[LINK] Survey Finds Support for School Filters (USA)

[Kimberley Heitman]

> > I've just been informed by the staff of my son's school that the
> > students have been accessing pornography sites from the school
> > PCs despite the censorware.. So the censorware used by the NSW
> > Dept of Education clearly does not achieve its objective..
> 
> Why do you and Danny think of school filtering in such *absolute* terms?

Partly philosophical, and partly practical. 

A lot of people are worried about the ethics of censorship in learning
institutions and public facilities. Wonky software filters both
under-block and over-block, and don't satisfy consumer demands. A
spell-checker that gets 40% of the words wrongg is a consumer hazard, and
a waste of the education dollar.

Practically, most schools are struggling with limited computing power and
bandwidth to the Net. Most schools have to network ageing computers with
limited funds for system maintenance. To have these manifestly
insufficient links further degraded by censorware is further reducing the
usefulness of networked education. 

The vendors of censorware daren't promise a product "fit for use" - not
one of the products approaches the accuracy that you'd expect from a
decent typist. So they say "it's better than nothing, and maybe you won't
get sued". This is on the basis of zero objective testing and nothing but
hostile close examination.

It's snake oil, Stephen. Don't try and tell me it cured your arthritis.

Kimberley Heitman

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                        Kimberley James Heitman
http://www.multiline.com.au/~kheit/                 kheitman@it.net.au
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