School's fight over adult website

EDUCATION bosses acted quickly to block an adult website using the school's name.

Staff at Imberhorne School were shocked to discover a site under the name imberhorneschool .co.uk – a website which led unsuspecting visitors to people wanting to "be naughty tonight" and "horny girls on webcams".

The site, which included photographs of children in a school setting offered visitors links to adult DVD and toy websites, as well as adult dating sites.

"On November 2, 2009, an individual in China, completely unconnected with Imberhorne School, registered the imberhorneschool .co.uk domain name and chose to point the domain name to a website offering a gateway to pornographic material," said the school's IT manager Alex Melmoe.

"The existence of this domain registration was brought to our attention in late November, when we immediately acted to protect our students and others connected with the school and to protect our reputation."

The school contacted Nominet, the UK domain registrar for advice on how to deal with the problem.

The school approached Josef Novak of Shanghai, who registered the domain name, but he refused to stop using Imberhorne's name.

They then used the dispute resolution service to argue that Imberhorne was the only known school with that name which needed to be protected. The service ruled in the school's favour.

Mr Melmoe added: "Unless the registrant of the domain name appeals, which he has until February 4 to do so, the domain name will be transferred into the ownership of Imberhorne School, and will redirect to the official school website."

As the Courier and Observer went to press the website had been altered to give links to genuine school related sites.

For information about news and events at Imberhorne School visit www.imberhorne.co.uk