Chicago (IL) - Wikipedia went back to normal yesterday, after an Internet watchdog group removed the virtual encyclopedia from a watchlist for child pornography, due to a 1970’s heavy-metal album cover.
The dispute was due to the image of a nude prepubescent girl who appeared on the cover of “Virgin Killer” by the Scorpions in 1976. The Internet Watch Foundation blocks access to child pornography and other illegal content. 95% of British citizens were unable to view the article about the album on Wikipedia as a result.
Unfortunately, editors were also prevented from accessing the site.
The controversy caused issues for all parties involved and the foundation decided to reverse its decision. They still feel that the cover is “potentially in breach of the Protection of Children Act in 1978”. Instead of trying to reclassify the image as something other than child pornography, the group decided that the controversy called enough attention to the image to be counterproductive.
Another main complication for the foundation was the fact that the English version of Wikipedia is hosted on U.S. servers, therefore the image cannot be ordered to be removed, as the group would be able to do to UK-based web hosts.
The group said it made the decision to include the image on its watch list, which is updated two times a day, based on complaints received from internet users. The list was started in 2004 at the request of ISPs financing the foundation. There is no legislation for the list.
After the article made it to the watch list, the ISPs took it upon themselves and removed it, thus disabling the editing function for the editors of Wikipedia. It wasn’t intentional, rather old technology not working well with new technology.
The Internet Watch Foundation began work before the Web 2.0 boom and was designed to block sites with porn and violence. Now that sites like Wikipedia are in existence censorship decisions can affect ordinary PC users unintentionally.
The dispute was due to the image of a nude prepubescent girl who appeared on the cover of “Virgin Killer” by the Scorpions in 1976. The Internet Watch Foundation blocks access to child pornography and other illegal content. 95% of British citizens were unable to view the article about the album on Wikipedia as a result.
Unfortunately, editors were also prevented from accessing the site.
The controversy caused issues for all parties involved and the foundation decided to reverse its decision. They still feel that the cover is “potentially in breach of the Protection of Children Act in 1978”. Instead of trying to reclassify the image as something other than child pornography, the group decided that the controversy called enough attention to the image to be counterproductive.
Another main complication for the foundation was the fact that the English version of Wikipedia is hosted on U.S. servers, therefore the image cannot be ordered to be removed, as the group would be able to do to UK-based web hosts.
The group said it made the decision to include the image on its watch list, which is updated two times a day, based on complaints received from internet users. The list was started in 2004 at the request of ISPs financing the foundation. There is no legislation for the list.
After the article made it to the watch list, the ISPs took it upon themselves and removed it, thus disabling the editing function for the editors of Wikipedia. It wasn’t intentional, rather old technology not working well with new technology.
The Internet Watch Foundation began work before the Web 2.0 boom and was designed to block sites with porn and violence. Now that sites like Wikipedia are in existence censorship decisions can affect ordinary PC users unintentionally.