Chip off the old block

Email from a friend:

You might like to know that Cross Country Rail have blocked access to your website!!

Well, it wouldn't be the first time that a site containing the word 'tobacco' has been prohibited.

In February 2010 I posted this - Does Government Internet ban include Forest?. It was in response to a parliamentary question by the Rt Hon Francis Maude MP.

Maude, who was then in Opposition and chairman of the Conservative party, had written to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport to ask:

... for what reason websites featuring tobacco content are banned [on departmental computers]; if he will give examples of the types of tobacco sites which are banned; and whether the internet ban includes the Forest (Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco) website.

Two weeks later Hansard published a written reply from minister Gerry Sutcliffe. It read:

The filtering software used by my Department has a standard range of categories [that] are blocked by default. Filtering is switched off for those categories that are directly related to the work of my Department, currently tobacco remains blocked. The tobacco category covers tobacco promotional websites such as www.marlboro.com.

The Forest (Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco) website was inadvertently covered by this category by default. It has been unblocked.

As I wrote at the time, Woo-hoo! Government unblocks Forest website.

It's interesting to note, though, that tobacco-related websites were on a list of "unsuitable" categories that included 'violence' and 'criminal activities'.

Other categories blocked by the DCMS included pornography, extreme hate/discrimination, and gruesome content.

I would love to know what categories of websites are currently blocked by the Department of Health!