Filtering and Local Control

Students are finding that internet filtering software designed to weed out pornography is blocking their access to essential health information. When these filters are set at their most restrictive levels, they block 24 percent of the health sites on the Web. The percentage is even higher for sites relating to sexual health, with half of the Web's legitimate sites rendered inaccessible. The disconcerting findings were released December 10, 2002, courtesy of the Kaiser Family Foundation which commissioned the study, "See No Evil: How Internet Filters Affect the Search for Online Health Information" (see News , p. 18).

The new study confirms what we already know: that no filter can eliminate student access to Internet smut, and that when filters are set at their most restrictive levels, lots of extremely relevant and essential student information is lost. However, the restrictive and sometimes unwieldy nature of filters should not prevent librarians from doing what they do best: helping students evaluate a wealth of information and hone their research skills. The key is to have enough local control to be able to block or unblock sites as needed.

When the results of the Kaiser survey were announced, both pro-filter and anti-filter groups hailed the study, citing it as further evidence to buttress their respective arguments. However, the problem is that neither side, not even the Kaiser Foundation, knows with any certainty to what degree students are actually being denied access to critical information. Why? Because no one has been able to pinpoint the extent to which each school district or library system sets its own filters. Are they programming them for the least restrictive setting? Most restrictive? Which categories are being blocked? Kaiser's Vicky Rideout acknowledges the next logical step: to conduct a follow-up study that ascertains schools' filtering predilections.

Ginny Wexler, network manager of the School District of Springfield Township, PA, says she is able to "add to and subtract from our blocked sites list" daily. "The control has to be in the school district's hands," she says. "Somebody out in 'never-never land' shouldn't be making decisions for us."

But that's exactly what's happening in several states. Contrast the Pennsylvania high school scenario with that of North Dakota's filtering policy, which offers a creative, new twist on the concept of red tape. First the teacher or librarian must bring a blocked URL to the attention of an administrator or technology coordinator, who must then fill out an online form requesting to unblock the desired site. The request is then considered by the state's filtering services staff, which renders a decision in five business days. Obviously, this very public, drawn-out procedure would discourage any student from requesting access to a Web site containing remotely sensitive or personal content.

Although the horrors of pedophilia and violence to children perpetuated by e-mail have been few, a knee-jerk public reaction followed by political lip service has resulted in efforts to crack down on institutions where online access to content is easiest and most efficient. The same group of people that consistently challenge books has also found the media receptive to the horror stories (few of them substantiated) of kids viewing porn in the library. The irony for the library community is having to fend off its attackers in order to preserve the free flow of critical information to young people who need it, while the entertainment business, with its powerful Washington lobby, freely sells and glorifies sex and violence to teens, including such killing classics as the video game Grand Theft Auto 3 and Vin Diesel's movie XXX.

Although the Supreme Court will soon reexamine the constitutionality of the Child Internet Protection Act, filtering technology isn't going away. Librarians need to inject themselves into the site selection process—on a local or statewide level—and to use their discriminating skills to design and tweak the filtering software in the same way they effectively build and nurture collections.

Evan St. Lifer Editor estlifer@reedbusiness.com