Filtering

[Karen Harker]

On Thu, 3 Jul 1997, Sheryl Dwinell wrote:
> Yahooligans and other sites which have searchable databases of kid-friendly
> web sites would be an example of this.  

I should have realized Yahooligans before I wrote that, but I was just
extrapolating.  

> You can disable a browser so that a
> user can't open a location, so that would take care of that problem.

Do any libraries do this?

> However, you can get to Yahoo from Yahooligans, and then on to Alta Vista
> or any of the other search engines and search the universe of the Web.  So,
> your search engine of kid-friendly URLs would need to eliminate the
> possibility of a kid finding a way to another broader-based search engine.
> Then of course there's the possibility of one of your kid-friendly sites
> having a link to, oh let's say Microsoft's home page where they can find
> search engines and other lists of sites that may or may not be what you
> want children accessing.  I think that if you really want to make sure kids
> don't go beyond where you want, you'd have to use some sort of site
> blocking software.  

Well then, what about a combination of the two?  Mind you, I am merely
trying to extract some sort of compromise between two extremes, with
which only a minority of the population would be satisfied.  If there
could at least be options for parents to let their children have access to
some sort of shared consensus of appropriate material, perhaps through a
combination of laypersons and expert opinion, then maybe some of this
ruckus would die down.  

Back to the possibilities: can a company like Yahoo! design a blocking
software which could limit access only to the sites in its database?  Is
there a company which does this, obviously on a very large scale?

.......

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

******************************************************************************
Karen R. Harker					214-648-2001
Librarian I					214-648-3007 (fax)
The University of Texas				
Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas
5323 Harry Hines Blvd.
Dallas, Texas  75235-9049
harker at medcat.library.swmed.edu
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