Independent Reference Group Briefing - March 2014
Digital Child Exploitation Filtering System
Independent Reference Group Briefing March 2014
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Report
This report sees a movement to a new method of reporting access to the system, this new system has been in place since February and will ultimately replace the existing method.
This new method allows us to retain the anonymity of the users but gain a better understanding of actual access metrics, the new method is based on access to the actual domain and not individual content requests and calculate the uniqueness based on the time of the access, this means that multiple access in 1 second is grouped to be 1 access record.
Using this method we identified that in February we received 28,000 requests for child abuse material and can report that between March 1st and March 20th we have received 22,000 requests for material.
Analysis of this data allowed us to identify that the majority of users access is direct meaning a url is typed into the address bar or is the first item selected on a browsing session we are still seeing significant access via search initiated sessions via bing, yahoo and google search engines.
What we have noticed over the last 2 months however is an increase in the use of the word kiwi in the search sessions suggesting a desire for local content. This is currently being investigated.
Since the last report we have received 4 appeals this is a significant decrease and is something we are investigating, In all instances the appeals were processed by the review team and found to contain child abuse material thus the site remained on the list.
We are continuing to see a shift to mobile devices as the method for accessing material with the latest data showing that between 20 February and 20 March 16% of the access originated from mobile devices. This is a 4% increase on the same period last year.
System Maintenance
In preparation of the upgrade to the system we have begun replacing our networking equipment, this has gone without incident and has completed succesfully the new equipment allows us to support a greater number of systems and connections.
We are testing the upgrade to the filter now and hope to have it rolled out very soon.
System Health
The system is currently filtering 2.5 million ISP clients, based on numbers supplied to the unit from the providers connected.
At present we are using approximately 1% of the resources being the filter system itself and processing 1GB+ of traffic per day.
System Updates
The primary system update planned at this stage is the upgrade to the system, this is happening now and we aim for this to be completed by the end of the financial year.
Planned Information Updates
This period sees the completion of whatis.dce.net.nz we are currently testing to ensure the data is compatible with all browsers.
The purpose of this additional system is to enable the unit to present the filter to the public more efficiently. We intend to enable the site to hold some basic interactive content such as videos.
The site has been designed to be able to be viewed on all devices and is accessible only via https.
Filter Statistics to Date
| Number of Providers: | 9 |
| Number of ISP clients filtered: | 2.5 million |
| Filter List Size: | 589 (+8) |
| Entries Added Since last Quarter: | 8 |
| Entries Removed: | 1 |
| Unique Sites: | 483 (+8) |
| Sites containing drawings only (CGI or Hentai): | 20 |
| Traffic: | 1GB – 1.5GB p/d |
| Appeals: | 4 |
