With the idea of web blocking creating quite a stir, there’s one site making a name for itself in circumventing web-blocking injunctions served by the UK High Court. Unblocked.pw allows for instant access to domains that are otherwise blocked and is ranked at 192 in the United Kingdom. That ranking puts it ahead of Spotify and Skype.
The reason for the the stir created by web blocking services is that not only are people online in the UK having to navigate a variety of barriers when it comes to perusing adult content, but the list of blocked torrent, streaming and downloading sites blocked by ISPs is growing considerably. This is at least according to Prime Minister David Cameron, a person who is working on stricter age controls when it comes to kids viewing adult content.
“Our one nation government is working hard to make the internet a safer place for children, the next step in this campaign is to curb access to harmful adult content which is currently far too widely available,” he said. “I want to see age restrictions put into place or these websites will face being shut down.”
According to the UK governement, the UK’s top 10 adult web sites make up 52 percent of all site views, this isn’t something the government is taking lightly. According to the top-200 most visited sites in the UK according to Alexa, six adult web sites make up a lot of the traffic. They include ****hub at No. 41, XHam at No. 44, Xvid at No. 47, RedTube at No. 92, TubeCup at 105 and You**** at 122.
Unblocked.pw has become popular in that every block put in place by UK ISPs, the web site provides a way to get around the respective block. As of right now, it unblocks a good percentage of major streaming, specialist ebook archives and torrent sites.
“Fighting censorship has been the primary motivation behind running Unblocked,” the site’s operator told TorrentFreak. “It’s to show that whatever regulators do to censor things online, there will always be a way around it. The initial motivation came from when The Pirate Bay was blocked in the Netherlands. We set up Proxybay.co to maintain a list of Pirate Bay proxy sites and show people how to create their own.”
As the United Kingdoms works hard at imposing stricter age restrictions, the question as to how will certainly come up. There’s talk of age-checking via credit cards, however, sites like You**** and RedTube may be reluctant to go that route considering it could be a loss of traffic and ad revenue.
“While the government can shut down UK-based sites, these are few in number and represent a tiny proportion of the global adult content industry. Cameron needs to clarify how he wishes to achieve his goals, given that most adult content sites are hosted abroad,” says ORG’s Jim Killock. “To block them, the government would have to introduce a national firewall, which would censor sites for everyone, and would likely be widely circumvented.”
As such, a national firewall censoring such sites would fall into Unblocked.pw’s wheelhouse. As the UK works to figure out how to impose these stricter age restrictions, you can bet web sites like Unblocked.pw will become even more popular.
Would you frequent a site like Unblocked.pw if you were faced with web blocking? Let us know in the comments below or on any of our social media web sites.
Last Updated on March 10, 2023.
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