Word: filters
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...DROP TO DRINK Many mothers of infants don't know that it might be dangerous to give their babies water regularly in addition to breast milk or formula. Infants are unable to filter water properly through their systems...
...issue, as citizens of Loudoun County, Va., a conservative enclave northwest of Washington, can attest. Last month, after six public hearings and over the objections of library staff, the county library board adopted the region's most restrictive Internet-access policy. Henceforth, the library will arm its computers with filters to censor obscene sites--the definition of obscenity, of course, being largely up to whichever filter Loudoun County ends up deciding to buy. Adults who want to cruise the Net sans filter will have to ask the librarian to call off the watchdogs; children under 17 will be able...
Opponents say the filter companies' banned lists can also reflect ideological biases. CyberSitter, the most aggressively conservative filtering program, is infamous for blocking access to the National Organization for Women's Website as well as entire Internet providers like Echo, New York City's oldest online community. Gay-themed sites--big surprise--suffer mightily. CyberPatrol blocks the Queer Resources Directory; CyberSitter bans the alt.politics.homosexual newsgroup; SurfWatch blocks ClariNet's AP and Reuters articles about AIDS...
...also made good business sense for Microsoft to adopt an idea that adds value to one of its key products, the Internet Explorer. Explorer is the second most popular browser on the Web; a software component that gives parents the option to filter out the naughty bits is a big selling point...
Good luck. Software filters and online ratings systems have been around since before the CDA was born, and they've always been beset with problems. Recently, for instance, when Microsoft began backing a ratings standard known as RSACI and started including the filter as part of its browser, Internet Explorer, the company quickly found that the "solution" could keep large numbers of viewers away from its news site, MSNBC. Microsoft quietly removed the rating. The problem should have been foreseen. News, after all, frequently covers violent, adult-oriented subjects, which puts many news stories into the same verboten range...