Internet Filtering Devices are Inneffective
...ontain certain words that appear to be profane in one sense can actually be using them in a different context in which they are obviously ok to be read by minors. For example, Consumer Reports Magazine reports that several of the filters they tested blocked certain sites that talk about drug abuse awareness and anti-discrimination. (“Chaperone” 22) These sites are vital to learning. They aid in the teaching of many school-aged children. The web sites containing these sorts of issues reinforce topics that are discussed in the classroom. All three types of filtering obviously put some sort of restriction on learning. “Over-blocking” of websites has become a serious problem that effects many people who are forced to use computers that are mandated to have Internet filters. Over the past ten years the Internet has become one of the number one ways to research material on every topic imaginable. For those people that can’t afford to own a computer of their own, they are forced to use computers that restrict their Internet research abilities drastically. Most people that are not able to access a computer at home rely on the computers that are open to the public in their local public libraries. Under the newest federal law these computers are mandated to have Internet devices placed on them. By being forced into using computers with restricted abilities, many adults are not able to research many areas of the Internet. Many political web pages that contain controversial subjects are completely blocked therefore stopping library patrons from learning about many new ideas. Watson and Boire quote former American Library Association president Ann Symons in their essay about the pros and cons of Internet filtering. Symons states, “We do not help children when we simply wall them off from information and ideas that are controversial and disturbing.” (44) The newest federal law is under constant criticism and should be reworked. The use of faulty filters in other environments can also become a drastic dilemma. Use of filtering software that over-block in a corporate environment has been becoming a large problem. It should be noted however that use of this software in the workplace is not federal law. Despite this fact many corporations are changing Internet policies by placing filtering devices on employee computers. The intention of these policies is to stop employees from surfing the Internet for pornography in most cases. But of course that is not all that the devices are stopping the employees from doing. Harold Kester of Network World magazine states, “In a corporate environment it is unacceptable to over-block because it reduces productivity and prevents employees from accessing legitimate Web sites.” (39) This is very obviously true. Once again we see how the use of the filters cause problems. At school many kids rely on the Internet as one of their best sources for researching material on a wide range of topics. Those students that are forced to use computers at school that are filtered are restricted from reading and learning about many hot topics of past and present. Students that are able to research topics on the Internet using a filter free computer at home can gain access too much more material. Those students that are forced to use school computers are at a constant disadvantage compared to those students doing research at home. This problem creates an obvious learning bias. There is no simple way to work around this problem. It wouldn’t be fair to the student using a filtered computer to receive a lower grade because their research abilities were restricted. The only way to end this problem is to make sure that all students are able to view the same materials using a filter free computer environment when doing research for school assignments. Consumer Reports magazine performed tests on some of the most popular filtering devices to determine their effectiveness. In all, the magazine tested six of the software industries most popular Internet filtering software along with AOL’s parental controls. Each software package was tested in three categories: Protection, Interference, and Features. To find out the definition of these categories look to the March 2001 issue of Consumer Reports. The results of the tests clearly show that even with some improvement over the past few years, all pieces of software are generally still ineffective. AOL’s parental controls received the highest rating with still unacceptable scores. 14% of sites containing objectionable material were still viewable and 63% of web sites considered containing controversial but not harmful information was blocked. (Flagg 23) Even using the highest ranked software, more than half of the web sites t...