5.4: Freedom of Information legislation and information access issues

Table of Contents

1. Freedom of Information legislation
2. Acceptable Use Policies
3. Content filtering
   1. Approaches to content filtering
   2. The Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA)
   3. Walled Gardens
   4. Suppliers of filtering software
4. Internet safety with younger clients

Content filtering

Internet filtering systems used in libraries are designed to prevent clients accessing unsuitable material. When the filtering system is turned on, users cannot open or link to web sites that the filtering system recognises as unsuitable.

The filtering system is a software package which can be installed on a PC. The software can use one or both of two principles.

1. When a site is requested, it will check the URL of the site against a list of proscribed sites. If the site is on the list, the software will block access. The list is updated at periodic intervals by the software supplier.

2. When a site is requested, the software will check over the site and attempt to recognise key words which would indicate an unsuitable site and then block access.

Before proceeding, think of a disadvantage for each of the above methods.

Let´s look now at some Approaches to content filtering ...