ISP Blocks Author Websites – A Christmas Challenge
Tonight my partner and fellow genre writer Gaie Sebold discovered her website was blocked by O2, a major UK ISP, under their ‘Parental Guidance‘ controls.A quick check showed that my web site (gentle reader, the very website you are now reading) was also blocked.
A few tweets established other genre writers, such as Gareth Powell had the same block in place. So we checked a few more:
Genre Writers Blocked
Adrian Tchaikovsky (Shadows of the Apt)
John Scalzi (RedShirts, Old Man’s War)
Emma Newman (Split Worlds)
Neil Gaiman (The Graveyard Book)
Robin Hobb (Assassin’s series, Ships series, Dragons series)
Children’s & YA Authors Blocked
Eoin Colfer (Artemis Fowle)
Philip Pulman (Dark Materials)
Suzanne Collins (Hunger Games)
Philip Reeve (Mortal Engines)
Eric Carle (The Very Hungry Caterpillar)
They even blocked Jane Yolen, ‘the Hans Christian Andersen of America’.
Don’t worry, people – it get’s better. Scholastic’s web site specifically for children’s books and encouraging children to read is – Blocked!
And so are various other publishers, such as Angry Robot, Solaris, Gollancz, Jo Fletcher books.
So what else? Well, that well-known bunch of dodgy geezers, the Directors Guild has been blocked too. And to cap it all, because we do want the web to be very, very safe, O2 have wisely blocked Save the Children, and Childline.
There is no excuse for this level of incompetence. Is this Cameron’s worthless Great Firewall of Britain falling at the first hurdle, or one company’s failure? Neither is acceptable.
So, here’s my Christmas challenge – find a web site or blog specifically aimed at helping children that is NOT blocked. The first three entries will win a free copy of my SF novel, Shopocalypse. The next three will win a copy of Gaie’s first ‘Babylon Steel’ novel.
Here’s the link to the O2 checker.
Happy hunting, and Happy Christmas.
~
http://www.peppapig.com/
does this count?
Hi Lee – that looks good to me. We have a winner!
Hi Lee, I emailed you just before Christmas about sending you a copy of Shopocalypse. Please reply with a postal address if you’d like one.
and BT is just about to apply network level blocks for pr0n which will also block sites about VPNs and proxy servers. To get these unblocked you have to contact BT and admit to being a pervert to get unblocked. When will they learn that site blocks DON’T work!!!