Re: Editorial about Filtering

[Nancy Willard <nwillard@RESPONSIBLENETIZEN.ORG>]

on 8/8/03 1:59 PM, Marybe6262@aol.com at Marybe6262@aol.com wrote:

> Nancy's point about the filtering companies making decisions was recently
> examined in a research study conducted by the Department of Family Medicine at
> the University of Michigan Medical School and published in the Journal of the
> American Medical Association.
>
The author of the editorial for USA Today was the woman who
coordinated/funded the research study you are noting.

A link for information on the study is:
http://www.si.umich.edu/~presnick/healthfiltering/

This report did not specifically note the issue of the lack of public
disclosure/accountability on the part of filtering companies, but did
address under- and over-blocking. There are two important points made by
this study.

1. Filtering software will not prevent access to porn. At the most
restrictive configuration it only blocked 91% of the porn sites under
conditions simulating intentional access. That is a 1 in 10 failure rate. So
how long do you think it would take teens to test out 10 to 20 sites to get
to the one or two that are not blocked? Under conditions simulating
accidental access at the least restrictive configuration, the filter failed
38% of the time.

2. At the intermediate configuration level, which is typical of most
schools, the filter blocked 5% of all of the health sites, but blocked
around 24% of the health information sites in more controversial areas,
including drug education, safe sex, and homosexuality. This raises pretty
significant evidence of viewpoint discrimination.

Nancy

Nancy Willard
Responsible Netizen Institute
http://responsiblenetizen.org

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-
All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law.
To change your LM_NET status, e-mail to: listserv@listserv.syr.edu
In the message write EITHER: 1) SIGNOFF LM_NET  2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL
3) SET LM_NET MAIL  4) SET LM_NET DIGEST  * Allow for confirmation.
LM_NET Help & Information: http://ericir.syr.edu/lm_net/
Archive: http://askeric.org/Virtual/Listserv_Archives/LM_NET.shtml
LM_NET Select/EL-Announce: http://www.cuenet.com/archive/el-announce/
LM_NET Supporters: http://ericir.syr.edu/lm_net/ven.html
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-