Arts and Entertainment Web Filtering Category
Film, television, music, celebrities, museums, theatre and pop culture. This is one of the broadest and most visited categories in our database, and one that most policies allow, with a few careful exceptions.
It is one of 59 web filtering categories delivered in one file with the IAB Content Taxonomy.
What Arts & Entertainment includes
A site belongs here when its main topic is culture or entertainment content, written about, reviewed, promoted or sold as tickets. Playing the content itself is usually a different category.
Film and cinema
Movie databases, reviews, trailers pages, studio sites, cinema listings and film festival sites.
Television
Show guides, episode recaps, broadcaster programme pages and fan wikis for series.
Music
Artist sites, lyrics, chord sheets, music news, charts, band merchandise and label pages.
Celebrity and gossip
Celebrity news, red-carpet galleries, fan pages and entertainment gossip magazines.
Museums and galleries
Museum collections online, gallery exhibitions, virtual tours and cultural heritage sites.
Performing arts
Theatre, opera, ballet, dance companies, orchestras and their season and ticket pages.
Fine art and design
Artist portfolios, art marketplaces for originals, art history and design showcases.
Photography
Photography communities, photographer portfolios, technique guides and photo contests.
Comics, manga and anime
Comic publishers, anime guides, fan wikis and conventions for these fandoms.
Humour
Joke sites, meme collections, satire and comedy clubs. Mature humour gets an extra tag.
Events and ticketing
Concert and show listings, box offices and festival sites for cultural events.
Literature and books culture
Book reviews, author sites, poetry and fan fiction communities centred on stories.
What it excludes and where those sites go
Entertainment overlaps with almost everything, so the edges matter. The rule of thumb: if the site's main job is to deliver media, sell general goods or report news, another category leads.
Culture content
- Reviews, guides and databases about films and shows
- Artist, band and venue sites
- Museum collections and exhibitions
- Fan wikis for series and characters
Delivery or other main topic
- Video and music playback services: Streaming Media
- Podcast hosts and directories: Podcasts
- Video games and game stores: Gaming
- Hard news outlets: News/Media
Shared ranking
- A broadcaster with news and drama: News/Media plus Arts & Entertainment
- A music store: Shopping plus Arts & Entertainment
- Sports entertainment: Sports & Recreation plus Arts & Entertainment
Typical example site types
Well-known examples include national museum sites, theatre companies and orchestras. Most domains in the category are smaller: fan sites, artist portfolios and local venues.
Movie and TV databases
Cast lists, ratings and release dates for millions of titles, often the most visited sites in the category.
Lyrics and chord sites
Heavy ad load and many lookalike domains. Mostly harmless, sometimes paired with Advertising.
Local venue sites
Small theatres, clubs and galleries listing events, opening hours and tickets.
Artist portfolios
Painters, illustrators and photographers showing their work and taking commissions.
Fan wikis
Huge community reference sites for one show, film series or comic universe.
Entertainment magazines
Celebrity news, interviews and gossip, often ranked with News/Media.
Festival sites
Music, film and arts festivals with line-ups, maps and ticket links.
Virtual exhibitions
Museum tours, digitized archives and cultural heritage collections used in teaching.
Who blocks or allows Arts & Entertainment
This is a low-risk category, so the debate is about focus and bandwidth more than safety. Policies usually allow it and handle the edge cases with secondary categories.
Schools and CIPA
Most districts allow the category. Art, music and drama teachers depend on museum and performance sites.
- CIPA's focus is on obscene and harmful-to-minors images, which sit in Adult, not here
- Some elementary schools block celebrity gossip and mature humour
- Secondary Adult or Violence tags still block within allowed sites
Businesses
Usually allowed. Some companies restrict it during work hours or on shared terminals.
- Media, marketing and agency staff need it for work
- Call centres and factory floors sometimes block it for focus
- Rarely a security concern on its own
Guest Wi-Fi
Allowed almost everywhere. Hotels, cafés and venues want guests to browse freely.
