[KLUG Advocacy] Re: [KLUG Members] CIPA unconstitutional

[Randall Perry]

>>I would hope that most schools would keep that filtering intact.
>Why?
The W3C has defined certain meta tags that allow authors to self rate
their content, but you know there are pedophiles that would
intentionally misdirect children to their site.   Filtering on content
is hard to keep categories straight, so what side do you err on?  
Yes, you can defeat them by going to anonymizer.com (so do you block
that URL?)  To filter you don't have to use a proxy.  I have used
commercial filtering software that boils down to being a packet sniffer
with auto response.  When it rips off the wire a destination (IP or
domain name) of a banned site, it simply responds to the request first
before it can hit the router.  Works pretty well.

Filters should be applied.  I know I would not want my OWN access to be
filtered, but someone has take responsibility for society's problems.
It is fine to talk about things like freedom of speech, but there is NO
FREEDOM.  Free speech comes at a cost. Without responsibility and
guidance too much information just becomes useless sewage and fuel for
disaster.  I am not advocating "thought police" or trying to control the
influences in media.  Some stuff needs to be categorized as garbage. It
is not right for young children to watch violent movies, listen to
explicit lyrics or share racially based jokes.  The parents are
ultimately responsible to see that kids understand that "it is just a
movie" or that there are consequences to your actions.  But, parents are
around less and no one is there to define what norm is.  I personally
know a couple of families whose young teenagers have had problems with
pornography (both male and female).  It is so bad, that the 14 year old
boy broke into a neighbors house (tried kicking door in, but only dented
it so he threw something through a window) just to get on their computer
to get to internet porn.  He has also been caught as he was taking a 6
year old girl into a closet. This will take years to heal and try to
make right.  How about adults who are fueling a building obsession with
kiddie porn.  Soon that adult will not be satisfied with computer
graphics and will seek out a child.  If the adult gets caught, big deal
free cable, room and board for a couple of years.  Of if you are in the
sacerdotal, a vacation and coverup.

Some control is necessary, if no options are volunteered, the government
will come to a point of implementing their own rating and ranking system
"for your protection".

This problem has a very wide base with residual impact with any
decision.  There really is no easy answer.

Randall Perry
www.domain-logic.com