Internet Filtering Statistics

• Not only adult content is being blocked
• All kinds of sites are reported as blocked
• ISP Responses to reports
• Reply stats by ISP
• Alexa top 100,000 sites
• ISP Blocks by top-level domain

Not only adult content is being blocked

The domains in these categories were identified by keyword searches and then double-checked by hand to ensure the categorisation was accurate.

Sites relating to keywords related to	Number of blocked domains identified	Number of domains still blocked	Current ISP blocks
Addiction, substance abuse support sites	185	91	287
Charities and non-profit organisations	98	17	24
Counselling, support, and mental health	112	77	191
Domestic violence and sexual abuse support	59	14	42
LGBTQ+ sites	114	39	121
School websites	161	23	52

The domains in these categories were identified by keyword searches.

Sites relating to keywords related to	Number of blocked domains identified through search	Number of domains still blocked	Current ISP blocks
Building and building supplies	58	23	54
CBD oils, CBD-related, and hemp products	112	91	505
Drainage and drain unblocking services	99	2	2
Photography sites	1372	513	1340
Religious (Christian) sites	37	8	19
Weddings and wedding photographers	4012	1480	3152
VPN sites	23	15	55

All kinds of sites are reported as blocked

In March 2019, we looked at all the domains that people had reported to an ISP through Blocked as an incorrect block. We categorised all the domains.

Category for Submitted Reports	Number of reported domains	Number of domains unblocked after reporting
Counselling, Support, and Mental Health	122	98
Charity and non-profit	68	55
Advice Sites (Drugs, Alcohol, Abuse)	52	44
Music	50	41
Weddings and Wedding Photographers	44	40
Tech, IT and Software	41	21
Adult, Pornography, and Escort Services	40	1
LGBTQ+	40	27
Alcohol-related (non-sales) sites	36	8
Sport and leisure	35	30
Arts, Crafts, and Sculpture	32	24
Builders and Building Supplies	32	27
Household, household repairs and DIY	32	32
Health	25	19
Alcohol	23	4
Books, Writing, and Literature	22	18
Shopping	22	13
CBD Oils, CBD-Related, and Hemp Products	21	8
Photography, Graphic Design, and Filmmaking	21	14
Religious	21	19
Transport and vehicles	21	18
Community and social media	19	6
Education and Academic Reference	19	14
Bars, Clubs, and Restaurants	18	8
Events and events companies	18	16
Parked or Inactive Domain	17	5
Political	17	6
Video and Online Games	17	5
Business and Services	16	15
Personal	15	11
Beauty and cosmetics	14	7
Industry and manufacturing	14	12
Regulated shooting ranges and associations	14	5
Travel and Tourism	14	13
Fashion	12	7
Media Streaming	12	4
Science and medical science	12	11
VPN or security tool	12	2
Advertising, Branding, and Communications Agencies	11	9
History and heritage	11	8
Agriculture, horticulture and agricultural supplies	10	8
APIs, CDNs, and Network Endpoints	9	3
Real Estate and Property	9	9
Child-related business	8	7
Clothing and Fashion	8	5
Cooking and food	7	7
File Sharing and BitTorrent Trackers	7	0
Celebrity related	5	5
Dating	5	0
Takeaway businesses	5	3
Wellbeing	5	4
Fireworks	4	1
Guns and Weapons	4	0
Humour, Comics and Entertainment	4	1
Languages and language learning	4	4
Architecture and Design	3	2
Body piercing and tattoos	3	2
Directory Services and Advertisements	3	3
Financial	3	3
Flower shops	3	2
Kitchens and Interior Design	3	2
Lotteries and gambling	3	1
Regulated UK gunshops	3	1
Spam or Hijacked	3	2
Web designers	3	3
Antiques and Collectibles	2	2
Drug Paraphernalia	2	0
Movies and TV	2	2
Spirituality and non-conventional beliefs	2	2
Vineyards	2	0
Care homes	1	1
E-cigarettes	1	0
Energy and environment	1	0
Gardening	1	1
News	1	1
Tobacco paraphernalia and collectibles	1	0
Tobacco sales	1	1

ISP Responses to reports

Network/Year	Unresolved non-policy block count	Unresolved policy block count	Resolved & blocked against policy
BT
2017	2	14	0
2018	4	7	2
2019	0	0	0
2020	0	3	0
2021	0	0	0
BT-Strict
2017	0	1	0
2018	1	3	0
2019	0	2	0
2020	0	0	0
2021	0	4	0
Cloudflare family
2020	0	5	0
2021	1	9	0
EE
2017	0	0	0
2018	0	0	0
2019	0	1	0
2020	0	0	0
2021	0	0	0
O2
2017	2	3	0
2018	2	8	0
2019	0	5	0
2020	0	3	0
2021	0	8	0
OpenDNS
2020	0	2	0
2021	0	0	0
Plusnet
2018	1	1	0
2019	0	12	0
2020	0	13	0
2021	0	8	0
Sky
2017	1	1	0
2018	7	1	0
2019	0	2	0
2020	0	0	0
2021	0	0	0
T-Mobile
2020	0	0	0
TalkTalk
2017	1	12	0
2018	24	24	0
2019	0	13	0
2020	0	14	0
2021	2	33	0
Three
2017	0	0	0
2018	1	0	1
2019	0	0	0
2020	0	0	0
2021	0	0	0
VirginMedia
2017	1	1	0
2018	10	15	0
2019	0	25	0
2020	0	25	0
2021	0	15	0
Vodafone
2017	0	0	0
2018	2	0	0
2019	0	0	0
2020	0	0	0
2021	0	0	0

Reply stats by ISP

Network/Year	Reports Sent	Total replies received	Avg reply interval
BT
2017	168	0
2018	223	107	72 days
2019	161	304	20 days
2020	106	197	12:18:01.580780
2021	46	83	17:12:32.442402
BT-Strict
2017	12	0
2018	115	54	84 days
2019	146	275	30 days
2020	102	204	6 days
2021	32	48	1 day
Cloudflare family
2020	18	3
2021	16	0
EE
2017	37	0
2018	106	45	108 days
2019	99	190	100 days
2020	56	77	54 days
2021	16	29	12 days
O2
2017	58	0
2018	99	0
2019	83	65	41 days
2020	63	59	7:10:55.112446
2021	30	21	1 day
OpenDNS
2020	31	135
2021	24	95
Plusnet
2018	21	0
2019	66	0
2020	38	0
2021	17	0
Sky
2017	144	0
2018	152	50	106 days
2019	142	175	155 days
2020	72	108	1 day
2021	7	16
T-Mobile
2020	1	1
TalkTalk
2017	34	0
2018	230	0
2019	185	154	26 days
2020	110	111	3 days
2021	44	3
Three
2017	26	0
2018	80	16	97 days
2019	135	207	55 days
2020	79	161	6 days
2021	19	41	16:26:03.143284
VirginMedia
2017	27	0
2018	99	6	11 days
2019	93	21	13 days
2020	125	0
2021	41	14
Vodafone
2017	44	0
2018	59	17	21 days
2019	118	126	238 days
2020	89	88
2021	23	23

Alexa top 100,000 sites

Blocked sites as a proportion of total sites checked

ISP Blocks by top-level domain