FC: Americans overwhelmingly want Net-filters in schools

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[David Burt is a longtime filtering advocate and current employee of a 
filtering company. He might even be right: The geek community is certainly 
aware of filtering software's problems (and has been for well over four 
years, c.f. 
http://www.eff.org/pub/Publications/Declan_McCullagh/cwd.keys.to.the.kingdom.0796.article 
and efforts by groups like ifea.net). But that doesn't seem to have had 
much of an effect -- or perhaps non-tech parents weigh the costs and 
benefits of the blocking-sw equation differently. --Declan]

**********

From: "David Burt" <dburt () n2h2 com>
To: "Declan McCullagh" <declan () well com>
Subject: 92% support filters in schools
Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2000 08:46:20 -0700

Amazing, just amazing.  A massive, 3-year dis-information campaign that 
"filters simply don't work" by the free speech groups and their allies 
appears to have had *no effect at all* on public perceptions.

October 18, 2000
Survey Finds Support for School Filters
By REBECCA S. WEINER
<http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/18/technology/18EDUCATION.html>http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/18/technology/18EDUCATION.html 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The overwhelming majority of Americans say schools should install filters 
to block students from accessing pornography and hate speech, according to 
a new national survey commissioned by the Digital Media Forum.

Ninety-two percent said pornography should be blocked on school computers, 
while 79 percent said filters should be used to bar hate speech, the survey 
of 1,900 individuals showed.

Filtering software and services block pre-selected Web sites with certain 
characteristics, such as pornography, from an individual user's Internet 
account. Some schools set up systems in which students and teachers are 
given different levels of access depending on age appropriateness. And 
companies like America Online offer software to its subscribers that 
parents can use to block their children from accessing inappropriate 
material online.

"The vast majority seem to accept filtering as a way of school life," said 
Andy Carvin, senior associate at Benton Foundation's Communications Policy 
Practice The Washington, D.C.-based foundation is a member of the Digital 
Media Forum, a consortium of six public interest and consumer groups 
interested in media policy.

While 86 percent of the individuals surveyed this summer said they believe 
the Internet would help their children learn more, and 95 percent said the 
Internet is vital for developing work skills, there is still some 
trepidation about what materials students can access via the medium. 
Seventy-six percent of respondents said "inappropriate material" makes it 
more difficult to adopt the Internet in schools.


[...]

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