Feds Restart Filter Debate

Critics of Web filters, librarians included, have long contended that the devices do more harm than good—even though they’re designed to protect kids from accessing material that can hurt them.

Now the Department of Justice (DOJ) is chiming in, alleging that Web filters do not work well enough to keep minors safe. This recent allegation comes on the heels of the U.S. government’s subpoena requesting that several search engines, including Google, turn over a week’s worth of randomly collected search records. The reason for the request? To test the effectiveness of Web porn filters in order to reactivate the currently stalled Children’s Online Protection Act (COPA).

Enacted in 1998, COPA requires commercial purveyors of material, such as porn, to protect their sites from access by minors. But the law has been frozen by lawsuits launched by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which claim that filters adequately protect minors—and the DOJ must now prove that the devices don’t work, in order to activate the law.

It’s a tricky position for many involved in technology and education because Internet filters are required in any school that accepts federal funding through the e-rate program. Still, there are few media specialists who haven’t seen student research stymied by filters that are too restrictive, blocking access to legitimate information, while at the same time allowing harmful material through, says Nancy Willard, executive director of the Eugene, OR-based Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use.

Willard advocates allowing librarians to turn off a filter any time they believe it’s impinging on a student’s ability to do their work. And the Supreme Court concurred in a 2003 ruling, stating that the inability to override filters raised constitutional concerns regarding free access to information.

Even EFF, which is opposing the DOJ in the COPA case, believes that filters could do a better job. “In a way we agree they aren’t effective,” says Rebecca Jeschke, an EFF spokeswoman. “They can over filter.”