cyberfiltering: just say no -Reply

[Diane Lewis]

Reminds me of the time our college got a shipment of Alaska crab 
legs.  By the end of the week, we were walking into the cafeteria and 
flinching at the sight of crab legs on the hot trays!

Humans seem to value the rare and the withheld.  Is there a lesson 
here for all of us in the filtering debate? 

Date:          Tue, 6 May 1997 11:29:18 -0700
Reply-to:      DLESTER at bsu.idbsu.edu
From:          Dan Lester <DLESTER at bsu.idbsu.edu>
To:            Multiple recipients of list <web4lib at library.berkeley.edu>
Subject:       Re: cyberfiltering: just say no -Reply

>>> Sheryl Dwinell <dwinells at vmsb.csd.mu.edu> 04/29/97
08:45am >>>
On a lighter note, think of what a fun job it must be to work
for the folks who make CyberSitter and CyberPatrol. You get
to surf the net for porn all day. I wonder what that does to
their psyches and emotional well-being.
----------------------------------------
Absolutely.  o-)   I've got a friend who works in our library who
worked in porn shops for several years before he got a library
job, and moonlighted a bit after that.  He says that just as
most of us who love lobster, for example, would get tired of it
if we ate it for dinner every night for a few years, that one also
becomes numbed to porn rather quickly.  From somewhat
less personal experience, I'll agree completely.  

And, another buddy who works in the computer center talked
about the same topic when the first filtering program was
announced a couple years ago....they offered a monthly
update service....and we decided, at least jokingly, that we'd
subscribe to that and share the URLs of the blocked
sites...sort of a current awareness service for "dirty old
preverts"....but then we learned that all was encrypted and
we couldn't make use of the updates.  o-)   So, again, we
dirty old preverts were protected from becoming even dirtier. 
(I speak several times a semester to college students in a
variety of classes about the issues of porn and
censorship....and do NOT give them answers...but encourage
them to make their own decisions....but, unfortunately, as is
all too typical of students today....they want to know the
"right answer" so they can regurgitate it on some lame test)

cheers

cyclops



Dan Lester, Network Information Coordinator
Boise State University Library, Boise, Idaho, 83725 USA
voice: 208-385-1235   fax:  208-385-1394
dlester at bsu.idbsu.edu     OR    alileste at idbsu.idbsu.edu
Cyclops' Internet Toolbox:    http://cyclops.idbsu.edu
"How can one fool make another wise?"   Kansas, 1979.