3. Harmful Material and Filtering

The data collection practices of child-oriented web sites, discussed above, are just one concern for parents. Another area of concern is children's access to web sites containing material that may be considered objectionable. Such content includes pornography, obscenity, gratuitous violence, and hate speech.

Is software available that blocks objectionable material?

A number of products are available which, when installed on the home computer, block access to many web sites containing objectionable material. Some products also prevent access to the computer during specified hours of the day, provide parents a log of the web sites visited by their children, and prevent access to such web services as chat, discussed in Section 4 below.

Several filtering products are available today, including Net Nanny, Cyber Sitter, and Cyber Patrol. The major search engines such as Google www.google.com can direct you to many "parental control software" programs. The web site GetNetWise lists filtering products in its "tools" section. Yahoo’s online guide for kids, Yahooligans, provides a section for parents that includes a list of filtering products, www.yahooligans.com/parents.

Look for software that:

• Blocks "outgoing" transmission of personal information such as name, address, phone number.
• Limits access by time of day and total amount of connect time.
• Clearly states its criteria for blocking sites, and allows parents to read a list of blocked sites.
• Has user-definable options, allowing customization of blocked sites.
• Allows user to turn software on and off with password control.
• Is updated frequently.
• Blocks image files (JPEG, GIF) and binary downloads, likely to contain photos and graphic images.
• Filters offensive language.
• Blocks Internet Relay Chats (IRCs) and Usenet Newsgroups.
• Works with online service providers like AOL and MSN.

Are filtering programs effective?

None of these software programs has been proven entirely effective when put through a set of controlled tests.

• Product testers have found that filtering programs often block access to sites with legitimate non-obscene speech, for example the word "breast," which can be found on the American Cancer Society's web site pages concerning breast cancer.
• At the same time, filtering products still enable some harmful content to be displayed.
• Reviewers are also critical of software products that do not disclose the list of keywords used to block web sites.

A March 2001 study on the Consumer Reports web site notes that filters often block harmless sites because their "software does not consider the context in which a word or phrase is used." It also found that filtering products appear to "block legitimate sites based on the moral or political value judgments" of the software developers. ("Digital Chaperones for Kids," free at www.consumerreports.org) Consumer Report’s recommendation: "Filtering software is no substitute for parental supervision."

What is the debate about filtering software?

The filtering debate revolves around the First Amendment. Those who support mandated filtering in schools and libraries want to prevent children from encountering harmful material online. Critics of filtering are concerned about censorship of political, social and business viewpoints by the software developers. In addition, some critics believe young people should have rights to privacy, especially those in their mid- to late-teens.

Congress has weighed in on this issue. It passed the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) in 2000, requiring schools and libraries to install filters on computers used by minors and adults or lose federal funds.

In May 2002 a federal court struck down the rules on First Amendment grounds, stating that the programs blocked too much as well as too little. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania noted that web filters had erroneously labeled as adult material the web sites of orphanages, political candidates, and churches. The American Library Association, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the conservative Free Congress Foundation were among the organizations bringing the suit.

Another law, the Child Online Protection Act (COPA), is still moving through the courts, also challenged by the ACLU and other free speech advocates. The Electronic Privacy Information Center maintains a resource on COPA, at www.epic.org/free_speech/copa.

An October 2002 study by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) found that schools using the two most common filtering programs, Surf control and N2H2’s Bess, block tens of thousands of web pages inappropriately when the least restrictive settings are applied. Many web pages are miscategorized, they found, and many that are correctly categorized do not merit blocking in their opinion. www.eff.org/Censorship/Academic_edu/Censorware/net_block_report

How can I learn more about the debate over filtering?

Visit these web sites for additional discussion of these issues:

