ALA on Filtering

[Walter Minkel]

On Sun, 6 Jul 1997, Jerry Kuntz wrote:

> BTW, I'm still waiting for a configurable filter that will screen out
> advertising banners and commercial sites, whose cumulative effects scare
> me more as a parent than cyberporn does. Why was there no resolution
> aimed at search engine vendors to offer secure, ad-free interfaces to
> schools and libraries?

As a youth librarian who has been involved in Web site selection, I would
love to hear more from people about how they feel about commercial sites
and kids. The fact of the matter is that most of the Web sites kids are
interested in for recreational and entertainment purposes (and these have
always been part of the public library's mission) are .com sites that are
trying to sell stuff.

The Random House Seussville site, the NBA site and the WNBA site (and as a
supporter of women in pro sports, I've been letting the kids know about
the latter site), the bonus.com game site, the Nintendo site, the sites
for current movies, the Crayola site, and plenty of other fun kids' sites
are selling stuff. Although I'm far from a supporter of unbridled
capitalism, I do believe that it's okay for kids to look at these sites.
But I _also_ believe it should be our mission as one of the kinds of
adults who work with kids to let them know what .com sites are about,
how not to be fooled by what seem offers that are too good to be true, and
to never send their name, age, e-mail address, etc., to anyone without
checking with their parent(s) first. It's called "media education," and
educators in this country don't do enough of it, unfortunately.

> Being against censorship and also an advocate for tools that will help
> librarians guide patrons by reducing the noise-to-signal ratio inherent
> in net searching are not mutually exclusive ideals. I'm still pushing
> the idea of demanding better filtering technology from the vendors.

The only filtering that will be truly helpful, I think, will be filtering
that can help hone a search to find exactly what the searcher is looking
for, if it's available. Some people (like me, when I recently bought a
CD-ROM drive online) actually are looking for ads & product information on
the Web. --W

Walter Minkel, Youth Librarian
Gresham Regional Library, 385 NW Miller Ave., Gresham, OR 97030
Voice (503)248-5164; fax (503)248-5198; walterm at nethost.multnomah.lib.or.us
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Vision is the art of seeing things invisible. --Jonathan Swift