Values, not filters

[Robert J. Tiess]

Filtering, in libraries or anywhere, is no longer, merely
a matter of "free speech" or "intellectual freedom" for me.
Although these are valid and critical points with regards
to universal and sacred civil liberties, filters only help
to mask a far deeper problem:  the global moral crisis.

Filters block content.  Filters do nothing more than block
content.  Filters are not parental substitutes, nor do they
address the larger problem of decadent content generation
or the desire to access detrimental content online or via
any other media.  They do nothing to improve users or to
raise the quality of data.  They can only hope to place
more impediments between a user an information, impediments
that are not even dependable.  It's time the real problems
of values and morals not be masked any longer.  It's time
to look well beyond filters for an answer to the Internet
content problem, back to the morals that will sustain a
person for a lifetime wherever they are, online or elsewhere.

Morality or parental love and guidance cannot be automated.
If a parent has time to purchase and install a filter, that
parent has time to talk to their children about not only
the Internet but life before and beyond cyberspace.  What's
needed here is something far beyond any technological device
can provide, and it's time the pro-filterists get this into
their heads.  The very software you promote does nothing to
promote and nurture a person's morals but instead allows
content and curiosity for that content to proliferate.  You
must understand your cause to be wholly lost the moment you
honestly believe technology can ever hope to replace sound
moral instruction and parental guidance.  Filters can imply
this, whether that is the intent or not.

I recently wrote to Vice President Gore on this matter, a
message inspired by his recent comments regarding a new
initiative to help parents moderate their children's access.
I believe this is approaching the Internet content problem
from the wrong end.  Rather than parents relying on
technology to block users, young or mature, from going in
x many directions, promote the *right* directions in which
to go, be pro-information, pro-access, pro-responsibility,
pro-parental accountability, pro-common sense, pro-values
with as little technology or third-party intervention
involved as possible.  Teach everyone of all ages to know
better, do better, think better, communicate and coexist
with each other.  Teach them now.

This was never merely about censorship, although many
pro-filterists always cling to that argument because it is
all too easy to use "free speech" as a means for many (but
not all) of them to advance ulterior flawed agendas to
stifle human rights and attempt to diminish public
institutions like libraries.  No, this is a human dilemma
that goes far beyond the Internet, beyond information
access.  And this problem requires immediate and careful
human intervention, not some artifically intelligent proxy
value system.  Only values, morals, common sense, can help
a person on or off the Internet.  No software can filter
real life.  The solutions are age-old and as "platform
independent" as they come:  develop good, strong values
and morals and impart those to others.  Love and help and
sustain one another, and understand this was, is, and will
be the only way toward global betterment.

Below is my message to the Vice President.

Respectfully submitted,

Robert J. Tiess
rjtiess at warwick.net
http://members.tripod.com/~rtiess

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Subject: Re: "Remarks by the Vice President on the Internet"
Date: Wed, 05 May 1999 23:56:18 -0400
From: "Robert J. Tiess" <rjtiess at warwick.net>
Reply-To: rjtiess at warwick.net
To: vice.president at whitehouse.gov

May 5, 1999

Re: "Remarks by the Vice President on the Internet"
    http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/New/html/19990505-4219.html


Dear Mr. Vice President Gore,


I had the opportunity of reading your comments
today regarding a new initiative designed to
help parents regulate their children's use of
the Internet.  While I certainly admire the larger
interest in seeing the Internet become a better
place for all of us, I am concerned the emphasis
in any such effort for betterment should ever
become preoccupied by any deceptively glimmering
prospect of technological solutions and not the
true fundamental basis of this problem--namely
values, morality, or the lack thereof among
Internet content providers and users online.

I would hope any discussion of the Internet
content problem and related initiatives would
reaffirm the fact technology cannot possibly
relieve parents of their duties to instill
within their families a strong sense of morality
and an active commitment to values.  Their
involvement is key, as is their accountability
and the responsibility of their children.  At a
time when it would be all too easy to turn toward
technology for the answers to all our problems,
we must always remember to revisit the permanent
and proven solutions of old fashioned virtues,
morality, religious instruction, and the positive
promotion of social coexistence on local and
global levels.  This is where national attention
can and should linger, as these are the things
that will sustain Internet users young and mature
both on the Internet and in real life.

