A tale of new censors

https://blog.torproject.org/blog/tale-new-censors-vodafone-uk-t-mobile-uk-o2-uk-and-t-mobile-usa

by llambda • 15 years ago

83 29 15 years ago

blog.torproject.org

jimworm• 15 years ago

paulgraham.com is also blocked by Vodafone's filter.

Prepaid (pay-as-you-go in UK terms) users that look over 18 can show up at a Vodafone store and remove the filter.

I did it without giving away my identity by registering online with a fake name and confirming the name at the store. Your mileage might vary.

bwarp8• 15 years ago

This is standard practice for mobile networks in the UK and it should be. As the OP says, it's removable on request. You don't have to give them any details other than prove you are over 18. Turning up in the store is usually good enough.

Without this, if you are in the UK an 8 year old can quite simply just buy a pay as you go mobile phone with cash from a supermarket, top it up using cash and use it to browse porn etc.

With respect to the providers, O2's ADSL/POTS broadband offerings have no censorship in place at all.

schrototo• 15 years ago

Oh my god, an 8 year old looking at porn. Guys, I think this internet thing has gone too far...

oinksoft• 15 years ago

> Without this, if you are in the UK an 8 year old can quite simply just buy a pay as you go mobile phone with cash from a supermarket, top it up using cash and use it to browse porn etc.

I don't see a problem with that.

rmc3• 15 years ago

Without this, … and use it to browse porn etc.

So their filters are effective at blocking porn? Is the Tor project pornography now?

bestes• 15 years ago

bwarp, I find your stance ... distasteful. I have kids and I monitor them as appropriate. The idea that all Internet connections are now "age verified" is just getting the infrastructure in place for more serious censorship. And the idea that social workers need to deal with people like me is a pretty serious threat.

there• 15 years ago

i'm a supporter of tor, but i'm not sure why they're making this out to be so alarming. t-mobile clearly presents its filtering as a family-safe content filter, and tor is software that makes it easy to bypass content filtering. this is only setup by default on pre-paid accounts because anyone can purchase a pre-paid SIM without being over 18. i would expect the same kind of filtering at a library or school, and any other internet service that one can purchase like cable or dsl service typically requires that someone over 18 be present during installation. i can just imagine the silly backlash over a parent complaining to the media because their child was able to look at porn by putting a pre-paid SIM in their android phone.

i recently purchased a pre-paid SIM from t-mobile US and was kind of surprised they didn't ask for any identification when purchasing (more so because i would have thought the government would have mandated some kind of tracking of phone numbers for going after drug dealers or something). once i logged into t-mobile's website, the form to disable this content filtering was easy to find and required giving proof of being over 18 (which they say is not stored or associated with the account after verification).

drewcrawford• 15 years ago

Requiring you to be over 18 to use "the real Internet" also requires you to present a government ID. Which means, effectively, anonymous or pseudonymous use of the Internet is dead. This may be a problem if you'd like to criticize your government.

Independently of whether or not you think that is a good idea in theory, it is unworkable in practice. There will always be coffee shops and open access points and neighbors to mooch off of for the kids to get ahold of porn. Your media backlash is now merely shifted from Vodaphone to the local mom & pop.

TL;DR - an Internet license is no substitute for proper parenting.

bwarp8• 15 years ago

You don't have to have a "government ID" or present ID. That's a fallacy. You just have to provide reasonable evidence that you are a not a minor.

Pubic hair is usually enough.

It's a choice the providers made to protect their arses from lawsuits, not the government.

There are a lot of paranoid people here.

Edit: to explain the "pubic hair" comment is sarcasm relating to how lax the verification process is. Judging by the time of day, lots of humor-challenged Americans have woken up.

mike-cardwell3• 15 years ago

At the beginning of January, I wrote an article about T-Mobile UK spoofing RST packets to disrupt SSL connections on mail submission and other ports, and how to bypass it:

https://grepular.com/Punching_through_The_Great_Firewall_of_...

surfingdino• 15 years ago

T-Mobile blocks urbandictionary.com in the UK. When you want to access that site you need to give your credit card details, but only UK-issued cards work.

http://texy.pl/2011/01/24/internetowi-psuje-cz-2-t-mobile/

A tale of new censors

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