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When Republican Jeffrey Pollock ran for Congress in Oregon in 2000, he promoted the use of federally mandated Internet blocking software in public schools and libraries. But after discovering that his campaign Web site was blocked, he joined librarians, civil liberties groups, parents, children, and Web publishers seeking to overturn the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA). That law, recently upheld by the Supreme Court, mandates use of blocking software on public library and school computers as a condition for eligibility to receive e-rate discounts or federal grants under the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) and Title II of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).
The Problem with Filters
As candidate Pollock learned, filters may do more harm than good. They sweep too broadly, blocking only some sites with indecent materials while restricting access to thousands of legal and useful resources, and failing to block communications sent through e-mail, chat rooms, non-Web sources, peer-to-peer exchanges, and streaming video-now popular modes for distributing pornography. Filters are cumbersome to disable and to override. They do not reflect library selection criteria, nor do they block the images cited by CIPA as obscene, child pornography, or harmful to minors. They are costly to purchase and maintain.
Underblocking
Filters can give parents and guardians a false sense of security-prompting them to believe that children are protected when they are not. Numerous studies have documented that filters fail to block many sites banned under CIPA.1 One conducted for the Kaiser Family Foundation found that filters do not block access to one in ten pornography sites under conditions simulating intentional access, and one in three pornography sites under conditions simulating accidental access.2 Plus young people have little trouble finding these unblocked sites or loading software that bypasses filters altogether.3 Even if they encounter filters at schools and libraries, children can still gain unfiltered Internet access at home, friends' houses, or elsewhere. What's more, filters cannot protect children from other dangers and concerns they might encounter, such as potential predators, gambling, or fraud. These are all issues better addressed through education than by pinning one's hopes to a simple technological fix.
Overblocking
Filters not only underblock, they also overblock significant amounts of perfectly legal, useful information, such as Web pages for the...