Internet association to add IP blocking support in battle against child porn

Increasingly nimble child porn site operators have spurred Japan’s Internet Content Safety Association (ICSA) to move to add support for IP address blocking to its initiatives, it was revealed on July 3.

The ICSA — an industry association of 73 firms — draws up URL block lists used by Internet providers to stifle child pornography sites. The association moved to support IP address blocking after the July 3 arrest of child porn site operators who had allowed users to access pages via IP addresses that came up in search engine results, circumventing the URL blocks.

According to the ICSA, most Internet service providers in Japan use a “DNS blocking method” based on URLs because of cost and equipment load considerations. Meanwhile, multiple Internet providers are cooperating with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications to test a “hybrid method” of blocking that uses both URLs and IP addresses.

Currently, 42 of the ICSA’s member firms are blocking sites, but none are yet using the hybrid method.

Mainichi Japan, July 4, 2012
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