[WEB4LIB] Amazing Smart Card Aids Filtering Dilemma (Article)

[Dan Lester]

At 10:16 AM 7/31/99 -0700, Floyd Ingram wrote:
>The card is encoded
>for each individual patron, so, for instance, adults can insert their card
>and have full access to the net, while a child's card can be programmed to
>provide only filtered access at the same workstation. This innovation
>transfers the onus of responsibility directly from librarians to parents,
>who would then decide their children's level of access.

Interesting concept, but I seriously wonder about the application.  The 
kids could thus be sitting next to someone viewing porn.  The kids will 
join together with whichever kid has the highest rating, of course, just as 
they do to see the Playboy magazine some big kid has.

Issuing the cards sounds like a real adventure, too.  You'd have to issue a 
vast number of them, probably at a buck apiece or so for the cards.  And, 
everyone would have to queue up to get theirs and then pick which options 
they wanted....and would be reasonable to have ten or more different 
categories to block.  Let's see....I'll take violence, no Sadism, nudity in 
great art, but not from other sources, anti-gay, but not anti-christian, 
etc, etc.....  The cost of the filtering software and the card readers will 
also be non-trivial.  And of course as Johnny gets older you'll have to 
reprogram his card.

And, as we all know, no filtering system is perfect, so we'll still get 
plenty of complaints.

Will it work?  Well, yes, like lots of things, it will work more or 
less.  Will it solve all of your problems?  No way.

cheers

dan

--
Good, Fast, and Cheap: Which two of the three would you like?
Dan Lester, 3577 East Pecan, Boise, ID 83716 USA 208-383-0165
dan at 84.com   http://www.84.com/  http://www.postcard.org/