-US Supreme Court majority decision, Reno vs. ACLU, June 26, 1997
NOTE: In Oct., 1998, Congress passed, and President Clinton signed, a bill which has become known as CDA II, although its formal name is "Child Online Protection Act". The ACLU has already rounded up co-plaintiffs and will challenge the constitutionality of CDA II in court. See ACLU: American Civil Liberties Union: Internet Censorship, Round Two, for continuing developments; a federal judge has granted a temporary restraining order against enforcement of CDAII on 11-19-98. A new bill, the "Children's Internet Protection Act" was passed in 12/2000, challenged by the ACLU again, and struck down on 5-31-02.
Censorware can be defined as programs like CYBERsitter, Cyber Patrol, SurfWatch, NetNanny, and others(a [pro-censorware] list is here) designed to restrict access by "minors" to whatever sites the manufacturer deems "offensive" or "unsuitable". Originally an anti-pornography measure, one or more of these "blocking" programs have extended their reach to block Planned Parenthood, the National Organization for Women, AIDS Authority, and other sites which someone thinks somebody shouldn't see. (Why should I, an adult, care about what teenagers can see? It is not a logical stretch to expect that the government might "suggest" that Internet providers use censorware on everyone....)(I was being philosoplical in the previous sentence, but here is an article by Declan McCullagh, about the Clinton administration urging the search engines to exclude unrated sites. And see the ACLU paragraph below, about the Dec. 1-3 "Censorware Summit 2". The first summit was in July '97; McCullagh reports on that one here.)
Censorware in computers is (roughly) analagous to the new mandatory V-chip, now required in many new Television sets. At least censorware (software) can be uninstalled!
First, here is a relatively objective overview from IBM called Censorware for the Web.
This page is an attack on Cyber Patrol and its blocking of anarchist sites. Cybernotsies Sterilize the Net!
By the same author: Censorship Kills Thought; an attack on the use of censorware in public libraries.
New Atlantis NOW! relates an AP report that web sites about poet Anne Sexton are blocked by Cyber Patrol because of the "sex" in the poet's last name.
The (infamous) article Keys to the Kingdom exposes the agendas of several censorware makers.
Lots of interesting info is at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) Censorware Page. This page includes an extensive link section. A remarkable EPIC report on the use of blocking by a "family friendly" search engine is called Faulty Filters.
SAFE (MIT Student Association for Freedom of Expression) takes a critical look at self-rating systems like RSAC (Recreational Software Advisory Council-the strange name of the RSAC derives from its original purpose of rating video games), at PICS (Platform for Internet Content Selection), and at censorware.
A (slightly technical) article from the WWW Consortium titled "PICS: Internet Access Controls Without Censorship" (uh-huh) is here.
A less technical PICS overview, Good Clean PICS, ends on this note: "Simply put, PICS could be the most effective global censorship technology ever devised."
PICS Initial Press Release, in 1995, shows the initial supporters, organizational and individual, behind PICS, and its goals at its inception.
(Netparents.org reports that MSIE is already PICS compliant, and Netscape has promised to be soon......)
The Internet Free Expression Alliance-Resources Page has a lot of links about the danger of "self-censorship" through ratings schemes.
A philosophical case against censoring youth is made in To Be Young, Cyber, and Free.
The mother lode is Peacefire. They have reviews of various censorware products, and note that their own site is blocked by CYBERsitter! The (scary) story of CYBERsitter threatening to block all of the domains on the same server as Peacefire is here. Peacefire reviews "CYBERsitter: Where Do We Not Want You To Go Today?" here. Peacefire has its "Cyber Rights And Digital Liberties Encyclopedia here, their FAQ page is here, and their basic statement of opposition to censorware is here.
Peacefire reported that Cyber Patrol has blocked the entire West Hollywood neighborhood on Geocities. This part of Geocities is gay-oriented and includes pages on AIDS prevention. I guess those underaged people need to be protected from finding out how to avoid a fatal disease. (Hypothetical question: if some poor kid does get AIDS, and wouldn't have if they had read how not to on Geocities, is Cyber Patrol morally or financially responsible?)
Senate Bill 1619 would require the installation of censorware in all libraries and schools with computers that can access the Internet. The determination of what to block is said by this bill to be a local decision, which might be rather difficult given the secrecy surrounding most censorware manufacturer's blocked site lists.
CYBERsitter is a trademark of Solid Oak Software, Inc. The list of words and sites blocked by CYBERsitter is copyright, Solid Oak Software, Inc. This author is a libertarian pro-capitalist and respects Mr. Milburn's right to operate Solid Oak as he sees fit, but retains the right to discourage, in print, the purchase of Solid Oak's product CYBERsitter.
The (unbelievably long) list of words(if a "bad word" is on a page that is otherwise acceptable, the page will display minus the word)(two of the words are the name of the founder of Peacefire!) and sites blocked by CYBERsitter is here.
A news report on the dispute between Peacefire and CYBERsitter is here, revealing even that a demo version of CYBERsitter will not install if a search of the computer's browser cache reveals that Peacefire has been visited! Another report, from France (in English), is here. The nasty details, including threats of legal action by the company that makes CYBERsitter, are here.
From the CYBERsitter FAQ page: "...we do not intentionally try to filter out good (or unobjectionable) sites..." Apparently, Peacefire is a "bad" site, or at least an objectionable site. On the main CYBERsitter page, here, they proudly announce that their latest version "Optionally blocks ALL Newsgroups, FTP, and Chat."
