How is Internet filtering used?

The term Internet filtering describes the technologies or software used to prevent user-access to specific sites or types of content available on the internet. Internet filtering is desirable for many reasons to organizations, institutions, companies, countries or individuals. Companies may improve productivity by restricting their employees' access to hobby and leisure sites; libraries or schools may be seeking to protect children from sexually explicit sites (and in some states are required to do so by law); while some countries' governments want to control the information to which their citizens are exposed. Parents and caregivers may wish to choose where their children go within the World Wide Web.

What options does internet filtering include?

An increasing number of companies offer Internet filtering or blocking software, with a range of options to suit different needs. In general, most packages include a combination of the ability to block access to potentially offensive or harmful websites and newsgroups, restrict chat and instant messaging, filter web-based email, monitor and manage the user's time spent online, access and download specific programs, and protect personal information and identity.

Controversy About Internet Filtering

Over the last few years, researchers have undertaken several studies to test the reliability and scope of Internet filtering, partly in response to the outcry from US-based groups who claim that Internet filtering violates First Amendment rights against censorship. Initially, many of these groups were started in relation to the rights of people under eighteen, but as incidents have increased that expose the danger to younger people of making contacts over the Internet, and in some cases of viewing disturbing material, even some of the most liberal parents have accepted and implemented some form of Internet filtering on their home computers to protect their children.