Therefore, I would hope values, not technology,
would be the primary, central, and closing theme
of any initiative or discussion regarding the
Internet content problem, or the sole theme.
Values, not technology, empowers this great nation,
and is the source of our wonderful democracy and
the inspiration to all those who look toward our
nation for guidance.  We will demonstrate certain
moral strength by empowering everyone, not merely
parents, through moral education so the best
decisions are consistently rendered wherever
personal challenges to values arise, on or off
the Internet.

It would be an honest revelation to any concerned
parent or citizen considering filtration
technology that any such mechanism employed to
preempt access to undesired content is a temporal,
fractional solution at best.  We must approach
the issue at the root, not the branches--we must
address the social, psychological, familial
elements which lead users to proliferate and/or
engage in the content in question here.  We must
also recognize the Internet content problem as
something rather indicative of the moral state of
the world, not merely a relative population of
online users.  Technology may indeed succeed in
preventing some part of this, but never the whole.

We would do well rather to invest our time and
global collective of human resources in helping
parents, guardians, teachers, and ultimately
children themselves develop and nurture morals
in themselves and among each other.  Here is
where Church and State, while formally separate,
recombine to advance some common, basic interests.
When this occurs, the dark sources of these deep
and complex issues can be meaningfully addressed
with real hopes of bettering the Internet content
situation and broader information access off-line.

Our grand nation is founded firmly on morals,
our Constitution on a simple yet profound value
system that cannot be reduced to algorithms in
some filtration program.  The Internet content
problem is a human problem and as such demands
human solutions; the less technology involved,
all the better.  Morality cannot be automated,
and this reality must be extended to all those
who may invest hope and finances in filtration
technology.  I have endeavored to remind this
to all those who have expressed excessive faith
in filters, especially via a website I created,
"InterNetWorth: Encouraging Values over Filters"
(http://networth.virtualave.net).  Only values
and morality can thoroughly insulate users from
any potentially unwelcome information content.
Technology can and does fail, whereas morality
persists and prevails.

The pro-information approach is very powerful,
where users are pointed toward excellent
websites, rather than shielded from potentially
offensive data.  Libraries have been involved
for many years now, creating Internet resource
guides for their patrons and other online users
in and beyond their communities.  A representative
sample of that ongoing activity can be reviewed
in a guide at my site, "The New Athenaeum"
(http://members.spree.com/athenaeum) as well
as other age-appropriate sites online, such as
"KidsClick!" (http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/KidsClick!/)
and comprehensive indices such as the Internet
Public Library (http://www.ipl.org) and Berkeley's
"Librarians' Index to the Internet"
(http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/InternetIndex/).
In dedicating themselves daily to the grand
purpose of connecting people with good, dependable
information, librarians and others have sacrificed
much personal time and energy in helping catalog
and organize the wealth of online information.
A volunteer approach to electronic resource
cataloging is also in progress at the Open
Directory Project (http://www.dmoz.org).  There
are many other fine examples out there all working
toward common goals of a better Internet.

And while the Internet content problem is most
popularly debated in the context of the First
Amendment, this debate transcends concerns of
free speech and converges at the core of human
expression and free will:  what people wish to
express and/or access.  Abridging those freedoms
does nothing to improve the content--neither in
its creation or in its audience's desire to
access such information.  Once again, only can
a firmly defined personal set of values
successfully determine what actions are right for
any one person to take and positively affect
what content ultimately goes on the Internet.

So as there is still a good deal to be learned
from all voices on all sides of this vast debate,
the problem clearly necessitates a response far
more powerful and disciplined than any technology
can possibly deliver.  We should never yield our
ability to render sound personal moral decisions
to any technological mechanism, however advanced
it might be, especially as it concerns parents. 
Nothing supplements quality family time and
familial love.  The solution of values over filters
only reaches fruition when parents, guardians and
teachers become active, willful and positive
participants in their child's intellectual and
moral development, performing not as censors but
as enablers, educators, instillers of faith and
esteem, fostering trust in a generation who can
in turn proliferate and perpetuate that knowledge
among successive generations.  We can and must
seize this opportunity to return to our moral
foundations, renew our commitment to education,
rededicate ourselves to the Constitution, and
reacquaint ourselves with our respective religious
faiths if all netizens are to coexist and make
positive and permanent gains in the Internet
content matter and broader information access in
the real world.

Thank you for the honor and opportunity of being
able to address you and share with you some ideas
I consider to be important to every present and
future user online as the Internet extends its
presence throughout households worldwide.

Take care, and God bless.


Respectfully yours,
Robert J. Tiess

E-mail:    rjtiess at warwick.net
Home page: http://members.tripod.com/~rtiess

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