Content Lock

[Spyrus]

My bet would be they started readin up on Phish and got scared so they restricted the site.... I know I would have

[Moira]

Excellent mohaughn. However it would still be good to be off such a list. At the very least it must be preventing quite a number of people browsing the forum because they'd see "content lock" and "£2" and just browse somewhere else instead.

[Moira]

I have today tried to remove Content Lock and discovered that unless I am prepared to make a time consuming journey to the nearest T-Mobile shop and present them with my passport or driving licence, I can't get this changed.

You need a credit card and I just use a Delta debit card - so I'm stuck. I thought it was worth asking T-Mobile why AO was on such a list, and it was clear the advisor assumed I was wanting to access a gaming, pornography or similarly dubious site

Anyway, I got an email address out of them and have written to ask what there is about AO which merits such a rating, giving them the URL to inspect it if they want.

[nihil]

Well, I shall now close my T-Mobile account....................they will doubtless ask why, and I assure you that my answer will be "ain't what the rich call prayers"

As for 18+...................why? if they think that this is a skiddie site, then block it because of that............ spyware/adware/illegal content has nothing to do with age?

Maybe they should be reported to Ofcom, or whoever deals with the mobile franchises?................. after all they are doing it in our country?

[Moira]

I'll see what response if any, I get from their customer relations department. After all, I changed from 02 to T-Mobile to take advantage of the £1 a day cap on internet charges, so it's a bit frustrating not to be able to access the sites I want. What was worst though, was the obvious assumption by the advisor about the content of the site I wanted to remove content lock from! They clearly didn't know what antionline.com was and their attitude was one of politely helping me to pursue my right to view "adult content" (or that's what it felt like).

[nihil]

Adult content?.....................hey Moira, you should see some of the posts we delete from time to time ............. pure primary school stuff.............

These people get a hold of obsolete blacklists............thing that annoys me is that there are some pretty good ones out there, but it seems that T-Craptile won't pay the money to subscribe?

Anyways I don't think that we have an age limit............if you are under 13 or so, you need parental permission AFAIK. That is probably to comply with some US legislation?

[Moira]

That's like every single forum more or less and they aren't all banned by Content Lock. Anyway, they couldn't go around adding every site unsuitable for 12 year olds! Children that young should be guided and controlled by their parents not T-Mobile! While I agree with protecting children online, it's getting stupid when this is at the expense of what is basically an adult activity (ie posting on forums).

[nihil]

Yes,

How many juveniles are there out there with internet capable cell phones or whatever that they actually pay for out of independently earned funds?

There is a skill called "parenting" is there not?

But maybe I am just an obsolete old fart who doesn't do "shrink wrapped"?

[Moira]

I call it lazy .... that's what started my own interest in computers actually, when my kids got to the age of showing an active interest and the internet was taking off. My 13 year old attracted the attention of a paedophile called Spottyrock in an AOL chatroom and I was too naive to handle it properly (ie I sent AOL a saved copy of the message content instead of forwarding it with all the headers etc). I decided after that I would make it my business to know what they were up to online, without restricting their freedom to learn how things worked and enjoy themselves.

[Moira]

Just to report, I had an initial email back from T-Mobile, asking that I send them my mobile number, which I hadn't done. I wrote back and today (well yesterday!) got a voicemail message on my mobile from Brian at customer relations, who tells me our content lock has been removed

He said he had viewed the site, and had no idea why it had been included in this category because it clearly contained no adult material, and he could understand my frustration at not being able to access a site I'd switched providers specially to take advantage of being able to browse at a cheap rate.

By the time I got his message, it was too late to phone back, but I intend doing so on monday as he asked me to return his call.

So AO is no longer catagorized along with all the pr0n sites and has lost its XXX rating! Better still, I am no longer viewed by T-Mobile as some sleazy pervert

I wonder if Brian read this thread ? ....