Example of IP web issue in the press

Charles T. Smith, Jr. cts at 5sc.net
Wed Jan 3 19:08:02 EST 2001


Note the last part...

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*****************************************************
Edupage is a service of EDUCAUSE, an international nonprofit
association dedicated to transforming education through
information technologies.
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[text deleted]

NEWS SITES MISTAKENLY BLOCKED BY FILTERS, STUDY SAYS
Internet filter programs are blocking access to many
non-offensive Web sites because of the high incidence of words
and phrases the filters search for, according to a study from
Peacefire.org. For example, the Cybersitter program identifies
an Amnesty.org news article as sexually explicit for containing
the phrase "at least 21." The phrase, however, is used to
describe the number of casualties in an international shooting
incident. Politicians in the United States and elsewhere want
filtering software to become a standard tool of libraries and
schools, but numerous students are complaining that such software
actually hampers their schoolwork. Such complaints prompted
Peacefire to run several filtering programs through a list of
Amnesty International-related sites. The results of the study
show that the software blocks more news sites than sexually
oriented sites, Peacefire claims. Ironically, the Realtime
Blackhole List is blocking the Peacefire Web site because the
program discovered an unrelated site on the same Web hosting
service that could potentially send spam.
(Cnet, 15 December 2000)




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