FEPP's Filter Report Offers Best Practices
-- Library Journal, 05/22/2006
A new report on Internet filters summarizes a host of studies about the software's flaws and offers advice on best practices. Internet Filters: A Public Policy Report is issued by the Free Expression Policy Project, now part of the Brennan Center for Justice, and is written by Marjorie Heins, Christina Cho, and Ariel Feldman. "[O]ne conclusion is clear from all of the studies," the report states. "[F]ilters continue to block large amounts of valuable information. Even the expert witnesses for the government in the CIPA [Children's Internet Protection Act] case, who attempted to minimize the rates of error, reported substantial overblocking."
Because CIPA—which requires schools and libraries that receive federal aid for Internet access to use filters—is not likely to be repealed soon, the report recommends several best practices. They include:
- avoiding filters manufactured by companies whose blocking categories reflect a particular ideological viewpoint.
- choosing filters that easily permit disabling, as well as unblocking of particular wrongly blocked sites.
- only activating the "sexually explicit" or similar filtering category, since CIPA only requires blocking of obscenity, child pornography, and "harmful to minors" material.
- establishing a simple, efficient process for changing incorrect or unnecessary settings.
- promptly and efficiently disabling filters on request from adults, or, if permitted by the portion of CIPA that applies to them, from minors as well.
- configuring the default page—what the library user sees when a URL is blocked—to explain to the user how the filter works and how to ask for it to be disabled.
- developing educational approaches to online literacy and Internet safety.
