ISPs block Wikipedia for indecent pic

Album cover reported as child porn

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".

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Comments

Well my ISP isn;t blocking it and the picture is (IMHO) harmless - it'll do well for The Scorpions publicity though (remember the BBC banned Frankie Goes To Hollywood's Relax and it hit No. 1). Posted by Adrian, UK
It's blocked here - just a white page on VMedia, although a google image search gets you the cover... Posted by Kurt, UK
I see they are blocking Wikipedia, but are NOT blocking large commercial sites such as Amazon, apparently for fear of the legal muscle which companies like Amazon can muster. There was an interview on BBC radio this morning with an IWF spokeswoman in which the interviewer suggested that the IWF was using a soft target as an experiment to see how far they can go. I don't like the image and think it's tasteless, but I equally worry about progressive taliban-esque censorship. As I understand it, the image has never been classed as illegal. Posted by David Mclean, Wales
My thoughts exactly Kurt! Whats the point in blocking the wiki entry when you can search for it on google, buy the disc and view the artwork yourself. Posted by Matthew, UK
Seems reasonable enough to me. Good on you virgin media. Posted by Martin, United Kingdom