Sense and censorship

An internet watchdog says that although the Etisalat proxy server is quite effective in blocking pornographic content, it also prevents access to online material that is not related to its expressed goals.

• Pornography leads to violence against women
• Pornographic sites must be blocked

The report by academics from Harvard, Cambridge and Toronto Universities, said that when attempts are made to open offensive websites using Etisalat, a page comes up saying the site is blocked "due to its content being inconsistent with the cultural, political and moral values of the UAE".

One survey showed that more than half of the UAE's residents agree that internet censorship is an effective measure to protect family members from objectionable content.

Much of the filtering is achieved through SmartFilter blocking software that excludes web pages about offensive topics.

The specific categories are ‘cults and occult', ‘drugs', ‘gambling', ‘obscene/extreme', ‘nudity', ‘sex', ‘dating' and ‘criminal skills'.

Other sites are blocked manually, such as any site that contains various expletives in its URL.

In Singapore, for instance, the technical filtering system is described by OpenNet as "one of the most limited".

In Bahrain, only 8 of 6,000 sites tested were blocked. Iran and Saudi Arabia, however, employ similar SmartFilter methods to restrict access to controversial sites.

But the OpenNet Initiative concludes that although the UAE proxy server is "quite effective at blocking content that it seeks to filter", it also prevents access to a considerable amount of online material that is not related to its expressed goals.

The OpenNet report also cited a 2002 survey by Etisalat which found that 60 per cent of its 14,000 domestic subscribers favoured filtering. Almost exactly half of the sample also felt that it protected family members.

Supporters of such censorship could take heart from the recently declared intention of the British Government to ban extreme pornography.

A Home Office minister announced that there was no intention of banning "mainstream pornography", but that possessing violent and abusive images could now result in a prison sentence of up to three years.

According to the consultation document that accompanied this announcement the United Kingdom would become the first Western democracy to criminalise possession of "extreme material" (child pornography is already illegal).

It also acknowledged that there was no definitive evidence about the impact of such materials.

However, the main issue remains enforcement. Professor David Wilson of the University of Central England concludes that after the FBI caught people accessing child pornography on websites, paedophiles switched to peer-to-peer networks and net-enabled mobile phones.

Bypassing the ban

And today it is not easy to block sites as it is relatively straightforward to bypass any proxy server. One software enables users to open blocked sites via an apparently innocuous overseas site.

According to a network manager based in the UAE, "I have found a surprising amount of internet users are now aware of how to evade the proxy."

The issue of Internet censorship is set to become more prominent with the establishment of a rival internet provider to Etisalat.

The current situation, where Internet City, Media City and residents in Emaar properties are exempt from the proxy server is unlikely to be maintained.

At this point, either internet access across the city will be liberalised or the proxy will be extended.

Whatever decision is taken, a substantial section of internet users will be discontented.