Wikipedia functionality has returned for Brits after the country's internet watchdog reversed its decision to prevent users in that country from visiting a Wikipedia page containing an image of a naked child.
The Internet Watch Foundation had taken exception with a page dedicated to a 1976 album by rock band The Scorpions. The cover of that album — called Virgin Killer — includes the image of a prepubescent girl, which the group deemed a "potentially illegal indecent image," landing Wikipedia on the group's blacklist.
This incident underscores the need for transparency and accountability in the processes of the Internet Watch Foundation and similar bodies around the world.
Wikimedia general counsel Mike Godwin
As a result, internet service providers in the UK began filtering access to all pages of the online encyclopedia over the weekend.
The IWF announced in a statement yesterday in the UK that it would reverse that decision after an appeal and presentation by the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit organisation that operates Wikipedia.
"The IWF board has today considered these findings and the contextual issues involved in this specific case, and — in the light of the length of time the image has existed and its wide availability — the decision has been taken to remove this web page from our list," it said.
The group went on to acknowledge that its effort to prevent people from seeing the image actually resulted in the opposite effect, bringing more attention to the album cover worldwide.
"IWF's overriding objective is to minimize the availability of indecent images of children on the internet, however, on this occasion our efforts have had the opposite effect," the watchdog group said. "We regret the unintended consequences for Wikipedia and its users."
The Wikimedia Foundation applauded the internet watchdog's "swift action," but noted that the episode emphasised the need for watchdog accountability.
"We recognise the good intentions of internet watch groups, including their focus on blocking and discouraging illegal content," Mike Godwin, general counsel for the Wikimedia Foundation, said in a statement. "Nevertheless, this incident underscores the need for transparency and accountability in the processes of the Internet Watch Foundation and similar bodies around the world."
Australia! take heed at britains incompetence! they have let child porn slip through the cracks! Fear not for Sherrif Rudd's new fangled porno filter will catch it all! wikipedia's and interpedia's and all things that are so obviously child porn related... (I draw your attention to the word pedia, obviously a cover for... pedo!!!), soon Sherrif Rudd shall protect us all from the constant threat of porn, terrorists, John Howard ever been prime minister, all these shall be banished from austrlia's intranet!