Cleanfeed is the name given to various privately administered

ISP An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...

level

content filtering An Internet filter is software that restricts or controls the content an Internet user is capable to access, especially when utilized to restrict material delivered over the Internet via the Web, Email, or other means. Content-control software dete ...

systems operating in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

, and undergoing testing in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

with a view to future mandatory implementation. These government-mandated programs originally attempted to block access to

child pornography Child pornography (also called CP, child sexual abuse material, CSAM, child porn, or kiddie porn) is pornography that unlawfully exploits children for sexual stimulation. It may be produced with the direct involvement or sexual assault of a ...

and abuse content located outside of the nation operating the filtering system.

Implementations

United Kingdom

Cleanfeed is a content blocking system technology implemented in the UK by BT, Britain's largest Internet provider as the first to block the Internet Watch Foundation's child abuse image content list. It was created in 2003 and went live in June 2004.

Canada

Cleanfeed in Canada is a voluntary

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, p ...

URL filtering list maintained by

Cybertip.ca Canadian Centre for Child Protection (C3P; french: Centre canadien de protection de l'enfance) is a Canadian registered charitable organization dedicated to the personal safety of all children. More specifically, its goal is to reduce the victim ...

for use by participating ISPs. Eight major providers, representing approximately 80% of Canada's Internet users, have been using the list since November 2006 to block foreign websites.

Proposed implementations

Australia

Cleanfeed in Australia was a proposed mandatory ISP level content filtration system. It was proposed by the

Kim Beazley Kim Christian Beazley (born 14 December 1948) is an Australian former politician and diplomat. He was leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and leader of the opposition from 1996 to 2001 and 2005 to 2006, having previously been a cabinet ...

led

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms t ...

opposition in a 2006 press release, with the intention of protecting children who were vulnerable to claimed parental computer illiteracy. It was announced on 31 December 2007 as a policy to be implemented by the

Rudd ''Scardinius'' is a genus of ray-finned fish in the family Cyprinidae commonly called rudds. Locally, the name "rudd" without any further qualifiers is also used for individual species, particularly the common rudd (''S. erythrophthalmus''). T ...

ALP government, and initial tests in

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

produced a report in 2008. Public opposition and criticism quickly emerged, led by the EFA and gaining irregular mainstream media attention, with a majority of Australians reportedly "strongly against" its implementation. Criticisms included expense, inaccuracy (it will be impossible to ensure only illegal sites are blocked) and the fact that it will be compulsory. Cleanfeed was quietly abandoned as a policy after the 2010 election.

References