Vodafone blocking our company's website incorrectly

[lunaman]

Hi,

When surfing with Vodafone mobile network our website at https://www.artweeks.org is blocked .

It's fine on WiFi, or in an Icognito / private tab in the browser.

I've checked the SSL and domain details for the site and all seems to be in order - passing with an A standard at the SSL labs testing. Could you possibly check? The category is just artwork, and I don't think there are even any nude paintings anywhere on the site which might have triggered something maybe?!

[Effie]

Hey @lunaman I hope you're well and having a lovely day so far! 

I've checked the website on the Vodafone network and I am able to access it without issue. Do you know if your SecureNet settings are set to 'Very High' at all? If there is even a small amount of content which could be deemed inappropriate on the site, SecureNet will block it with the settings on high. 

[lunaman]

Thanks so much for checking. It's really weird, I got in okay the other day actually, while out and about. But a colleague on EE encountered the same thing (not a SecureNet error obviously).

All the SSL and domain details have been checked and re-checked. I thought maybe certain phones had cached certificates from an earlier time when the SSL cert failed, but clearing cache didn't work.

Anyway, ruling out SecureNet was an important step!

[lunaman]

HI there,

I'm afraid the error message is back when browsing with 4G for the Artweeks website.

I'm mystified as sometimes it's a SecureNet error message (which I haven't signed up for), and sometimes a NET::ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID message on Chrome.

The web hosts have confirmed the SSL and DNS are present and correct.

[Effie]

Thanks for getting back in touch with the new screenshots @lunaman I'm sorry that this issue is persisting! 

The first thing we need to do is to make sure SecureNet is fully removed from your number if you didn't sign up for it. Please pop our Social Media team a message here so they can check our systems to make sure this is taken off. 

[lunaman]

Hi,

Many thanks - so it turns out it wasn't SecureNet, but another level of age-restricted content filtering that blocked the site from my phone (and others).

When the age-restriction was removed, I could view the site again. But the adviser was unable to help me fix the issue that the site really shouldn't be age-restricted at all.

Could you direct me to the right place to find out how to remove any age-restriction blocking of the site? Who should I talk to about this? Thanks!

Google Safe Search does not restrict the site, so I'm just not sure at what stage the blocking is happening and what I can do about it.

[Amanda]

Thanks for letting us know @lunaman - I've raised this to be investigated further by our Specialist team and I'll let you know when I hear something back 👍

Please note, some areas of the site may be deemed 18+ content due to the Life-Drawing aspects, but we'll double check and let you know. 

[Mark]

Thanks for your patience while we looked into this for you @lunaman, our team have reclassified your site to 'art'. This reclassification can take until 6:30pm this evening to complete. After this time Secure Net users should experience no issues when trying to access your site 😊

[lunaman]

Thanks very much for that. Good news.

It's curious that not everyone saw it, and frustrating that the warning greeting the visitor implies there's a security problem with the site, when actually it's content moderation going on.

All the best

[Amanda]

Thanks for your feedback about that @lunaman 👍 If you need anything else you know where we are.