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Law & Technology
Law and TechnologyCensorware
By Deborah Pierce
Aug 01, 2002 -- Whether you call it blocking software, filtering software, or censorware; it all adds up to a similar result: Whoever has set up the system is cordoning off a section of the Internet from certain users. While often used with worthwhile goals, such as protecting children from viewing porn on the Internet, there are technical issues with the software: It often doesn't work as advertised. This may lead to you getting more or less than you bargained for. Moreover, when censorware is used in schools and libraries, there are legal and political issues as well.Technical Problems with Censorware
Censorware blocks Internet browsers from visiting certain sites. Some censorware software is based on lists of sites that they decide should be blocked; other software uses key words in order to block sites.
Both of these approaches have problems. Since new sites crop up daily, the lists are constantly out-of-date. Keyword-based software often blocks far too much; the best-known example is software that blocks the word "breast"--and so ends up blocking sites about breast cancer.
Additionally, some software just plain doesn't work and worse, blocks sites depending on the political leanings of those at the software company. The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) did a study a few years ago illustrating this (see the link in the sidebar). One program blocked everything from the San Francisco Examiner; another blocked a pro-choice web site, while not blocking a site that promoted more traditional roles for women. Some software blocked sites based on race-related content.
The sellers of blocking software market directly to parents who want to keep their children from a variety of sites on the Internet, as well as to schools and libraries. Legally, if you want to install blocking software on your home computer, there is no constitutional issue. Installing it on school and library computers is another story.
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EPIC study: "Faulty Filters" www.epic.org/reports/filter_report.html Peacefire www.peacefire.org/ |
Some states have statutes that prevent material deemed harmful to minors from getting into the hands of children. Most of these statutes are based on criteria set out by the Supreme Court in a case that decided what is legally obscene for adults. "Harmful to minors" laws use a relaxed set of criteria on the theory that children don't have the same rights as adults when it comes to viewing certain content. For the most part, these laws apply to print media--they don't apply to the Internet. So if a kid goes into a 7-11, the proprietor is not going to sell the kid a copy of a porn magazine. The federal law, "The Children's Online Protection Act" (COPA), which was written with the Internet explicitly in mind, is still in litigation.
The reason COPA is still in litigation is that the law is so broadly written that it covers not only material that no one disputes is porn (i.e. Hustler), but could also cover material that many don't regard as porn (i.e. Michelangelo's David). Much of the material that could run afoul of COPA is constitutionally protected under the First Amendment--we all have a right to see it on the Internet.
Censorware in Schools and Libraries
The sellers of blocking software often point out that they can help schools and libraries comply with the "harmful to minors" statutes. The government has threatened to withhold federal funding from schools and libraries that refuse to install filters on computers that provide access to the Internet. Although this tactic is legally permissible, as we discussed above, it won't necessarily protect children from viewing porn on the Net.
Flexibility is also an issue. For schools and libraries that do install blocking software, it needs to be easy for administrators to change the level of blocking so that blocking is age appropriate. In a school context, what is not appropriate for a first grade student may very well be appropriate for a sixth grader, and is almost certainly appropriate for a 12th grade student.
Children at school use the Internet for research much as children from the sixties used encyclopedias. If certain sites that discuss racial and gender issues are blocked from children under the guise of protecting them from material that is harmful to minors, we have done a great disservice to our children.
Before blithely accepting blocking software in schools, libraries, or homes, we should be examining the software to see how it really works and what it really blocks.
What You Can Do
* If you have children in the house, think about moving the computer into a public room such as the living room.
* Instruct children to be careful when speaking to strangers on the Internet. Your new "friend" that you met in a chat room may not be a "friend" at all.
* If you do decide to install this type of software, do some comparison shopping to see how flexible the lists are.
* Find out what kind of blocking software the schools in your area are using.
Deborah Pierce is the founder and executive director of privacyactivism.org, which has its headquarters in Bellevue. She spent the last four years as a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, www.eff.org. To contact her, send e-mail to editor@seattlepress.com, attention Deborah Pierce.
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