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Comment by jerf | Hacker News Reader

As I write this, the title is "Majority of Web Sites Blocked by O2 Parental Controls". How does the link in question justify that title? It links to a lookup tool.

(Straight question; if there's an answer to that I'm just not seeing, great! I'd love to hear it.)

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Enter an URL and the tool will list a variety of block details, including "Open Access", "Default Safety" and "Parental Control (opt in u12 service)". Sometimes a categorization also appears with different access settings.

Many benign sites show as blocked by the "Parental Control (opt in u12 service)" service. Try these: http://www.gov.uk http://www.guardian.com http://www.amazon.com http://www.orange.co.uk http://www.youtube.com http://www.blogspot.com http://www.bing.com http://www.apple.com

A few sites seem to be allowed, such as http://www.google.com and http://www.o2.co.uk and http://www.amazon.co.uk

I'm not 100% clear on whether I'm reading the reports correctly, or whether the opt-in filtering is the same as the forced-choice filter that Cameron has pushed on ISPs. I'm assuming the forced-choice filter is something much less restrictive as I can't imagine anyone applying this filter to themselves by choice.

Curious that they allow Google -- my experiences with primary aged children lead me to the conclusion that the easiest way for them to get at stuff they don't want to see is a (possibly seemingly innocuous) Google images search. It's not like O2 can sniff my SSL connection to block specific searches either.

I resolve my issues with proper supervision. I hope no-one assumes that the u12 blocking means that "The Internet", even in such a reduced form, is safe (whatever that might mean).

If you e.g. try "gmail.com", it's blocked. Same for nytimes.com, or stackoverflow.com. I think this has to be the point.

Now, of course, this doesn't prove the "majority" of the internet is blocked.

I haven't found one that isn't blocked yet. Even o2.co.uk is blocked as "Technology and Telecommunication" u12 service. "http://www.bbc.co.uk/" is blocked under two categories, so the poor u12s can't even watch Cbeebies online.

While I had the same thought, I did a few searches and haven't been able to find a site(trying everything from facebook and google to this site and disney) that doesn't have 'blocked' in the 'Parental Control' row in at least one of the boxes that appears. It's to the point that I think I must be interpreting the results incorrectly.

Try McDonalds.com

> How does the link in question justify that title?

Spot check some sites.

slashdot.org Parental Control (opt in u12 service) Blocked

news.ycombinator.com Parental Control (opt in u12 service) Blocked

news.yahoo.com Parental Control (opt in u12 service) Blocked

I'd expect a "parental filter" to work on a whitelisting principle, which will inevitably look like this. Anything else is snake oil.

I was thinking exactly the same thing, I would love a clarification too please.

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