From the Central Maine Morning Sentinal
Reported by Bernie Huebner
The 2/3/2001 Central Maine Morning Sentinel carried a column entitled
"Internet Filtering Software Pushes Censorship Debate," by Marty Klein, a
Palo Alto sex therapist and author of the electronic newsletter Sexual
Intelligence.
Klein's point is that internet filtering software--required by the
federal Child Internet Protection Act to be installed by any library
receiving federal funds--is effectively blocking valid, inoffensive and
sometimes vital information because the software responds to the mere
presence, rather than the meaning or context, of target words. Thus, a
journal article on current breast cancer research is blocked because it
contains the word "breast." In equally absurd fashion, information on
Congressman Dick Armey, or Washington High School, or a college's
graduation listing of recipients of degrees awarded Cum Laude are all
blocked by such required software.
Klein's conclusion resonates deeply with the situation created in Maine
by our state's fingerprinting law:
"Today, public policy about children is driven by fear: of violence,
drugs, the media, sexuality. The American public has rolled back many of
its rights in the name of protecting its children--a policy that has failed
to deliver the safety we long for. We seem to believe that emotional
security lies with just one more law, or one new invention. Or with a
little more money. Correctly reading the public's attitudes, politicians
develop increasingly extreme 'solutions' for problems that are moral,
spiritual and existential. But life just doesn't work that way.
"This law's solution--less information and less freedom--is neither
effective nor morally acceptable. As we look at dark regimes around the
globe, Americans criticize problem-solving that reduces information or
freedom. American children deserve the same respect that we give kids in
dictatorial nations that we're trying to enlighten.
"The problem is not what our children are exposed to--the problem is our
fear. Censoring the Internet may feel like we're doing something, but it
won't make our children safer. It will simply make all of us less free."
Bernie Huebner