Comments on: Updated: Dumb Filter

By: Kurt von Finck

Kurt von Finck — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 08:13:40 +0000

Collectively we must worry about the kids of parents who aren’t there for them.

I don’t think seeing the pubic region of Michelangelo’s David sculpture is the worst of these kids’ problems.

I don’t think seeing the pubic region of Michelangelo’s David sculpture is going to turn them into sexual predators or sociopaths.

And I certainly don’t think seeing the pubic region of Michelangelo’s David sculpture is really going to have more of a harmful effect on any child more than the evening newscasts.

One man’s opinion. Your right to dissent is safe with me.

By: Joe Hunkins

Joe Hunkins — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 18:33:17 +0000

Hmmm – my previous post which has the word P**S was censored? OK with me as I think we need more content controls, but what’s YOUR justification? You are saying that commercial/ censorship is fine, just be sure not to censor any sex stuff?

By: Joe Hunkins

Joe Hunkins — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 18:29:54 +0000

Penis posting won't play in Peoria, and it shouldn't. I don't worry about MY kids, who have good supervision. Collectively we must worry about the kids of parents who aren't there for them. The internet community is failing miserably in this respect, leaving responsibility at the door of "better parenting" because we can't come up with a good solution. The shame is on us more than the censorship crowd.

By: Seth Finkelstein

Seth Finkelstein — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 17:17:23 +0000

People interested in the subject may enjoy my censorware research, particularly the reports SmartFilter's Greatest Evils and SmartFilter - I've Got A Little List. Let me know if there's anybody who will fund and defend such investigations. I had to abandon the research for lack of support, and too much risk of getting sued.

By: dataguy

dataguy — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 16:17:03 +0000

I like the Boing Boing site a lot. However, it's not exactly a "G" rated site in my mind. Not only is a small amount of their content not appropriate for a young audience but some of the sites they link to on the home page (Suicide Girls, Disneyland Orgy poster and Fark) keep me from being able to introduce the site to my daughters. I think the tone of Boing Boing's response is a bit too offended. I would like to see Cory Doctorow admit that there are audiences for which Boing Boing is not an appropriate site.

Having said that, I think pushing back in an attempt to get "Smartfilter" to improve the quality of their filtering is a good cause.

By: Gordon Cowtan

Gordon Cowtan — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 09:31:51 +0000

to be fair, boing boing does occasionally feature nudity on it's page. there are times i've been reading it at work and had to close the browser quickly because the image did not jive with our "work place policies"

Fair enough, but in that case filter out the nudity, not a whole site just because it contains a very small amount of "unacceptable content".

By: ZF

ZF — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 03:12:39 +0000

Before we get carried away hyperventilating here we should pause to note that Boing Boing may well be exactly the sort of site a place like the UAE wants to filter out, i.e. this company may understand its clients very well.

By: Mr Juggles

Mr Juggles — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 01:35:31 +0000

If Secure Computing’s clients didn’t want this type of filtering, don’t you think they’d change their filter? Maybe this is what the market wants.

By: todd kennedy

todd kennedy — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 01:17:26 +0000

so it's not a totally wrong mis-categorization.