Fwd: [sfschools] Kaiser Foundation study of Internet filtering vs. health information

[Jacob Wang]

--- Al Magary <al at magary.com> wrote:
> To: "*SFSchools" <sfschools at yahoogroups.com>
> From: "Al Magary" <al at magary.com>
> Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2002 13:41:18 -0800
> Subject: [sfschools] Kaiser Foundation study of
> Internet filtering vs. health information
> 
> Two items from the Center for Democracy & Technology
> (CDT)
> Policy Post, 12/12/02
> (http://www.cdt.org/publications/pp_8.27.shtml):
> 
> (1) NEW STUDY SHOWS INTERNET FILTERING BLOCKS
> VALUABLE SITES,
> BUT CAN BENEFIT PARENTS
> 
> A new study confirms that filtering technologies can
> over-block
> constitutionally-protected speech, but can be
> effective when
> used voluntarily in the home by knowledgeable
> consumers.
> 
> The study, "See No Evil:  How Internet Filters
> Affect the Search
> for Online Health Information," funded by the Kaiser
> Family
> Foundation, looked at the ways in which Internet
> filters impact
> young people's access to online health information.
> The study
> was conducted in response to concerns that Internet
> filters
> intended to block young people's access to
> objectionable
> material online also prevents them from viewing
> non-pornographic
> health information.  It provides empirical evidence
> about
> over-blocking of material, particularly material
> about health
> issues.
> 
> The study finds that filtering software works
> remarkably well at
> the least restrictive settings, blocking 87% of porn
> sites but
> only 1.4% of health-related sites.  But at higher
> settings,
> filters also block many important health sites on a
> range of
> important issues, from mental health to sexually
> transmitted
> disease.  At the intermediate blocking level, 5% of
> health-related sites are blocked; at the most
> restrictive level,
> 24%.  The increase in blocked health content is
> especially
> pronounced, the study finds, on searches related to
> sexual
> health.  For example, for a search on "safe sex," on
> average
> about one in ten health sites (9%) is blocked at the
> least
> restrictive level of blocking, one in five (21%) at
> the
> intermediate level, and one in two (50%) at the most
> restrictive
> level.
> 
> The Kaiser study is available at
> http://www.kff.org/content/2002/20021210a/
> ______________________________________________
> 
> (2) COURTS WERE CORRECT THAT FILTERS BOTH OVER-BLOCK
> AND
> UNDER-BLOCK
> 
> The Kaiser study affirms the findings of the lower
> federal court
> in the case challenging the Children's Internet
> Protection Act
> (CIPA) about the limitations of filtering
> technologies - that
> filters both over-block and under-block speech.  The
> case is now
> on appeal to the US Supreme Court.
> 
> Concerns about young people's exposure to online
> pornography and
> other objectionable material led to the passage of
> CIPA in 2000.
> The Act requires schools and libraries receiving
> federal funds
> to block material that is obscene, child
> pornography, or
> "harmful to minors."
> 
> The American Library Association, together with
> library patrons,
> Web site publishers and a group of libraries
> challenged CIPA on
> First Amendment grounds.
> 
> A panel of federal judges found that thousands of
> Web pages
> containing constitutionally protected speech are
> wrongly blocked
> by the four leading filtering programs, and that
> those pages
> represent only a fraction of Web pages wrongly
> blocked by the
> programs.
> 
> The court found that it is currently impossible,
> given the
> Internet's size, rate of growth, rate of change, and
> architecture, and given the state of the art of
> automated
> classification systems, to develop a filter that
> neither
> under-blocks nor over-blocks a substantial amount of
> speech.
> 
> The court further found that libraries can exercise
> less
> restrictive means to control children's access to
> objectionable
> online material, including instituting Internet use
> policies,
> enforcing restrictions against accessing illegal
> speech, and
> keeping unfiltered terminals that are accessible by
> children
> within view of library staff.
> 
> The district court decision in the CIPA litigation
> can be
> downloaded from
>
http://www.paed.uscourts.gov/documents/opinions/02D0414P.HTM
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> 


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