Among the winners of the Digital Freedom Network’s Foil the Filters Contest announced September 28 was Jim Kuhn, an intern on ALA’s Intellectual Freedom Committee. Kuhn received a “Poetic Justice Award” for demonstrating that the Internet filtering software Cybersitter blocked an anti-pornography Web site promoted by the traditional-values group Focus on the Family. The Pure Intimacy site, intended to be a “resource for those struggling with sexual temptations” and the “psychological bondage” that is a “major reason why individuals go online,” was blocked for using the terms “porno,” “hardcore porn,” “sexual,” “nudity,” and “bondage.”
Kuhn told American Libraries that the software also blocked his attempts to find out from the Dr. Laura Web site when her show featuring Internet porn in public libraries would be shown locally.
DFN awarded its grand prize to a student who was prevented from accessing his own high school’s Web site from the school library because the filtering software blocked the word “high.”
The Digital Freedom Network is a Newark, New Jersey–based organization that promotes freedom of expression using Internet technology.
Posted October 2, 2000.