The Cyberspace 'Holy War'

This newest wrinkle in provatization is being marketed to Christian home-schoolers.

By Robin Blumner

It's a partnership as natural as Adam and Eve: organizations devoted to promoting conservative religious beliefs are linking up with Internet filtering software to sculpt the world of cyberspace into a Christian-friendly environment.

The Tupelo, Miss.-based American Family Association, a leading member of what is known as the religious right, promotes its American Family Filter by claiming the product "stands apart from other blocking software, employing a uniquely Christian approach to our content filtering." A promotion for the MStar.Net Internet provider, owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [more popularly known as the Mormons], says it will "help maintain LDS [Latter-day Saints] values when you use the Internet." An Internet service named 7.11.Net/Global Internet Ministries claims not only to filter out pornography, profanity and violence, but also to uphold "Biblical standards."

None of this on its face is worthy of much comment. Certainly software developers and Internet providers have the right to offer a service that will appeal to a conservative religious audience. If they want to dump all information on safe sex practices into an offensive sex category that the filter will automatically block, so be it.

The problem arises when those same religiously grounded filtering standards find their way onto public school computers.

In a research report titled "Filtering Software: The Religious Connection," Nancy Willard, director of the Responsible Netizen Center for Advanced Technology in Education at the University of Oregon, documents a suspiciously cozy relationship between a number of filtering software companies and conservative religious groups. Her conclusions suggest that some popular filtering products may have a religious right bias. Yet those same wares are being used by and marketed to schools for their classroom and library computers.

Willard found that the Bsafe Online filtering service, which targets schools and libraries, grew out of American Family Online, a part of the American Family Association (AFA). The AFA says its mission is "to motivate and equip citizens to change the culture to reflect Biblical truth." She also reports that S4F Technologies Inc. markets to schools as EduGuard. Yet S4F "appears to have started as a religious [Internet provider] known as Family Connect," said the report. The Godly Business Woman magazine recommends Family Connect as "the Internet standard for Christian families."

SYMANTEC CORP.

Willard also found that Symantec Corp., which has a substantial presence in schools, blocks graphic sexual imagery right along with information on sexual orientation. The company's product is used by religious Internet services such as What Would Jesus View, and 7.11.Net/Global Internet Ministries, which tell their customers that blocking is done in accordance with Christian values.

In 2000, Congress made sure nearly every computer in a public school is filtered when it passed the Children's Internet Protection Act. As a condition of receiving federal money for Internet wiring and other technology enhancements, the law requires schools and libraries to install a "technology protection measure" on computers to prevent minors from accessing materials deemed "harmful." But the act doesn't prescribe the kind of filters schools must use, and the vacuum has been filled by clumsy products that tend to block substantially more than is legally required.

Last year, Consumer Reports gave a big thumbs down to some of the most widely used filtering software programs because so many of them blocked valuable Web sites on controversial subjects and also allowed graphic sexual material to slip through. The magazine's analysis raised serious First Amendment questions, since the use of faulty, over-inclusive filtering programs impermissibly limits access to information. (A challenge to the law's application to library computers is currently before the courts.)

Willard's research adds yet another layer of constitutional concern. Sloppy filtering due to imprecise technology is one thing. But what if some filters are purposely designed to promote a religious or ideological agenda?

Reprinted from The St. Petersburg Times, March 15, 2002.

Summer 2002