The strict “anti-porn” filtering taking full effect in the UK this month might cause problems for some League of Legends users who haven’t called their ISPs to opt out of the screening. It seems the patcher is trying to access a couple of URLs with the letters S and E followed by X in them, and that’s enough to get a block.
Summoner Boompje noticed this a couple of days ago, posting about it on both League of Legends’ official European forums and in the game’s subreddit. The “offending” URLs are a couple of files — VarusExpirationTimer.luaobj and XerathMageChainsExtended.luaobj. I’ve helpfully bolded the objectionable word.
After a year of lobbying, the UK’s four largest Internet providers implemented parental controls that block a wide range of topics, most of them related to sex or porn, but also including illegal drugs and terrorism. The filter is an opt-out block (or an opt-in to view porn), meaning a customer must call his or her ISP to have it removed, so this isn’t necessarily shutting down League of Legends in that country entirely. It also appears to be implemented by default on new accounts; existing users of some providers don’t have the filter imposed on them.
Still, for a controversial policy that has kicked out its share of anecdotal, unintended victims, snaring a League of Legends patch shows how unsophisticated things can be. Then again, I’m reminded of how I couldn’t name my NCAA Football created team’s stadium “Riddick Field,” nor could I edit N.C. State’s roster to include “Mustafa Greene” back when he played.
We reached out to a Riot Games representative to ask if they were receiving widespread complaints about this. For anyone affected, the simplest solution is the best: just ask the ISP to turn off the filter. For kids in a household that won’t remove the filter, the alternative would seem to be getting the patch as a .zip file from a friend.
Attention UK summoners! The new anti-secks law may be bugging your patcher! [League of Legends forums]
Comments
10 responses to “UK Anti-Porn Filters Might Screw Up League Of Legends Patches”
Opt in to a terrorist watch list and tracking I’d assume. I can’t believe there wasn’t rioting over this.
Wait the filter is that strict its blocking plain text filenames? Going to have to read up more on this.
Damn. And I thought Australian internet was shitty.
Must be awkward for people living in Essex.
As much as I hate the nation of nanny state cowards that Australia has become, the UK makes us look downright adventurous and free.
This also provides people who want to watch and download porn with a nice, legit excuse to opt out of the filter 😀 “Err… I just want to play League Of Legends… yeah… that’s it. League of Legends.”
How could they implement something so basic? Imagine how hard it will be to establish an online presence from Essex, for example…
Wait, it filters based on the letters “s-e-x?” I’d imagine people who live in Essex and Sussex would get shafted.
“Here’s pictures of my trip to Sussex. No wait, it’s blocked by the ISP providers.”
Them getting shafted on the internet is what this is supposed to BLOCK, no?
I love porn