposure to a potentially illegal indecent image of a child".

Full tags

Software, Websites, Wikipedia, IWF, Virgin Media, O2, BT