Website Category descriptions

The following categories are available in Web Protection:

Category	Sub-category examples	Description
Legal Liability	Abused Drugs	Sites that provide discussion or remedies for illegal, illicit, or abused drugs such as heroin, cocaine, or other street drugs. Information on "legal highs": glue sniffing, misuse of prescription drugs or abuse of other legal substances.
	Adult and Pornography	Sites that contain sexually explicit material for the purpose of arousing a sexual or prurient interest. Adult products including sex toys, CD-ROMs, and videos. Online groups, including newsgroups and forums, which are sexually explicit in nature. Erotic stories and textual descriptions of sexual acts. Adult services including videoconferencing, escort services, and strip clubs. Sexually explicit art.
	Sex Education	Sites that provide graphic information (sometimes graphic) on reproduction, sexual development, safe sex practices, sexuality, birth control, and sexual development. Also includes sites that offer tips for better sex as well as products used for sexual enhancement. Sites with text or pictures advocating the proper use of contraceptives or which discuss sexually transmitted diseases.
	Gambling	Online gambling or lottery web sites that invite the use of real or virtual money. Information or advice for placing wagers, participating in lotteries, gambling, or running numbers. Virtual casinos and offshore gambling ventures. Sports picks and betting pools. Virtual sports and fantasy leagues that offer large rewards or request significant wagers. Casino/Hotel/Resort sites that do not enable gambling on the site are categorized in Travel.
	Marijuana	Sites covering marijuana.
	Swimsuits and Intimate Apparel	Sites that contain images or offer the sale of swimsuits or intimate apparel or other types of suggestive clothing.
	Hate and Racism	Sites that contain content and language in support of hate crimes and racism
	Violence	Sites that contain images, videos or text materials describing acts of physical or psychological violence directed against human beings, or cruel treatment of animals.
	Nudity	Sites containing nude or semi-nude depictions of the human body. These depictions are not necessarily sexual in intent or effect, but may include sites containing nude paintings or photo galleries of artistic nature. This category also includes nudist or naturist sites that contain pictures of nude individuals.
	Illegal	Sites that provide information, methods, or instructions for fraudulent actions or unlawful conduct. Examples are counterfeiting, blackmail, scams, tax evasion, etc.
Productivity Loss	Social Networks	Sites that have user communities where users interact, post messages, pictures, and otherwise communicate.
	Dating	Dating websites focused on establishing personal relationships.
	Games	Sites that provide information and support game playing or downloading, video games, computer games, electronic games, tips, and advice on games or how to obtain cheat codes. Also includes sites dedicated to selling board games as well as journals and magazines dedicated to game playing. Includes sites that support or host online lotteries, sweepstakes, and giveaways.
	Pay to Surf	Sites that pay users in the form of cash or prizes, for clicking on or reading specific links, email, or web pages.
	Food and Dining	Sites related to restaurants and dining, including locations, food reviews, recipes, catering, etc.
Potential Productivity Loss	Auctions	Sites that support the offering and purchasing of goods between individuals as their main purpose. Does not include classified advertisements.
	Shopping	Department stores, retail stores, company catalogs and other sites that allow online consumer or business shopping. Sites that provide or advertise the means to obtain goods or services as their main purpose.
	Travel	Airlines and flight booking agencies. Sites that promote or provide opportunity for travel planning, including finding and making travel reservations, vehicle rentals, descriptions of travel destinations, or promotions for hotels or casinos. Car Rentals.
	Home & Garden	Sites covering issues revolving around the home, including maintenance, home safety, décor, cooking, home electronics, design, etc.
	Military	Sites that promote or provide information on military branches or armed services, including sites that discuss military topics, such as military strategy or military history sites.
	Individual Stock Advice and Tools	Sites that provide or advertise trading of securities and management of investment assets (online or offline). Also includes sites that offer financial investment strategies, quotes, and news.
	Entertainment and Arts	Sites that promote and provide information about motion pictures, videos, television, music and programming guides, books, comics, movie theatres, galleries, artists or reviews on entertainment. Performing arts (theatre, vaudeville, opera, symphonies, etc.). Museums, galleries, artist sites (sculpture, photography, etc.). Includes sites about celebrities and famous people.
	Personal sites and Blogs	Personal websites posted by individuals or groups, as well as blogs. Some content may be for mature audiences.
