Thursday, October 14, 2004

Porn Filters

The Corvallis - Benton County Public Library is trying out filtering software, inspired by a Federal blunt instrument. Results so far:

sites blocked: 113

actual porn sites blocked: 16

Library users who tried to access porn online: 0.004% (I'd like to know what that is in absolute numbers: Two? Four?)

Library users in the children's section who tried to access porn: none

The Library Board have decided to try a different software package. Hmph.

Something tells me that my brother David, who works for a filtering software company, isn't going to like this news item. But, he's had plenty of time to get used to results like these.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

well zero kids may have tried to access porn sites...but as nearly anyone who has gone online has discovered...sometimes porn sites are accessed when they arent sought out. i have no problem at all with filters on computers in the library that are to be used by kids.

Anonymous said...

Of course, I remember at the Minneapolis Downtown Library getting on the children's room computer (It was a relative emergency) and first having to click *off* 50 or so windows of shavedbeaver.com so I can understand why there might be some concern.

SKJAM!

john_m_burt said...

SKJAM, I know how that goes.

My favorite unwelcome - online - porn story is the time I typed "Tolkien Elvish alphabet" into a search engine and got a whole page of links to porn sites.