FC: Federal law helps religious filtering firms proselytize

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[Last I checked, the Feds give libraries billions of dollars a year. Is it 
really a surprise that if if you route that kind of cash through Washington 
every year, Congress will notice -- and slap wacky restrictions on it? And 
because libraries aren't required to take the handouts, the ACLU's court 
challenge (trial this spring) may not be terribly successful. --Declan]

--

From: Kimberly Allen <k.allen () stanfordresources com>
To: "'declan () well com'" <declan () well com>
Subject: Bias in Web Filtering
Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2002 07:30:15 -0800

Declan,

This is of possible interest to Politechbots. I continue to be amazed at the
actions we will take "in protection of children," when these same actions
would be blatantly unconstitutional if attempted against adults. Do children
need protection from the Constitution?

Kim Allen


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REPORT CITES RELIGIOUS BIAS IN SCHOOL WEB FILTERS
A recent report from the Responsible Netizen Project of the University of
Oregon's Center for Advanced Technology in Education draws attention to
links between conservative religious groups and the Internet filtering tools
being used in several public schools. The report, titled "Filtering
Software: The Religious Connection," looks at 8 companies who are either
connected to conservative Christian organizations or who have expressed
conservative religious philosophies. Several of the companies profiled in
the report have used the Children's internet Protection Act (CIPA) as a way
to target public schools looking for technology solutions that will bar
students from seeing inappropriate online material. The report surmises that
there has been some conservative bias in the material that has been selected
to be blocked from students.
[SOURCE: eSchools, AUTHOR: Dennis Pierce]
(http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=3537)




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