Wikipedia blacklisted for child porn

Editors fight to keep illegal image online.

The British Government-backed Internet Watch Foundation has blacklisted Wikipedia for distributing child porn.

As a result of the move almost every internet user in Britain has been blocked from contributing to the site anonymously.

The problem was an article on the 1976 album Virgin Killer by German heavy metal band Scorpions. The popular beat combo had an album cover that featured a naked young girl with her genitals obscured by a simulated tear in the photograph.

While that might have been considered acceptable in the 1970s - the generation that spawned Gary Glitter - we are all a bit more sensitive to such things these days.

The image was shown to the UK's kiddy porn police who said it broke UK law and wanted to go and arrest this Scorpion bloke immediately. Britain's six main internet service providers blocked their users from accessing the article after hearing of the ruling.

But the web proxy systems used to block the page have the effect that Wikipedia sees everyone behind the proxy as having the same IP address.

It means that if the Wiki editors ban someone they don't like, the whole ISP will be banned too. It will only take six bans and nearly everyone in the UK will be unable to edit articles on Wikipedia.

Wikipedia administrators have emphatically refused to remove the album cover on the site, saying that they do not censor articles.

This also comes on the tale of a local Australian judge deciding that images of Bart and Lisa Simpson engaged in sexual acts is also child porn. Sure, it's in bad taste, but child porn? That might be too long a bow to pull.

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12 Comments

Thoughts on this article? Add a comment below.

orcone Dec 9, 2008 12:34 PM	I have a picture of Marge cutting off Homer's penis and eating it while Bart looks on. I'm am SOOOO going to jail.
moofactory Dec 9, 2008 12:55 PM	LOOL
MrInsaneBuff Dec 9, 2008 1:04 PM	Orcone, it would have to have been Barts, for it to be classed as CP
2SHY Dec 9, 2008 1:06 PM	I've seen the image....not to different to what Bill Henson was doing to be honest. Damn special interest groups.
Lord-Ezekiel Dec 9, 2008 1:38 PM	Some people take the 'ped' in Wikipedia far to literally it seems... Lame.
xFOADx Dec 9, 2008 6:33 PM	I have read on nocleanfeed.com that Conroy is going to use the English IWF (internet watch federation) blacklistings in Australias COMPULSORY internet filter. Say byebye to editing Wiki sign getups online petition and write to your member of Parliament and your state senators sign up to the trial and bypass the filter and report it to the papers and every legitimate site that you are banned from, especially if you usse the net for work. let the papers know.
Random_Wookie Dec 10, 2008 1:06 PM	what if i find religon and special intrested groups offensive (must of them are offensive is some form or another), should they not also be blocked as some/most of these can be more damaging then all of the content that will be blocked by this filter. With the only exception being child in my mind that is illegal in main socieicty so i should be stopped from being spread on the internet. Even though I no that they only way to stop that would be to destroy the internet itself. the only point i want to make is so it begins already with someone finding something offencive so everyone else has to suffer, my questing is who found this album cover.
Kimmo Dec 11, 2008 3:15 PM	OMFG. That might have been my fault... I linked that pic in the Facebook group Worst Album Covers Ever, which is dominated by Poms... Oops
Hawkeye Dec 12, 2008 9:41 AM	KIMMO KILLED WIKIPEDIA!!!
Taranthor Dec 19, 2008 7:13 PM	Update btw guys. apparently the blacklist has been revoked. According to the wiki entry for the picture in question.
skash Dec 23, 2008 12:10 PM	makes me wonder if the British government is going to try and buy Wikipedia just to make it go against the terms of it's service.
Tom Jan 5, 2009 7:02 AM	Isn’t the album cover art? I thought you can do whatever the hell you want when its “art”

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