• American Civil Liberties Union, www.aclu.org/issues/cyber/burning.html. Read its seminal white paper, "Fahrenheit 451.2: Is Cyberspace Burning?", which discusses the potential for censorship in the use of filtering software.
• American Library Association, www.ala.org/alaorg/oif/filt_stm.html. Read the ALA's policy on filtering in libraries.
• Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, www.cpsr.org/filters/faq.html. Harry Hochheiser's "Filtering FAQ" contains plain-language descriptions of how filters and ratings systems work.
• Electronic Frontier Foundation, www.eff.org. Visit its archives on filtering and labeling, www.eff.org/Censorship/Ratings_filters_labelling.
• Electronic Privacy Information Ctr., www.epic.org/reports/filter_report.html, "Faulty Filters: How Content Filters Block Access to Kid-Friendly Information on the Internet" (1997). Also read its 2000 report, Filters and Freedom 2.0: Free Speech Perspectives on Internet Content Controls, www.epic.org/bookstore/filters2.0.
• Internet Free Expression Alliance, www.ifea.net. Coalition of civil liberties and public interest organizations opposed to government enforcement of ratings or filtering of online content.
• MIT Student Association for Freedom of Expression's annotated list of web sites on filtering: www.mit.edu/activities/safe/labeling/summary.html.
• Peacefire, www.peacefire.org. A youth advocacy site, critical of web filtering software. Provides product-specific reviews.

Are there alternatives to installing blocking software?

The blocking products described above reside either in the personal computer or the online service provider. Parents have several alternatives to installing filtering programs on home computers.

Child-friendly filtering services and web sites. One option is to take advantage of child-friendly Internet Service Providers. Commercial service providers offer programs that strive to offer a safe environment for children. AOL, for example, enables parents to steer children to "kids only," "young teens," or "mature teens" areas.

The Internet Service Provider Family Click offers age-based levels of service, and screens the web sites accessible to each, www.familyclick.com. It and similar services, such as Mayberry USA, www.mbusa.net, charge a monthly fee. The web guide for parents, GetNetWise, provides an extensive list of these and other filtered access services, www.getnetwise.org/tools.

Be aware that filtering services are subject to the same biases as the blocking software programs discussed above. Take the time to carefully read about the service’s criteria for filtering.

Parents can also steer children to web sites that provide appropriate content. The American Library Association offers a list of "700 Great Sites" for children, www.ala.org/parentspage/greatsites as part of its "Librarian’s Guide to Cyberspace for Parents and Kids," www.ala.org/parentspage/greatsites/guide.html. GetNetWise provides a directory of several child-oriented sites at www.getnetwise.org/kidsites. Newspaper columnist Larry Magid offers a list of search engines that are child-friendly www.safekids.com.

Ratings services. Another approach is to seek web sites that have been rated based on levels of sex, nudity, violence, and harsh language. The web browser Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) allows you to select a rating service that acts as a filter when surfing the web. The major Internet Service Providers – AOL, MSN, and Yahoo -- have agreed to use voluntary electronic tags.

Internet Explorer comes already packaged with the RSACi, ratings service, now operated by the Internet Content Rating Association, www.icra.org/faq. To use other ratings services, IE users must download and install files from the Internet. The ratings systems that can be added to the Content Advisor feature of Internet Explorer are (click on Tools, Internet Options, Content, Settings, General, Find Rating Systems):

• Internet Content Rating Association, www.icra.org, the most widely used rating system to date.
• Safe Surf, www.safesurf.com, based on 12 categories for rating content.
• Entertainment Software Rating Board, www.esrb.net, originally developed to rate computer and video games.
• See www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/evaluation/features/indepth/contentadv.asp

Site labeling is in its infancy. It does not provide parents with an effective strategy for filtering Internet content for children.

• Like the filtering products discussed above, the ratings vocabulary can embody the values of the developers. These values are not likely to be appropriate for all users, especially in the increasingly global scope of the Internet.
• Web sites that rate themselves are likely to introduce bias into the evaluation process. Third-party rating can be abused as well.
• The sheer volume of web sites to be rated presents another problem, especially for third-party rating. Many sites, if not most, are likely to be unrated. This could result in many legitimate and useful sites being blocked by systems that do not allow unrated sites to be accessed.

The March 2001 Consumer Reports review of site labeling (see above) found several web sites that had not been labeled appropriately. It stated that "until far more sites suitable for children are properly labeled, labeling must be considered a complement to other filtering techniques, rather like motion-picture ratings."

Web seals. Another approach is to seek web sites that have a web seal of approval, such as TRUSTe, www.truste.org. Web sites that receive the TRUSTe Children’s Privacy Seal must meet certain requirements, www.truste.org/consumers/users_how.html:

• The site must be appropriate for children under 13.
• The privacy policy must explain what the web site does with personal information.
• The site must offer the privacy principles of notice, choice, access, and security.