[LINK] Green light for internet filter plans

[rene]

On Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:57:08 +1100, Jan Whitaker wrote:
> And what *does* happen when a site is blocked? Is there some
> sort of error message returned? Is it customisable by the ISP? Is it
> mandated by the govt. to say something about "stop being naughty and
> go do your homework"?

Answer to that is currently unknown because the govt has not said anything 
about their intentions in that regard. It depends on whether the govt 
mandates in legislation what ISPs must do in relation to message returned 
(when a page is blocked), and if they don't legislate about that aspect, 
then what any particular ISP chooses to do. 

For example, in the UK, some ISPs return a message that says the URL is 
blocked because it's on the IWF blacklist, other ISPs just return a 
standard "not found" type error message (i.e. they lie about what 
happened). 

Telstra says in its report that if they implement their 'solution', then 
when a page is blocked: "The user's experience will as if the URL doesn't 
exist (no indication to the user that the page has been specifically 
blocked)."

Irene