Filtered Internet Service Provider

[Albert Lunde]

This shouldn't really come as a surprise; as some of the technology to
create a "filtered" view of the Internet via an ISP, like filtering web
proxy servers, was possible before the advent consumer-oriented individual
filtering tools. (I recall some of this being discussed in sessions at the
WWW conference in Chicago a couple of years ago.)

Regarding the notion of ISPs being required to offer such a service, I'd
respond, "What's wrong with the free market?" Unlike, say cable TV or local
phone service, ISPs in the US don't have a monopoly, regulated, or
otherwise.

It's quite feasible for ISPs to complete, and to serve geographically
distributed markets. It costs extra to create an ISP, with, say, a
filtering web proxy, and/or a PICS rating service. But if there is a market
for the service, people will use it in prefernce to plain ISPs.

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    Albert Lunde                      Albert-Lunde at nwu.edu