Filters/Cybersitter

[Sheryl Dwinell]

Karen's posting about filters reminded me of a situation that occured last
year between Solid Oak, the company that manufactures Cybersitter, and a
young guy named Bennett Haselton, who runs a web site for teenagers called
Peacefire.  If you want an idea of how the folks who operate Solid Oak
respond to criticism about their product, take a look at this site:
http://annoy.com/cda/media_muck/cybersitter.html.  They threatened a
lawsuit and even wrote to the ISP that hosted Peacefire threatening to
block every site serviced by the ISP.  All in response to a teenager
concerned about censorship and how a piece of software operates.  Now
apparently the kid involved has written a program that will crack the file
of filtered sites in the Cybersitter software. see:
http://www.wired.com/news/story/901.html. 

Any librarian who considers installing any blocking software should not
only be aware of how the software operates and whether the list of blocked
sites can be viewed or altered, but should also be aware of the attitudes
amongst those in management at the corporations that create and own the
software. 

Sheryl Dwinell
Cataloger/Database Management Librarian
Memorial Library, Marquette University
P.O. Box 3141
Milwaukee, WI 53201-3141
dwinells at vms.csd.mu.edu
414-288-3542