Internet Censorship
Thomas Klapp
Chad Coyle
What’s Happening
• Censorship of the
Internet is an area of
massive debate.
However, not just the
internet is being
censored.
Banned Stuff
• E for Ecstasy is a book about the drug
MDMA and is banned in Australia. The
book is still legal in the US for
now.(Ockerbloom)
• In Merrimack, NH Shakespeare's the
Twelfth Night was banned because it had a
young woman dress as a boy.(Ockerbloom)
Banned Stuff
• Many high schools require students to get parent’s
permission to read Shakespeare’s Hamlet,
Macbeth, and King Lear. (Ockerbloom)
• Little Red-Riding Hood was banned in 2 schools in
1989.(University of Pennsylvania)
• Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer were banned
because of alleged racism.(Ockerbloom)
Banned Stuff
• The original version of Dr. Dolittle was
banned because of race, and was later
revised.(Ockerbloom)
• Is the Bible banned from schools. Not yet,
but it has an appeal to the supreme court
coming up.(Ockerbloom)
Banned Books
• Goosebumps Series, R.L. Stine
These imaginative children's books which
include "scary stories" have been
challenged in schools and libraries across
the country. While some parents call for the
removal of the books, many more parents
have rallied to defend them. (ACLU)
Internet Censorship
• Internet Providers use special software to
block certain sites.
• AOL uses “Young Teen” which blocks sites
that contain sexually explicit material, or
sites with tobacco or drug use.(The
Humanist)
AOL
AOL “Young Teen” failed to block 14%
of objectionable sites. And it successfully
blocked 63% of sites offering
controversial, but legitimate,
information on topics like
homosexuality (Flagg).
Internet Censorship
• The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
mandates many software programs used for
blocking explicit material.
• “A federal law mandating blocking software in
libraries makes about as much sense as a law
requiring a stranger to randomly pull books off
shelves and refuse to tell librarians or patrons
which books are gone” –ACLU senior staff
attorney Chris Hansen (Flagg).
Internet Censorship
• In a glaring example among many, one
major company blocked a local soccer
club because the keywords "boys 12
and under" is a phrase also used by
child pornographers (Richtel).
Internet Censorship
• Here are some names of Filters and the %’s
at which they un-successfully filtered
objectionable sites:
• Net Nanny: 52%
• Cyber Snoop: 90%
• Cyber Patrol, Cybersitter 2000, Internet
Guard Dog, and Norton Internet Security
2001: 70-80% (The Humanist)
Cited Sources
Check out the cited sources
page.
Cited Sources