Child Abuse Material Blocked from Over 2,000 UK Wide Area Networks

CI-Net first customer for Watchdog International’s new UK office

Secure and resilient Wide Area Networks specialist, CI-Net, has implemented an affordable filtering service that will block access to websites containing child sexual abuse images. The service, provided by Watchdog International, is based on NetClean WhiteBox technology.

CI-Net is the first customer for Watchdog International’s new UK office and will be deploying Watchdog International’s filtering across its network. The company will benefit from a cost effective, one size fits all, blocking and filtering service which does not require extensive internal management resources.

NZ interloper to commercialise UK internet blocking

 John Ozimek 16th November 2009 11:14 GMT

Arguments over just how successful government attempts have been in keeping child porn off the internet may be little more than a storm in a teacup – but such discussions highlight a shift in the way indecent material may be blocked in future.

The story begins with a shocking claim from internet filtering company, Watchdog International, that "known illegal content is not blocked by 88 per cent of UK ISPs". Since the Home Office recently abandoned plans to bring filtering up from a claimed 98.6 per cent of connections to 100 per cent by passing a law that would make filtering mandatory, this is at first sight a staggering discrepancy.

In fact, the difference is far slighter than it appears. The figure published by government is for consumer connections, of which the vast majority are handled by a very small number of ISPs. The count provided by Watchdog adds in ISPs who specialise in handling B2B connections.

There are an estimated 400 such ISP’s and the majority of these appear not to make use of the blocklist provided by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) to prevent users from accessing indecent content.

This explains why Watchdog found such a high proportion of ISP’s not blocking illegal content. However, industry sources suggest that once these connections are factored in, the government figure for blocked connections is still 96.9% of all connections. These will include SME’s and SOHO set-ups, as well as larger enterprises. It is therefore likely that some of these connections will achieve de facto blocking of most illicit internet content by applying other net filtering packages, such as Net Nanny, at a corporate level.

The exact figure for Business-to-Business (B2B) connections is not available. According to a spokeswoman for Ofcom, this is because they were asked by government to look exclusively at Business-to-Consumer (B2C) connections – and not B2B. There is therefore room for the block figure to vary slightly from that published.

The difference between the two figures may be spun, according to taste, as the non-blocked connection level being double what was previously thought: or that the real figure is very small, and not significantly larger than the very small figure that it was previously believed to be.

The most significant aspect to this story may be the growing role of Watchdog International in patrolling the UK internet. Their first claim to fame is as suppliers of the routing protocol filtering system – Netclean Whitebox - used by the New Zealand government.

They have argued strongly in the past that their model of filtering is superior to all others on the market and, unlike the model currently adopted by UK ISP’s, it is an approach that small ISP’s can tap into without any significant investment in their own infrastructure.

Speaking to El Reg, Peter Milford, UK Country Manager of Watchdog International explained: "the Netclean solution uses the IWF’s blocklist – so is 100% compatible with existing UK initiatives. It sits offline from the ISP’s main server, and only kicks into action when a blocked URL is identified: otherwise, the end user links directly to the internet through their ISP as usual."

 This business model will undoubtedly be attractive to those ISP’s wishing to make use of the IWF blocklist – but unable to do so because of the costs involved. It also adds pressure to any ISP’s holding out from joining up for other reasons.

In the longer term, the Watchdog International solution may prove attractive to other ISP’s who currently incorporate the IWF blocklist into their own. This suggests that those keeping an eye on the evolution of internet blocking in the UK should now keep tabs on the Watchdog model as well as the IWF one.

At present, they achieve almost exactly the same end result, and there is very little difference for the end user in practice. However, it would not be surprising if a company whose focus is on the commercial exploitation of filtering products does not in time develop functionality that goes some way beyond that developed by an industry-supported body created for the sole purpose of regulating the flow of certain types of unlawful material. ®

New Office Promotes Blocking of Child Sexual Abuses Images by UK Broadband Companies

88 Per Cent of Internet Service Providers DO NOT Prevent Access to Known Illegal Content

Watchdog International opens first Northern Hemisphere office in the UK Peter Milford, regulatory affairs expert, appointed Country Manager  

In a drive to help ISPs in the UK to block access to known images of child sexual abuse, New Zealand based specialist Watchdog International has opened its first office in the Northern Hemisphere. The office will be headed by Internet regulatory affairs expert Peter Milford.

The new office will manage the UK promotion of Watchdog International’s NetClean WhiteBox; a one-size-fits-all internet blocking and filtering service. It offers the cheapest, simplest and most effective solution for the more than 400 UK broadband suppliers who feel there are barriers to implementing technical solutions to block access to websites known to contain child sexual abuse images. The NetClean WhiteBox system supplied by Watchdog International is already being used by Warrington-based ISP Talk Internet and aims to eradicate easy access to known images of child sexual abuse via the Internet.

New UK Country Manager for Watchdog International, Peter Milford, is an expert in Internet regulation and management issues. In his previous role at NewNet, a medium sized ISP, he provided regulatory and compliance advice and guidance for all legal notifications and responses. He also has extensive experience in education and in managing large-scale trans-national projects including institutions in a number of European countries.

Watchdog’s research into the deployment of filtering services suggests that fewer than 45 ISPs in the UK have to date implemented a system that blocks access to illegal child sexual abuse image (CSAI) material. Over 400 ISPs do not currently have such a system in place.

Many ISPs promote broadband to homes and home offices - Small Office Home Office or SOHO products. These residential business connections are often used for both work and leisure and Watchdog research shows that there are around 200 ISPs offering residential and business access of which only 13 per cent provide filtering.

Of the 150 ISPs specialising in providing Internet services to business just 7 per cent currently implement filtering to prevent access to illegal content in the workplace.

Just weeks ago, Colin Blanchard - part of the trio of paedophiles involved in the Little Ted’s Day Nursery case – was using his office computer to gain access to the horrific images shared by Vanessa George. A colleague alerted police after he logged into his office PC and found the shocking images.

Peter Milford said, “Talk Internet is the perfect example for UK ISPs to follow – a primarily business ISP that takes its corporate responsibilities seriously. NetClean WhiteBox provides Talk Internet with an effective, low cost system that protects users from child sexual abuse content without interfering with the speed and reliability of their network.”

He continued, “To date the UK Internet industry has had an excellent track record of fighting illegal content on the Internet, exemplified by the establishment of the Internet Watch Foundation. We must now learn lessons from the excellent work that New Zealand has undertaken to combat the distribution of child sexual abuse images on the Internet. The New Zealand implementation does not distinguish between business or residential connections as participating ISPs filter all connections.

” Watchdog's Managing Director, Peter Mancer, said, "Child protection is at the centre of everything Watchdog International does but until now there has been no one-size-fits-all technical method of blocking images of child sexual abuse. By making Peter Milford UK Country Manager we can use both his experience with UK ISPs and his knowledge of local and European Internet regulation to promote the NetClean WhiteBox and its benefits to UK Internet users.”

For more information visit the Watchdog International website.

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