This satirical article, CYBERsitter: If It Were Marketed Honestly, is a fake ad telling the blunt truth.
CYBERSitting On Your Rights takes a very critical look at CYBERsitter vs. Peacefire.
A thoughtful article, Why Johnny Can't Read This Web Page, asks in part, what is worse for kids...an unblocked page about partial birth abortion, with animated details, or a blocked page about free expression.
Getting Real!: a Peacefire member writes a column against censorware.
The Censorware Page from The Ethical Spectacle. This site has also been blocked. Their The Censorware Project reveals that Cyber Patrol has blocked Deja News, the Usenet archive and search engine.
More from The Ethical Spectacle: The X-Stop Files: The Truth Isn't Out There notes that since the blocked lists are secret (all are encrypted except NetNanny...even parents can't read them), the manufacturers will tend to block their traditional enemies: "feminists, gays and lesbians, anti-censorship sites, and so on."
Still more: This paper argues that the use of censorware in public libraries is unconstitutional here. This paper hopes that the rejection of the CDA will not lead to mandated use of censorware or rating systems here.
Who watches the Watchers? wonders about censorware's tendancy to block just about anything adverse to the manufacturer's interests.
The ACLU has Peacefire as a named plaintiff in a lawsuit aimed at overturning the New York State version of the Communications Decency Act. An ACLU page about this suit is here.Update: "Declaring that the New York law intended to shield minors from indecent materials on the Internet unduly burdens interstate commerce, a Manhatten federal judge has struck it down as unconstitutional." (June, 1997) Decision here. An open letter from the ACLU to the Internet community, here, is an introduction to a page about self-rating, here. A state by state list of new bills to replace the (void) federal CDA is here. A look at the "Censorware Summit" (12/1-3/97) is here. An alarming speech/press release by the Associate Director of the ACLU, attending the summit, is here. The ACLU calls self-rating "do-it-yourself censorship" here.
The rather lenghty(over 200K) preliminary injunction against the CDA contains a great deal of information on the way censorware products work, starting in section 48. For those who like reading lenghty court documents, the Supreme Court ruling that killed the CDA is here.
Here is a description of Son of CDA, now before Congress.
The American Library Association Office for Intellectual Freedom has an "anti-censorware in libraries statement" here, and another here.
Here is a non-ALA site with the same theme:
Stop Filtering and
Censorware in Libraries. The
FAQ page on
this site includes CYBERsitter's full blocking policy statement, which ends:
"Any site maintaining links to other sites containing any of the
above content."
"Any domain hosting more than one site
containing any of the above content."
"Any domain whose general
policies allow any of the above content."
Censorware -- dysfunctional and immoral. Argues that "censorware is neither practical nor ethical".
No page like this would be complete without a link to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The EFF hosts, but does not necessarily endorse, a Fight-Censorship mailing list here.
From the Fight-Censorship list: A new ratings system - announcing RATSYS!
For a change of pace, this page uses humor here, saying in part, "(censorware products have) high success rates at blocking sites that encourage debate about censorware!"
Here is a possible alternative. Dispensing with censorware, this company offers software that makes a record of where users go, which can be reviewed by parents. At least this idea really does keep it "all in the family".
"Cyberia" ("Discussions dealing with the law and policy of computer networks.") operates a Usenet-like discussion, mainly about the Internet, a lot of which is about censorware. The index by thread is here.
Here is some good news: Complaints Mount About Internet Filter Blocking, but this article does point out that those who do not voluntarily rate sites(with RSAC, etc.), run the risk of having their sites blocked for being unrated.
Want to find out if a specific site is on one of the blocked lists? Try here, but note that the master lists used are probably outdated. Publishing this got the entire pathfinder.com domain (TIME magazine's sites) blocked. A TIME article, subheadlined, "Are Web Filters Valuable Watchdogs Or Just New Online Thought Police?" is here.
More links are on the Peacefire Censorware Pages.
News from the "Censorware Summit": SafeSurf, a ratings group, has proposed the "Online Cooperative Publishing Act", giving parents the right to sue Net publishers who publish something not "appropriate" for kids but fail to slap an "adult content" rating on it. Read about it here. SafeSurf's actual proposal is here; note that it includes criminal prosecution for "grossly mislabeled material".
Censorware is now being used in the workplace on mature adults. An overveiw is here.
Personal note: I would suggest that the ability to deal with "grown-up" web sites is not a function of age, but rather of maturity, intelligence, and the ability to think rationally, none of which are somehow acquired on one's 18th birthday. Parents should instill these qualities in their children as early as possible, rather than hiring a cyberspy to moniter their children's behavior.
Personal note #2: I have a page about HIV not being the cause of AIDS. An international organization I belong to had a link to my HIV page on their "member's pages" page. I was informed by their webmaster that they would delete the link unless I self-rated it; they recommended SafeSurf. I protested this as censorship; they replied they had to protect the children, so to keep the link I meekly went along. But that page with its PICS label has a link to this page which will never have a PICS label, and for all the high officials know, maybe this is actually a hard core porn site!
BEWARE: Some lowlife cretin has hijacked firstamendment.org! It now redirects to xxxsexpics.com, but now, in 12/04, it seems defunct.
Warfare in Southern Nevada Mensa(2000)
Revised 12/24/04
(Counter killed by MindSpring 12/99, after 398 hits.) Just curious as to the traffic this page attracts, starting 11/17/97!