	Local Information	City guides and tourist information, including restaurants, area / regional information, and local points of interest.
	Hunting and Fishing	Sport hunting, gun clubs, and fishing sites.
	Online Greeting cards	Online greeting card sites.
	Sports	Team or conference web sites, international, national, international, college, professional scores and schedules, sports-related online magazines or newsletters or fantasy sports.
	Web based email	Sites offering web based email and email clients.
	Music	Sites that distribute music for download, including sites that sell music.
	News and Media	Sites that primarily report information or include commentary on current events or contemporary issues of the day. Also includes radio stations and magazines. Newspapers online, headline news sites, newswire services, and personalized news services, also weather sites.
	Alcohol and Tobacco	Sites that provide information about, promote, or support the sale of alcoholic beverages or tobacco products, or associated paraphernalia.
	Image and Video Search	Sites that provide resources for photo and image searches, online photo albums/digital photo exchange, Image hosting.
	Fashion and Beauty	Fashion or glamour magazines, online Beauty and cosmetics.
	Recreation and Hobbies	Recreational pastimes such as collecting, sewing, kit airplanes. Outdoor recreational activities such as hiking, camping, rock climbing, tips or trends focused on a specific art, craft, or technique, online publications on a specific pastime or recreational activity, online clubs, associations or forums dedicated to a hobby. Traditional (board, card, non-online, etc.) games and their enthusiasts. Animal/pet related sites, including breed-specific sites, training, shows and humane societies
	Motor Vehicles	Car reviews, vehicle purchasing or sales tips, parts catalogs, auto trading, photos, discussion of vehicles including motorcycles, boats, cars, trucks and RVs Journals and magazines on vehicle modification, repair, and customization. Online automotive enthusiast clubs.
Bandwidth Control	Streaming Media	Sites that sell, deliver, or stream music or video content in any format, including sites that provide downloads for such viewers. Personal (non-explicit) webcams or sites with real time views of points of interest or traffic.
	Peer to Peer	Sites where peer to peer clients can be downloaded or peer to peer content is hosted.
	Online Personal Storage	Sites that offer personal online storage, including documents, photos or other individual information.
Questionable / Legal Issues	Cult and Occult	Sites that promote or offer methods, means of instruction, or other resources to affect or influence real events through the use of spells, curses, magic powers, satanic or supernatural beings. Includes sites containing alternative religions such as Wicca or witchcraft.
	Hacking	Sites providing information on hacking, or illegal or questionable access to or the use of communications equipment/software.
	Weapons	Sites that sell, review, or describe weapons such as guns, knives or martial arts devices, or provide information on their use, accessories, or other modifications
	Questionable	Sites that depict extreme physical harm to people or property, or that advocate or provide instructions on how to cause such harm. Also includes sites that advocate, depict hostility or aggression toward, or denigrate an individual or group on the basis of race, religion, gender, nationality, ethnic origin, or other involuntary characteristics. Includes questionable humor, or sites that promote the purchase of academic content such as term papers or book reports for the purpose of plagiarism. Also includes "get rich quick" sites that promise easy financial gains for some investment or participation by the user.
	Keyloggers and Monitoring	Sites that provide or discuss the usage of software agents that track a user's keystrokes or monitor their web surfing habits.
	Cheating	Sites that support cheating and contain such materials, including free essays, exam copies, plagiarism, etc.
	Gross	Sites that contain vomit and other bodily functions, bloody clothing, etc.
Human Resources Issues	Training and Tools	Distance education and trade schools, including online courses, online vocational training, online software training, skills training and teacher resources (lesson plans, etc.).
	Job Search	Sites that provide assistance in finding employment, and tools for locating prospective employers, or employers looking for employees.
General Interest	Real Estate	Sites that provide information on renting, buying, or selling real estate or properties. Tips on buying or selling a home. Real estate agents, rental or relocation services, and home improvement.
	Religion	Sites that promote and provide information on conventional or unconventional religious or quasi-religious subjects, as well as churches, synagogues, or other houses of worship. Does not include sites containing alternative religions such as wicca or witchcraft (cult/occult) or atheist philosophies (political/activist groups).
	Philosophy and Political Advocacy	Sites that discuss or advocate philosophy and political advocacy.
