Internet Content Filtering Comes Of Age

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March 09, 2001 (4:32 AM EST)

By Charles Bermant,

The idea of Internet content filtering has come a long way since the word "breast" would screen out chicken recipes or cancer sites.

The first filtering programs, based on words rather than content, cast too broad a net. But today's programs are more flexible.

Pattern recognition has also made the process more accurate.

One popular content filtering developer visits sites and evaluates for appropriateness. If one passes, it's added to the list of acceptable sites. Parents, teachers, and others can download and edit the lists themselves.

The leaps in filtering technology have raised new concerns. As software's ability improves, lawmakers, parents, and developers seek a balance between freedom of expression and adequate societal controls.

"Our original intention was to forestall congressional action by giving families a choice," said John Perry Barlow, founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which developed the standard used by many filtering programs.

The Platform for Internet Content Selection, or PICS, allows authority figures to voluntarily impose limitations on access to certain information on the Internet.

"We were trying to stop censorship, not create a censorious tool," Barlow said.

PICS wasn't intended for corporations to keep their employees in line on the job.

"There is something offensive about treating grown-up employees as if they were children," he said.

Even so, businesses want that control. Wasted time and resources aside, an employee may view an offensive image on the screen of another and open the company to a costly harassment lawsuit.

So companies, according to Ken Sokol, senior product manager for Baltimore Technologies in Bellevue, Wash., should carefully monitor e-mail behavior and Web access—if only for virus control.

But, despite advances, screening software is far from foolproof.

"There are ways to fool any kind of software, but we can put a lot more control in people's hands," said Sokol.

"Filtering software is mostly used to prevent kids from inadvertently going to the wrong place," said Susan Getgood, vice president of education market at SurfControl Inc., Westborough, Mass. "In the same way, you can't stop a 15-year-old who is absolutely determined to get a copy of 'Playboy.'"

Most children's filtering programs work from two lists developed by content filtering vendors that give ratings and recommendations, and restrict access to sites found to be inappropriate.

"The idea is to develop a kind of Good Housekeeping seal of approval and provide safe places where kids can go," said attorney and activist Parry Aftab, author of "The Parents Guide to Protecting Your Children in Cyberspace."

Corporate programs like Baltimore's WEBsweeper operate from negative lists, but can "reverse the polarity" to screen in certain sites.

Developers of filtering software discount the idea that it represents any type of censorship or infringement on First Amendment rights.

Getgood testified earlier this month before a meeting of the National Research Council as part of a process to study Internet filtering tools.

"Filters are about providing choices; mandates are not the answer." Getgood said. "We want the policymakers to make a decision based on how technology really works, and not how they think it might work."