N2H2, Inc., an Internet access management company specialising in fast and scalable filtering solutions with offices in Bermuda, has reported on the growing problem of unscrupulous on-line pornography companies taking over the web addresses of educational, government, and civic organisations after their Internet domain registrations have expired.

New examples are appearing regularly, but N2H2's sophisticated Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology and expert human review team identifies the majority of these sites as they appear, and provide schools, parents, and companies immediate protection from pornographic content exposure.

In recent months, a number of educational and civic websites have changed the addresses of their websites to easier-to-remember names - only to be shocked to find out that online pornography companies had scooped up the expired domain names and converted them to pornography sites.

The victims have included educational sites such as 21st Century Teacher, Home Education Magazine, and Music Education Directory. Government sites have also been hit with the Ohio State Senate, the city government of Manchester, Iowa, and the Nebraska Department of Education's web addresses now pointing to pornography sites. Non-profit and civic organizations have included the Ballet Theatre of Annapolis, the Cape Cod History Society, and the International Lutheran Woman's Missionary League.

“This practice is particularly upsetting because it lures innocent children into pornography sites,” said Monique Nelson, Chief Operating Officer of the online safety organization Enough is Enough.

“As a way of providing a safer Internet experience for children, parents and educators create lists of age-appropriate website, only to have this protection undermined by pornographers. This is another reminder that pornographers basically don't care.”

Fortunately, filtering companies can provide some relief. N2H2's advanced Internet content categorisation system employs an automated search to scan the Internet on a continuous basis, quickly identifying web sites that previously contained innocent content but now contain pornography.

When one of these new “stealth porn sites” is identified, it is stored in a database and prioritised for human review. Each day, N2H2 customers receive electronically an updated list of the latest pornographic websites, providing prompt protection.

“N2H2 adds more than 3,000 new pornography sites each week, a number of which pop-up on the Internet under rather innocent domain names,” said Cher Paige, vice president of marketing for N2H2. “Our combination of artificial intelligence technology and a human review team has ensured that more than 15 million Internet users worldwide continue to receive safer and more secure Internet access.”

N2H2's product offerings include N2H2 Internet filtering for Microsoft ISA, Microsoft Proxy 2.0, Check Point FireWall-1, Volera Excelerator and N2H2's i2100 Internet Filtering Appliance. N2H2 uses sophisticated Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology and expert human review to provide the most comprehensive and accurate categorization of the Internet.