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November 13, 1998/ 24 Cheshvan 5759, Vol. 51, No. 8
ADL unveils filters to block Web hate sites
DEBRA N. COHEN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
NEW YORK - The World Wide Web - it's a seemingly limitless information frontier that allows nearly anyone an internationally visible soapbox. And in response to concerns that children were stumbling across sites that portray graphic sex or spout virulent hate attacking Jews, blacks and homosexuals, the Internet industry has come up with several commercially available filters to screen out those containing language deemed objectionable by the filter-buyer - who is, in many cases, a parent.
The Anti-Defamation League jumped into the fray this week by introducing its own blocking software, called the ADL HateFilter. Instead of screening out sites based on an objectionable word - which in the ADL's case would require educational sites debunking Holocaust revisionism to be blocked out along with those promoting the concept - HateFilter obstructs access to specific Web pages.
About 200 are blocked by the debut version of the program. Those selected for filtering are devoted to "promoting hatred or hostility on the basis of race, religion, ethnicity or other immutable characteristics like sexual orientation," said Elizabeth Coleman, national civil rights director for the ADL. "We see this as a parents' tool," Coleman said. "We talk about it as your children needing a crossing guard on the information superhighway."
Web filters of all sorts have come under fire for censoring information that some believe should be readily available. The ADL, said it's not censoring anyone's right to put on the Web whatever they wish.
"We're not saying they can't do it, but that parents have a right not to invite it into their homes," said Coleman.
The HateFilter, which can be downloaded from ADL's Web site (www.adl.org), is designed so that both children and adults can use the computer.
Once downloaded, the program is free for the first week. It then costs $29.95 for the first three months and $29.95 for each year thereafter.
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