THE Keep the Sheep website has been flagged automatically by a content filtering system designed to keep students and staff safe from online harm, according to a Department of WA consultant.

The admission has come following revelations and anger from the WA sheep industry that Western Australian secondary college students have had their access blocked to the website, run by the sheep industry to overturn the legislated ban on live sheep exports by sea.

The industry shock at the website access block has been exacerbated by the knowledge that other websites of organisations that oppose live sheep exports are still accessible by WA college students.

“This (Keep the Sheep) website has been flagged automatically by our content filtering software subscription, designed to keep students and staff safe from online harm,” Department principal consultant for media communications Maria D’Agostino told Sheep Central.

Ms D’Agostino has not answered questions on how the website would cause online harm to students and staff, or whether other agricultural/industry or animal welfare advocacy sites are also flagged by the website to be blocked.

“To clarify, the content filtering software subscription recognises sites that are deemed unsafe in addition to sites where the bulk of the content may be deemed safe by the auto-filters but there is a specific element of the site’s content that is not.

“This is filtered automatically by the software,” Ms D’Agistono said.

The Department of Education WA responses have been met with dismay by WAFarmers president John Hassell who has initiated an investigation into the blocking of the website.

“Tell me what’s not safe about site?” he said.

“Tell me exactly what is not safe about our site.

“It’s disgraceful.”

Mr Hassell said the parent of a WA secondary college student has proved that the Department of Education wifi system allowed access to the websites of anti-live export activist organisations such as Animals Australia, Australian Alliance for Animals, Stop Live Exports and RSPCA Australia.

He said this showed that someone who has a political bias against the sheep industry has engineered the website block.

“It’s no different to, unfortunately, we’ve got activists in the federal Department of Agriculture who are making life tough for these industries and I think they need to be rooted out and sacked.”

WAFarmers chief executive officer Trevor Whittington said the Department of Education response is “a beautifully crafted bureaucratic response designed to say ‘nothing to see move on’.”

“But the sheep industry does not want to move on they want answers to why they have been cancelled.

“Let’s be clear the response is vague and does not clarify the actual criteria used for filtering,” Mr Whittington said.

Mr Whittington said Keep the Sheep will ask for a clear explanation of how the filtering system determines what constitutes ‘unsafe’ content, whether websites must be flagged manually or if the system autonomously determines what is blocked.

He said the specific reason Keep the Sheep was categorized as harmful or inappropriate will be sought, the length of time the site has been flagged, whether there is a process to appeal or review these classifications and a list of any other agriculture, industry, or advocacy websites that are similarly blocked and the rationale for their classification.

“Without concrete answers, this response appears to evade legitimate concerns about access to agricultural advocacy information,” he said.