I personally agree with Eric here, parents have the right to limit their
children's experiences. This is not dissimilar to me getting in trouble for
looking at a "Playboy" at age 10 -- this magazine was not on my parents
list of "unblocked" magazines. I see no difference here.
On the other hand, what _does_ bother me is when this kind of software is
taken out of the home and implemented at larger institutions like a public
library. The pragmatic reason for this is because the institution doesn't
want to deal with the wrath of the parents whose childern saw something
that they did not want them to see. This is a bit of a lazy excuse, but I
can see why they would choose to do it. But, now, _my_ rights as an adult
are limited which I do see as a problem.
On a side note, one solution related to this particular example was
implemented at, I think, the Philadelphia Library System. There, each
library card is encoded with the age of the holder. When the a visitor logs
on to a computer using his/her library card, the blocking goes into effect
if the a person is below a certain age. Now, what I don't know is whether
or not a parent could choose to have their child's library card "unblocked"
so that they could have access to the entire internet.
-- Mark
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Mark Coniglio, Artistic Co-Director | troika@panix.com
Troika Ranch | http://www.art.net/~troika
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