In keeping with the topic of the day over at my other most favourite site on the Internet, LibrarianActivist, here’s a report on internet filtering from the National Coalition Against Censorship
which is admittedly, a bit dated, having been produced in 2001. But it
gives an excellent overview of many of the issues and problems being
discussed in the wake of the LPL's board to look at increasing the use of filters in their library. And an update of the report in 2006 shows that the same concerns with internet filtering software remain to this day.
Here are some examples of what happens when you filter:
- CYBERsitter blocked a news item on the Amnesty International
site after detecting the phrase “least 21.” The offending sentence
described “at least 21” people killed or wounded in Indonesia. - SurfWatch blocked the University of Kansas’s Archie R. Dykes Medical library upon detecting the word “dykes.”
- X-Stop blocked the “Let’s Have an Affair” catering company
and searches for Bastard Out of Carolina and “The Owl and the Pussy
Cat.” - WebSense blocked a Texas cleanup project under the
category of “sex,” and The Shoah Proj-ect, a Holocaust remembrance
page, under the category of “racism/hate.” - Cyber Patrol blocked a Knights of Columbus site and a site for aspiring dentists as “adult/sexually explicit.”
- BESS and SurfControl blocked curriculum materials on
Populism because they also contained information about National
Socialism. Symantec blocked the National Rifle Association and other
pro-gun sites while allowing sites associated with gun control
organizations. - BESS blocked a site on fly fishing, a guide to allergies,
and a site opposing the death penalty as “pornography.” It also blocked
all Google and AltaVista image searches under its category of
“pornography.”
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