Researchers found adult content freely available at public hotspots
Public hotspots failing to block porn
/v3-uk/news/1995188/public-hotspots-failing-block-porn
01 Jun 2006, Carl Taylor , V3
The majority of wireless hotspot providers in London do not filter traffic for pornography or illicit content, according to an investigation by network integrator Telindus.
Researchers discovered that 80 per cent of the hotspots they visited provided access to adult content, and that bomb-making instructions were freely downloadable.
Only one of the locations tested was a free internet access portal, with all the others charging.
James Walker, mobility specialist at Telindus, claimed that he was amazed by the results. "We were expecting to uncover a few surprises, but nothing in this league," he said.
"You would not expect café owners to leave porn mags on tables, so how come they let us access adult content using their hotspots?"
The team of researchers used a list of 12 sites and search terms at a number of locations offering internet access from various providers.
All of the sites allowed users to search for 'massage parlour London', 'escorts London' and 'anthrax source'.
Researchers could also freely access adult images sent to Hotmail or Gmail accounts, and 80 per cent of the hotspots allowed access to porn sites.
Those in search of 'Viagra' or 'how to make bomb' would find the information freely available.
All of the hotspots included an acceptable use policy, but only one actually blocked access to sites that contravened the terms and conditions.
Walker suggested that companies providing public internet access need to review their policies.
"Although the ISP may publish an [acceptable use policy] it is obvious that they are not doing anything to enforce them and it is the retailer who is ultimately legally responsible for what its patrons access over the web," he said.
Walker maintained that users routinely monitor internet access at home and in the workplace, and that the same should go for public areas.
"Imagine your child popping into a coffee shop or fast food chain with their laptop and being able to access adult content," he said. "Surely it should not be allowed."
A recent survey found that just under 40 per cent of British males visited pornographic websites in 2005.
© Incisive Media Investments Limited 2010, Published by Incisive Financial Publishing Limited, Haymarket House, 28-29 Haymarket, London SW1Y 4RX, are companies registered in England and Wales with company registration numbers 04252091 & 04252093
Do you agree?
let the people learn self control.
people should be taught self control and when its accepable to view different types of material, we should have acceptable use polcies and people caught braking these can be banned, but stop filtering my internet at the ISP as sometimes/someday they might filter something as its doesn't agree with there company policies ---
Posted by James Hodge, 02 Jun 2006
internet?
yes, hotspots give access to what is known as "the internet". surprise! For other models about info access, please speak to the chinese authorities.
Posted by Jan, 02 Jun 2006
Who cares?
what a useless story, who the frell cares that you can access porn at a hotspot, it's not the site owner's job to police what people use wifi for and it shouldn't be, you can't legislate morality and if you try you're only going to fail.
Posted by FTLNewsFeed, 03 Jun 2006
Serious Issue
I am outraged that cafe owners could be so careless. But this issue is much larger than you think.
Do you realise that many cafe owners have public TELEPHONES in their cafes, without making ANY effort at all to make sure users are not dialing up pornographic chat lines? There are filters available, for a very reasonable price, will will immediately cut off a phone call if swearing or dirty words are heard over the line.
For the protection of our YOUTH, install Child-Friendly Phones NOW!
Yours,
Colonel Hogsplot (retired), Surrey
Posted by Colonel Hogsplot, 03 Jun 2006
Not the right end of the stick...
If a parent is really that worried about what information their child is accessing, they could merely install filtering software *on the computer* itself -- or just ensure that they're supervised to some extent, when browsing the Internet. Most of the hotspots seem to charge a fee by credit/debit card anyway; then again, I've never used one personally, and there are a few extortionate cafés where you get something in the region of 15 minutes for spending £4 on a sandwich and coffee...
As for the "inappropriate magazine" comparison: Surely, in both cases, staff could just ask the person responsible to refrain from such activity, or escort them off the premises for contravening the policy? I see no real difference there.
Most ISPs -- in the UK anyway -- would rather not get themselves burnt by the whole "Orwellian Debate", I think. Then again, look at the recent music industry chiradés regarding downloads and such, and details of ISP users being released out of dire threats to the companies... I just hope we don't go the way of Google China, and searching for "Anthrax source", of all things, doesn't automatically brand you as a potential terrorist. Sounds far too vague to me...
Posted by Marc, 03 Jun 2006