[Israel]: ISPs will have to Offer Free Web Filtering Service

     

The economic committee of Israeli parliament, the Knesset (picture- MK Orli Levy - Abekasis - one of the parliament members who initiated the new law), approved yesterday a new law proposal that will require ISPs (over fixed and mobile networks) to offer their customers a web filtering service, at no extra cost.

Unlike the recent imitative in the UK (see "UK Government Wants "Opt Out" Parental Control"- here), the service will based on "Opt-in" basis and will include adult content, hate, gambling and violence sites.

The new law (still to go through approval process in the parliament) will not regulate the method to be used by ISPs to filter the sites, but says that ISPs should offer the service in an effective way based on common practices. In addition, ISPs are required to tell customers that such service exists - at least once a year - in a printed(!) bulletin.

Looking at the categories, it seems that the new proposal mixes between illegal content (such as child abuse) and inappropriate content. While a mandatory blocking regulation for the former to all subscribers (unlawful content/"black list") is common - the latter could potentially be a Value-added Service. Making both a free "Opt-in" service, misses both. So unfortunately for the vendors, the suggested law reduces the attractiveness of a DPI based url-filtering solution.