Censoring: Internet Censorship Methods and Effects http://www.lacarte.

org/about/censoring/

a s i i i i i i i
Censoring A la Carte©
Internet Censorship Methods and
Effects

[Home] [About] [Censoring] [?] [Map] [Newest] [Lose 'em]

nfortunately, it is not likely that you have made it to this page if you're running any of
the censorship software federally mandated in libraries and schools and marketed to
parents who wish to prevent their children from having free access (peacefire.org/censorware/) to the
web. In fact, if you do manage find your way here while using one of these programs, please
let us know. [Edited '04-Dec-15th to add:] Since issuing this challenge in late 2002 we have
received only one message that someone was able to get through using such a program. That
was a filter called 8e6, which seems to be unique among filtering software in making a
strong effort to not over filter. [end edit]

On This Page: See also, the A la Carte Essays:

Does Boycotting Equal Censorship?,
Overscreening, Self Rating, Online Freethought,
Freedom Read Banned Books!, Sexuality, Feminism
Organizations, Unschielded Erotica,
Personal
Responsitility, Online Censorship Articles i
. lacarte www

Overscreening

ensorship software products tend to screen out

some 99% (www2.epic.org/reports/filter-report.html) or more of useful
research sites, especially any that may be even vaguely
controversial or unorthodox. Some programs even block
sites or their entire Internet Service Provider for merely
i
being critical of
filtering
software [link
for this assertion gone bad].

Self Rating
In a large site such as this one, there is surely something to offend just
about everyone. The information available here should be of great
personal interest to most children. However, no effort has been put
forth to sanitize the presentation with some generic child in mind.
Alarmingly, some might argue that this site is therefore intentionally
contributing to juvenile delinquency and
would be subject to large fines and civil
i penalties under the draconian Child Online

1 of 3 26/3/2009 10:35 μμ
Censoring: Internet Censorship Methods and Effects http://www.lacarte.org/about/censoring/

Protection Act (censorware.org/ - bad link). In that case, having indicated a self
rating as child friendly could be interpreted as further
(safesurf.com/ssfaq.htm#rating) incrimination.

Online Freedom Organizations

For these reasons, A la Carte, Int'l endorses the Blue Ribbon Online
Free Speech Campaign (eff.org/blueribbon.html), and has joined the
sponsoring Electronic Freedom Foundation (eff.org) as an
Advocate Member. You are encouraged to do the same!
Also, consider signing up to receive a couple CDT Policy
Posts (cdt.org/join.html) each month. These are the folks who led the fight
against the Communications Decency Act [CDA].

Unschielded Erotica
On the other hand, as parents we need to have confidence in the sites
where we allow our children to roam. In that light, A la Carte promises
to never participate in the spreading of unshielded erotica (except this)
or of cruelty or even harsh discipline for people or other animals, nor
knowingly link to sites that do (except this). In fact, the A la Carte
Copyright Policy even specifies that such sites are unwelcome to link to
A la Carte, hopefully providing some measure of legal protection
against so-called 'backlinks.'

This policy is unchanged since before HTML Day #1.

Personal Responsibility
We (Dancr & David) display the logo of the Green Ribbon Campaign
with some hesitation. While we've
often taken great care to consider
the feelings of some who may
disagree, we're quite sure that
almost everyone could find
something here to offend them. Of
course, any time one chooses to talk about sex, religion, and politics
they're treading on thin ice. Members of the medical establishment
might be particularly insulted by our health pages. The world's top two
teacher associations are certainly insulted by our learning page. Even
the founders of the Green Ribbon Campaign would likely find our
religion page to be vulgar, profane and insulting. Never-the-less, we
appreciate the spirit in which that campaign is
presented.

Quote about Censorship

2 of 3 26/3/2009 10:35 μμ
Censoring: Internet Censorship Methods and Effects http://www.lacarte.org/about/censoring/

"I am opposed to any form of tyranny over the mind

of man." --- Thomas Jefferson

Other Censorship Quotes

And More Quotations on Censorship
Even More Quotations on Censorship
Other Quotes

Online Censorship Articles

.Censorware is Designed to Merely Give the Impression of Protection.

Makes the argument that censoring software doesn't have

to work to continue to be approved by politicians and
bureaucrats. All it needs to do is give the impression of
having tried to do the job.

Pagewaxing and Countermeasures

Covers a strategy of harassment and intimidation that

powerful corporate and political interests often use to
encourage authors of unfavored material to remove their
material from the internet. Legal threats are made against
authors and against their ISPs, or financial incentives are
offered to cause controvercial information to disappear.

SavageStupidity.com vs. Talk Radio Networks, Inc

Exposes the hypocrisy of of Talk Radio Networks in filing

suit against a website that is calling for boycots against
sponsors of The Savage Nation talk radio program.

Judy Blume Talks About Censorship (Judy Blume)

Anti-war band dropped from awards
A Brief History of Banned Music in the United States (Eric Nuzum)
Ratings Today: Censorship Tomorrow (Joseph D. Lasica)

Related A la Carte Pages

i. lacarte www

Check Out Our Cool Top Notch Google Ranking!

For THIS Page, For Others
s i i i i i i

Want to bookmark?
lacarte org about censoring
© Dancr updated '06-Feb-26th Back
[About] [Author] [Track] [Stars] [Link]

3 of 3 26/3/2009 10:35 μμ