Adult content blocks on mobile ISPs

[Ian Batten]

On 07 Mar 11, at 1155, Roland Perry wrote:

> In article <F4686C31-8122-4C4C-BFCF-F1B6BB28F162 at batten.eu.org>, Ian Batten <igb at batten.eu.org> writes
>> My children have on several occasions been sent home with the instruction to look up some webpage on the grounds that the school's filtering (which appears to be broad-brush by the LEA for everything from KS1 to A Level) blocks it.
> 
> I know a little about this, and agree that it's very unlikely to ever take account of the age of individual children in a school (or indeed 'in education' if the same thing is supplied to all schools). How can it, as the design is either metaphorically a firewall box in the Head's study, or the functional equivalent of that in the network.

Well, there's no _technical_ reason why the students couldn't supply credentials to the proxy which then set the filtering policy.  But I agree, it's unlikely, and as the filters themselves have the scientific precision of a brummagem screwdriver fine adjustment is not really on the agenda.

I've read the standard in more detail, and I note with sadness that the standard defines testing blocking by checking it blocks a supplied list of URLs, and testing overblocking by confirming another supplied list is not blocked.  As to where those lists come from: it's experts, innit?

ian