This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Business News Digital Legal
Internet Watch Foundation backtrack over Scorpions ban
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 10 December 2008
The Internet Watch Foundation has backtracked over its decision to call on ISPs to bar access to a Wikipedia page about The Scorpions’ 32 year old album ‘Virgin Killers’, whose original artwork featured a controversial image of a naked, prepubescent girl.
As previously reported, certain UK ISP’s ban on the web page caused a glitch which affected users’ ability to view and edit other areas of the Wikipedia site, sparking a row, as well as confusion as to why the image, never before banned in the UK, and published in several books, was suddenly deemed “potentially illegal”.
The IWF released a statement saying that it had reviewed its decision, taking a number of factors into account: “The IWF board has today considered these findings and the contextual issues involved in this specific case, and – in the light of the length of time the image has existed and its wide availability – the decision has been taken to remove this web page from our list”.
That said, they added that they still believed that the image “is potentially in breach of the Protection Of Children Act, 1978”.
They also acknowledged that their attempt to ban it had only caused negative publicity, adding: “IWF’s overriding objective is to minimise the availability of indecent images of children on the internet, however, on this occasion our efforts have had the opposite effect. We regret the unintended consequences for Wikipedia and its users”.