	Society	Web sites that cover a variety of topics relevant to the general populace, such as broad issues that impact a variety of people, safety, societal issues, etc. These sites usually represent an area of one or more "special interests" to some segment of society, are considered benign from a policy standpoint, and are not covered by other categories.
	Kids	Sites designed specifically for children.
	Internet Portals	Web sites that aggregate a broader set of internet content, and which typically serve as the starting point for an end user interested in that class of web site, such as msn or yahoo. Does not include adult web sites.
	Web Advertisements	Sites that provide online advertisements or banners.
	Content Delivery Networks	Sites whose main purpose is to deliver third-party content, such as images, links, or text.
	Abortion	Sites whose main purpose is to inform users about abortion, including pro-choice and pro-life sites, or sites which articulate a particular philosophy toward or opposition to abortion.
	Health and Medicine	General health such as fitness and well-being, including western and eastern methods and topics. Medical information and reference about ailments, conditions. Dentistry, optometry, and other medical-related sites. General psychiatry and mental well-being. Hospital, medical insurance. Medical procedures, including elective and cosmetic surgery.
	Dynamically Generated Content	Sites that read information from an end user's browser- typically cookies- and which generate content based on that information.
IT Resources	Computer and Internet Security	Computer/internet security sites, security discussion groups.
	Computer and Internet Info	General computer and internet sites, technical information.
	Shareware and Freeware	Sites that offer the downloading of software that is free or free to test, or ask for a contribution to aid with development, including open source software.
	Internet Communications	Sites that include instant messaging or internet telephony clients, or VoIP clients or services.
	Web Hosting	Sites that provide web hosting services to clients.
Business Oriented	Financial Services	Sites that provide or advertise banking services (online or offline) or other types of financial information, such as loans. Includes accountancy, actuaries, banks, mortgages, and general insurance companies. Does not include sites that offer market information, brokerage or trading services.
	Business and Economy	Sites devoted to business firms, business information, economics, marketing, business management and entrepreneurship. Includes corporate websites.
	Legal	Legal websites, including sites of law firms, and sites that discuss or analyze legal issues.
	Translation	URL and language translation sites that allow users to see URL pages in other languages. These sites can also allow users to circumvent filtering as the target page's content is presented within the context of the translator's URL.
	Reference and Research	Sites containing personal, professional, or educational reference, including online dictionaries, maps, census, almanacs, library catalogues, genealogy-related sites and scientific information.
	Educational Institutions	Sites with pre-, elementary, secondary, and high school educational content and information, and well as university web sites.
	Search Engines	Web sites that enable the user to conduct searches, including by key words, images, or phrases.
	Government	Sites sponsored by or which provide information on government, government agencies and government services such as taxation and emergency services. Also includes sites that discuss or explain laws of various governmental entities. Includes local, county, state, and national government sites, as well as international governmental institutions.
Others	Unknown	Unknown category
	Dead Sites	These are dead sites that do not respond to http queries.
	Parked Domains	Domains that are not active, but whose web host answers. These include domains that monetize traffic to the domain using paid listings from an ad network, or are owned by "squatters" hoping to sell the domain name for a profit. Includes sites with no content, suspended accounts, "under construction" sites, and sites that display a folder or directory listing only.
	Private IP Addresses	IP addresses defined in RFC 1918, address allocation for private intranets.
Security	Malware Sites	Sites that carry malicious content including executables, scripts, or viruses.
	Phishing and Other Frauds	Phishing, pharming, and other sites that pose as a reputable site, usually to harvest personal information from a user.
	Proxy Avoidance and Anonymizers	Sites providing information on how to bypass proxy server features or gain access to URLs in any way that bypasses the URL filter or proxy server. Web-based translation sites that circumvent filtering.
	Spyware and Adware	Sites that provide or promote information gathering or tracking that is unknown to, or without the explicit consent of, the end user or the organization, also unsolicited advertising popups and programs that may be installed on a user's computer.
	Botnets	Sites that are part of a botnet.
	Confirmed Spam Sources	Sites- usually IP addresses- that have been reported to be origination sources of Spam by trusted sources.
	Spam URLs	URLs contained in Spam.
	Unconfirmed Spam Sources	Sites- usually IP addresses- that may be origination sources of Spam.
	Open HTTP Proxies	Sites- typically IP addresses- that can be used as http proxies.