Originally published February 26 2006
U.S. Justice Department says web filters don't do enough to protect children
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
While web filtering software designed to protect children from certain internet content has improved, it is still not perfect, and the U.S. Justice Department, in its support of an anti-porn law that is being criticized by civil liberties advocates, argues filters are not protecting minors well enough.
The agency voiced its concern about the technology last week as it geared up to defend an antiporn law that's under attack from civil liberties advocates.
The case, which deals with the 1998 Child Online Protection Act, grabbed attention Thursday after the department subpoenaed Internet search companies, including Google and Yahoo, for millions of search records.
What's new: The recent DOJ subpoena for search records from Google and others--an attempt, the department says, to determine the effectiveness of Web porn filters--has raised the question of just how well such filters work.
Internet addresses obtained from the search engines could be tested against filtering programs to evaluate their effectiveness, the agency said in a court filing.
More than half of U.S. families with online teens use filtering programs, with more than 12 million copies of such software in use, according to a study conducted last year by the Pew Internet and American Life Project.
The report indicated that use of filters in U.S. homes grew 65 percent from four years earlier, as children logged on to the Web in ever greater numbers and the online porn industry continued to flourish.
For instance, developers of filters have learned to thwart some of the more common devices designed to disable them and have added more customization features that give parents greater control over the type of material that can be blocked.
The products that scored highest in the Consumers Union's evaluation were Safe Eyes from SafeBrowse.com, Microsoft's Parental Controls, CyberPatrol from SurfControl, Symantec's Norton Internet Security and McAfee's Privacy Service.
Web filtering software blocks access to objectionable material through a variety of methods, including blacklists, keyword lists, content rating systems and white lists.
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