Multiple URL Categories
July 19, 2011 • Customer Services
Synopsis
This article discusses why URLs are often classified under more than one category.
Article
If you use the Content Classifier Tool (Filters->Content Classifier) and type in a URL, you will sometimes find that it returns multiple categories.
For example, if we look at www.playboy.com, you'll see it returns both News and Pornography as results.
This has ramifications as to what happens when a user attempts to visit the site.
For example, supposing the policy a user is on permits them to view News sites, but because you're naturally wanting to block porn sites, you have those categories set to "Block".
Consequently, in one and the same policy, you have "News" set to allow, and "Pornography" set to block. What is the CensorNet supposed to do?
That choice is within your remit. You can choose whether Block overrides Allow, or Allow overrides Block.
In the former case (the default), if any category a site is classified to is set to block, then the site is blocked, as the Blocked category (the porn one) takes precedence over the allowed category.
If you have the latter case (Allow overrides Block), then the allowed category (News) will have precedence and a site classified as Pornography will be allowed through. This is why "Block overrides Allow" is the default, and our recommended setting.
Should a user be blocked, they will get an error showing both why they were blocked, and what category, if any, is set to allow the site. They may submit an unblock request.
If you are in receipt of an unblock request, it is up to you whether you choose to assign it to a category (within the Custom URL filter) that you know is either permitted, or denied, in the user's policy.
If you assign it to a category that you know is blocked, then that will take effect the next time they attempt to visit the site. They will be blocked, and not even see the "Request Unblock" button again.
If you assign it to a category you know is allowed, then next time, they will always be allowed. Remember, the Custom URL module takes precedence over any other in the parsing of policies.
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