[WEB4LIB] Re: Blocking web-based chat

[Bob Duncan]

At 03:27 PM 11/23/99 -0800, Dan Lester wrote:
>We don't consider it censorship at all to block chat, email, and game 
>playing.  We're NOT blocking type of content or subject matter.  We're 
>blocking FUNCTION.  You can look at dirty pictures in our library, but you 
>can't go to a dirty chat room.  You can look at religious websites, but you 
>can't go to a Bible chat room either.

I have no problem with blocking by function to suit the operational needs
of an institution, but if you block an entire host, only *one* of whose
services is chat, then you're blocking the non-chat content too.  (We block
Web-based email on our public machines but do not block hosts unless mail
is their only function.)  Some of the hosts on the blacklist at
<http://www.84.com/blacklist.htm> provide content separate from the links
to chat---just because there's no wholesale blocking by type of content
doesn't mean censorship is not at work.  (I looked at a random sampling of
the sites from this list when Dan first announced it and found a lot of
content blocked in the name of blocking by function.  I picked only one
site today and it contained content aside from chat.)

I applaud Dan's effort at compiling and sharing this list, but blind use of
it to block Websites means you will be blocking content as well as
function.  Censorship is censorship regardless of the good intentions.

Bob Duncan

~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`
  Robert E. Duncan
  Systems Librarian
  David Bishop Skillman Library
  Lafayette College
  Easton, PA 18042
  610-330-5156
  duncanr at lafayette.edu
  http://www.library.lafayette.edu/