Furthermore, some filter makers don't carefully examine the sites they block. Despite these absurdities, the Ontario provincial government recently chose SmartFilter to censor employee access to the Internet. Other sites that have been blocked by some filtering programs include the Glide Memorial United Methodist Church, the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper, the official website for the Quakers, and the American Association of University Women, Maryland. While worried parents are free to install filters on their home computers, the truth is that filters are currently too crude a tool for libraries depend on. There are good alternatives to filters.
Libraries can develop acceptable use policies, explaining the ground rules for Internet access.
And privacy screens can limit inadvertent exposure to offensive material. The furor over filters really misses the point. It's clearly the former. Instead of censoring, libraries should focus their energies on developing good portals to the Internet, with recommended sites for different age groups.