- Bandwidth control goes to Streaming Media instead
- Adult and malware categories stay blocked
Parental control
Allowed for most ages, with filters on mature subtopics for younger children.
- Celebrity gossip and mature humour may be turned off for under-13 profiles
- Fan fiction sites sometimes need extra review because content varies
| Environment | Default | Common exception | Related rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elementary school | Allow, with limits | Block gossip and humour subtopics | Block Adult and Violence on any rank |
| Secondary school | Allow | None for most districts | Throttle Streaming Media during lessons |
| Public library | Allow | Children's area profile may be stricter | CIPA filtering on Adult for minors |
| Corporate office | Allow | Shift-based limits on some floors | Log for acceptable-use reports |
| Regulated trading floor | Restrict | Allow for media and research teams | Block unknown and newly registered sites |
| Guest Wi-Fi | Allow | None | Bandwidth shaping on streaming |
| Family profile, young child | Allow selected | Kids' entertainment only | Block Dating, Adult and Social Networking |
| Kiosk or public terminal | Often blocked | Venue's own site allowed | Allow list only |
Multi-category cases
Each domain can hold several categories, ranked by how much of the site they describe. These are the combinations we see most in entertainment.
Broadcaster with news, drama and live player
Block the stream for bandwidth without hiding the schedule and news pages.
Concert ticket marketplace
Resale ticket sites sell like marketplaces but are about events.
Anime fan site with an embedded player
Guide pages plus a player. Some such sites carry Malware / Phishing / Suspicious when they push risky ads.
Art photography portfolio with nudes
Art context does not remove the Adult rank, so school rules still block it.
Comedy site with crude jokes
Parental profiles can block it while adult users see it normally.
Music gear shop with artist interviews
Shopping leads; entertainment is a lower rank.
Film studio site with game tie-ins
Promotion pages with browser games for a film release.
How vendors use the category in their products
Because the category is mostly allowed, product teams use it less for blocking and more for reporting, scheduling and safe defaults. These are the patterns we see.
Productivity reports
Show the share of browsing time spent on entertainment per team or class.
Time-based rules
Allow entertainment at lunch and after hours, restrict it in lessons or shifts.
Age-based presets
Parental apps keep the category on but turn off gossip and mature humour for children.
Ad and brand safety
Ad platforms use the IAB mapping in the same file to place entertainment ads. See advertising category.
ISP family filters
Network-level filters keep it open while blocking adult content. See ISP web filtering.
Fallback for unknown fan sites
New fan sites register daily; daily delta files keep them categorized instead of unknown.
The database is delivered as CSV, Parquet or JSON files that run in your own systems, with a lookup API included in licences. Licensed exports can include DNS RPZ, hosts files and firewall EDL lists. Product teams can read about OEM licensing for embedded use.
Subtopic by subtopic: risk and policy notes
Not every corner of entertainment carries the same weight. This table gives product teams a quick view of where the real decisions are, so presets can stay simple for users.
| Subtopic | Typical risk | What to watch | Suggested preset |
|---|---|---|---|
| Film and cinema | Low | Trailers for adult-rated films, pirated copies on lookalike domains | Allow; piracy sites carry File Sharing/P2P |
| Television | Low | Recap sites with embedded unofficial players | Allow; check for a Streaming Media rank |
| Music | Low | Explicit lyrics on some lyric sites, heavy ad networks | Allow; family profiles may restrict lyrics |
| Celebrity and gossip | Medium for children | Revealing photos, adult rumours, clickbait | Allow for teens and adults; off for young children |
| Museums and galleries | Low | Classical nudes in art collections | Allow; schools rarely see issues here |
| Performing arts | Low | Very little | Allow everywhere |
| Fine art and design | Medium on some portfolios | Nude figure work, mature illustration | Allow; Adult rank handles explicit work |
| Photography | Medium on some communities | Glamour sections inside general photo sites | Allow; Lingerie/Swimsuits rank where it applies |
| Comics, manga and anime | Medium | Mature titles, unofficial reading sites with risky ads | Allow official sites; review reader sites |
| Humour | Medium for children | Crude or offensive jokes, shock memes | Allow for adults; off for children |
| Events and ticketing | Low | Fake resale sites, ticket scams | Allow; Malware / Phishing rank blocks scams |
| Literature and fan fiction | Varies | User-written stories with mixed ratings | Allow for adults; review for children |
Questions to answer before you block entertainment
Teams that block the whole category often reverse the decision within weeks. These questions help settle a policy that lasts.
