Filtered Internet Service Provider

[Filtering Facts]

Sheryl Dwinell wrote:
>>I've also talked to a couple of filtering vendors who were very optimistic
>>about the potential money to be made selling filters to ISPs.  I hear there
>>has even been some suggestions of *requiring ISPs by law* to offer filtered
>>access as a choice.  They have a point: it really isn't fair to put the
>>burden entirely on the parents.
>
>Requiring ISPs to offer filtered acces by law? Can't you just see the
>attempts to construct a law like that? Who'd do it, the feds? the states?
>Imagine the headaches if you're a national ISP and 10 states have the law.
>What if one state's idea of filtering is more restrictive than another
>state? How about if one porn site sneaks through and some outraged parent
>decides to take the ISP to court. Sounds like a mess to me. Why not rely on
>consumer demand. If enough folks want this type of access, and ISP's feel
>like it's a good business decision to do so, then they'll do it. 

Like I said, this was just a rumor about possible state efforts, so I don't
know any details.  But "offer as a choice" could be pretty loosely worded
and enforced.  And the key word is "choice": no one was talking about
forcing consumers to have filtered access.  If the consumer wasn't satisfied
with the filtering, they could easily switch back to unfiltered.  

I personally am in favor of things that give parents choices, rather than
forcing all of them accept free speech absolutism as the only choice.

>
>Why is it not fair to put the burden on the parents. They have the burden
>of turning off the TV to keep their kids away from nasty stuff on cable.
>Isn't part of being a parent exercising control over how you want your
>children to be raised? Yeah, it's a HARD and time consuming job, but that's
>part of being a parent. Isn't it?
>

While some "indecent" materials are avaible with basic cable, I'm not aware
that pornographic ones are.  You can get The Playboy Channel with X-Rated
movies, but it's a premium service you have to pay for.  In fact, the limits
on cable TV are much stricter than the Internet.

Yes, parenting is a hard job, but raising children and providing for the
safety is also *everyone's* responsibility, not just the parents.  It does
take a village to raise a child, and we all must accept our responsiblity
for the well being of the children in our villages, rather than simply shrug
and say "it's your responsibility, not mine".

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David Burt, Filtering Facts, HTTP://WWW.FILTERINGFACTS.ORG
David_Burt at filteringfacts.org