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jenny-sterne
26th September 2016

Pornographic material blocked in halls

A block has been placed on students’ access to pornographic material in halls, however according to many students the block is censoring beyond this
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TLDR

Starting this academic year a block has been placed on access to all pornographic material through the university internet.

Many students however have told The Mancunion that they have found the blocks to extend beyond pornographic material to any material deemed adult.

When a student is blocked the message to students reads that “access to this web page is restricted by the University’s acceptable usage policy”.

A University spokesman stated: “Over the summer a block to pornographic material was introduced on hard-wired PCs and the wireless network in line with the University’s acceptable use policy and to prevent the spread of malware.

They added that they were “aware that a small number of non-pornographic sites are currently blocked by our new system.  When access to a site is blocked, contact details for the IT Support Centre are provided and legitimate sites can be unblocked on request”.

Joanna Melville, University of Manchester Sex Week Coordinator for 2016, told The Mancunion that: “Students living in halls are over 18, and well within their rights to access legal material depicting sexual acts. This block feels like a moralistic judgement, not only against sexually explicit material but sex work industries.”

She added: “Whilst some may believe it to be in order to tackle ‘lad’ culture, this instead needs to be achieved by creating a non-tolerance environment for sexual assault and harassment, and by providing comprehensive consent education, rather than by banning legal material to those of age to view it”.


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