Why restrict it?
- Is the goal focus, bandwidth or safety?
- Focus problems suit time rules, not blocks
- Bandwidth problems belong to Streaming Media
Who needs it?
- Art, music and drama teachers
- Marketing, PR and media teams
- Librarians helping with research
- Event and hospitality staff
What is the real concern?
- Explicit content: block Adult on any rank
- Violence in trailers: block Violence on any rank
- Scams: block Malware / Phishing / Suspicious
Signals that move a site in or out of the category
Category ranks follow what a site actually offers, not its name. These changes typically shift the ranking on the next refresh.
Adds a player
A fan or recap site that starts hosting episodes gains a Streaming Media rank, often near the top.
Adds a shop
A band site that grows into a full merchandise store gains a Shopping rank.
Turns into news
A culture blog that starts covering politics and world events gains News/Media or Political.
Goes quiet
An event site that lapses and shows a for-sale page moves to Parked / For-Sale Domains.
Getting the category right: common edge cases
Entertainment sites change quickly. A fan site can add a player, a gallery can add a shop, a festival can go dark for a year. These are the checks that keep labels useful.
Arts & Entertainment category FAQ
What does the Arts & Entertainment category cover?
Film, television, music, celebrities, comics, theatre, museums, galleries, fine art, photography, humour and pop culture, plus ticketing and fan sites for these topics.
Is video streaming part of this category?
No. Sites whose main job is to play video or audio are Streaming Media. A review site stays here, the service that plays the film does not.
Do schools block Arts & Entertainment?
Most allow it, because museums, art history and music sites support teaching. Some block gossip or crude humour for younger grades.
Can a site be Arts & Entertainment and Adult?
Yes. Ranked multi-category labels mean an Adult rank still blocks the site under school and family rules, even if entertainment ranks first.
Is the IAB taxonomy included for entertainment?
Yes. Every domain also carries IAB Content Taxonomy categories (703 in version 3) in the same file, useful for ad tech and contextual targeting.
Where do piracy sites for films and music go?
Sites that hand out unlicensed copies are ranked under File Sharing/P2P, often with Malware / Phishing / Suspicious when they push risky downloads. Entertainment may appear as a lower rank.
Are museum sites with classical nudes blocked as Adult?
No. Museum and art history collections stay in Arts & Entertainment. Adult is reserved for sites whose content is explicit or sexual in purpose.
Does Arts & Entertainment use much bandwidth?
On its own, not much: it is mostly text and images. The heavy traffic comes from players and live streams, which carry the Streaming Media category and can be shaped separately.
Where do fan communities on social platforms go?
A fan group hosted on a social network follows the platform's category, Social Networking. Only fan sites on their own domains carry Arts & Entertainment as their main category.
Can I split arts from entertainment again for a separate policy?
Yes. Subtopics such as museums, performing arts and fine art can be grouped as arts, and film, TV, music and celebrity as entertainment, so a two-category firewall setup is easy to mirror.
How do I license the category?
Starter database tiers start from $999; enterprise and OEM licences are quoted per deployment. See pricing.
Bring entertainment categories into your filter
120 million categorized domains, 59 web filtering categories and the IAB taxonomy in one file. Tell us what you are building and we will suggest the right licence.
Talk to us