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At the beginning of 2007 a ministerial decree was signed by Communications Minister Paolo Gentiloni that obliges Internet Service Providers to block child pornography sites within 6 hours from being announced to do so.
The body that has the responsibility to notify the ISPs on the sites that must be blocked will be "Centro nazionale per il contrasto della pedopornografia" (The National Centre against Child Pornography), coordinated by the Post Police under the supervision of the Ministry of Communications. The Centre has to create and update a list of sites considered as containing child pornography and keep informed those responsible by notifying the ISPs.
The notifying procedure will be established within the Ministry of Communications but the filtering systems that the ISPs are supposed to use in order to block the sites have not been determined. The decree will oblige ISPs to study and find the technical system to comply with the law starting with 1 March 2007, when it enters into force.
Italy's penal code stipulates severe punishments for the distribution and publication of child pornography. According to minister Paolo Gentiloni. "The decree reinforces the fight against child pornography and the exploitation of minors through the Internet".
The decree has been well received by many bodies including the Ministry of Family, the Osservatorio sui diritti dei Minori (Children Rights Observatory), Osservatorio sociale (Social Observatory) or Save the Children organisation. While appreciating the introduction of the law, some stated the measure is not enough to stop child abuse and argued on behalf of international measures.
According to EDRI-member ALCEI this measure comes as a worsening of the censure situation in Italy, as such kind of legal provisions have not proven efficient in the past in protecting children and stopping child abuse or preventing any kind of violence for that matter. However this paves the way for more censorship that might be applied to other types of information that may be considered forbidden.
Paolo Nuti, Vice-president of Association of Italian Internet Providers signalled certain problems that the application of the decree might cause. Blocking a certain IP address may lead to blocking not only the site in view but other related sites that might have nothing to do with child pornography.
Italy enacts law to block child porn Web sites (only in Italian, 2.01.2006)
http://punto-informatico.it/p.aspx?id=1832753&r=PI
Italy will block many other sites (4.01.2006)
http://news.com.com/Italy%20enacts%20law%20to%20block%20child%20porn%2...
"Gentiloni Decree" opposes pedopornography - ALCEI release of 10 January
2007 (only in Italian, 10.01.2006)
http://www.alcei.it/index.php/2007/01/10/decreto-gentiloni-e-contrasto...