Subj: [other-side] Fwd: Christian Groups Blocked By Filtering Software flash
Date: 98-10-14 02:04:25 EDT
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Forwarded from American Family Association:
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Christian Groups Blocked By Filtering Software
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (BP) -- Because of the alleged "intolerance" of their
biblical stance that homosexuality is sin, the Internet sites of the
American Family Association and various other Christian and pro-
family organizations have been blocked from public access by Cyber Patrol,
which provides filtering software to 85 percent of America's on-line
providers, including America Online, CompuServe, Prodigy, AT&T, Bell
AtlanticNet and Scholastic Net.
The powerful decision as to which Internet sites on the World Wide Web to
filter out rests with a 12-member committee charged with overseeing Cyber
Patrol.
The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and unnamed
"women's rights groups," a "teacher's union," a "minister" and a
"superintendent of schools," along with Morality in Media and the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), are
represented among the committee members who scan the Internet in search of
sites they feel are inappropriate for children.
Only Morality in Media has protested Cyber Patrol's blocking of AFA
and other Christian and family groups on the Internet.
In addition to the Internet site of the American Family Association, the
Internet sites of several Charlotte, N.C., organizations are being blocked:
The Charlotte Christian News, which earlier this year broke the story on the
Cyber Patrol blocking; WRCM, a Christian radio station; INSP, the Inspiration
cable television network; and "Quiet Thunder," a cartoon and children's
ministry.
"They have the power to completely censor any (Internet) web site they want to
censor," said WRCM general manager Ken Mayfield. "We were unaware they were
doing this to us until some listeners called and said they could no longer
access our web site. It's very chilling."
The action was taken after GLAAD complained that certain Christian and pro-
family groups were promoting "intolerance." Cyber Patrol lists a number of
category definitions it uses to restrict sites, known as "CyberNOTs." Among
those categories, in addition to intolerance, are violence/profanity, partial
nudity, full nudity, sexual acts, gross depictions, satanic or cult,
drugs/drug culture, militant/extremist, sex education, gambling,alcohol and
tobacco.
The Cyber Patrol definition of intolerance reads, "Pictures or text advocating
prejudice or discrimination against any race, color, national origin,
religion, disability or handicap, gender or sexual orientation. Any picture or
text that elevates one group over another. Also includes intolerant jokes or
slurs."
The action stunned the AFA, relegating it to a category generally
reserved for Skinheads, Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan.
AFA was equally shocked to learn that one of its primary opponents, GLAAD,
sits on the oversight committee. Additionally, GLAAD opposes Internet
filtering, even while continuing to participate in Cyber Patrol filtering
decisions.
"Cyber Patrol is blocking [our site] because we oppose the political
and cultural agenda of the homosexual rights movement," said AFA executive
assistant Buddy Smith.
"The AFA has never condoned violence, persecution or harassment; nor do we
advocate that homosexuals be denied the same rights of all citizens. However,
we do oppose and expose efforts to equate race, ethnic origin and religion
with the practice of same-sex sexual behavior for purposes of special civil
rights laws."
AFA, a strong supporter of filtering software to protect children on the
Internet, appealed the Cyber Patrol ruling in June, but the appeal was
rejected.
"At the CyberNOT Oversight Committee meeting held on June 9, 1998, the
Committee voted to uphold the decision to include the Web site www.afa.net
(AFA) on the CyberNOT list under the category of intolerance,"stated a terse
press release issued June 10 by The Learning Company, which manufactures a
variety of software products including Cyber Patrol.
"In light of suggestions made by the AFA and committee members, the Internet
Research team will be reviewing additional Web sites on both sides of the
issue to ensure that Cyber Patrol is categorizing similar expressions of
intolerance in the same way," the release continued from the Framingham,
Mass.,-based company.
"They (the AFA) probably don't see themselves as intolerant, and they may not
be intolerant people," Cyber Patrol spokeswoman Susan Getgood told The Orange
County (Calif.) Register. "But when we go through their Web site, there is a
great deal of material that refers to a group of people in what we considered
an intolerant manner."
According to the AFA, the offending sentences include: "We want to outlaw
public homosexuality. Indifference or neutrality toward the homosexual rights
movement will result in society's destruction by allowing civil order to be
redefined ... ."
Smith said he asked a Cyber Patrol committee member earlier this month if
there is any way AFA can oppose the homosexual rights movement and not be
blocked out by Cyber Patrol. "That's a good question, but I can't answer
that," was the reply Smith said he received.
When asked by The Charlotte Christian News if the intolerance label was the
cause for the restrictions placed on all the Christian and pro-family Internet
sites in question, Microsystems spokesperson Debbie Galdin said, "Yeah,
probably."
One other group, promoting paganism, successfully appealed the oversight
committee's decision to block its site recently.
The pagan group told the oversight committee they were offended by having
their Internet sites "lumped into a category with satanic or cult groups."
Promotional material showing that paganism is a constitutionally protected
religion in the United States -- which has no Satan or devil-like creature in
its doctrinal statements -- were provided to the committee.
"It is clear that pagan material does not meet the critieria and thus would
not be included (blocked any longer)," the committee said in a statement
released on the Cyber Patrol Internet site.
GLAAD, in its opposition to Internet filtering, issued a news release July 22
voicing sharp criticism of the U.S. Senate for passing the Internet School
Filtering Act.
The proposed new law would require schools and libraries to be certified by
the Federal Communications Commission as having selected some type of
filtering software to protect children from pornography and "chat room"
pedophiles. Schools and libraries could not receive federal funding for
Internet connections without the FCC certification.
Cyber Patrol, meanwhile, is offering a 25 percent discount to any school which
takes part in a government program that provides funds to schools desiring
Internet connections.
Jennifer Einhorn, GLAAD's director of communications, in a news release
critical of the Senate vote on school Internet filtering, said, "In a
society in which the Senate Majority Leader (Trent Lott, R.-Miss.) blanketly
equates millions of his fellow lesbian and gay constituents with criminals and
alcoholics, it is not surprising that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
youth experience that isolation to an even greater degree than their peers. It
is crucial that these youth not be denied access to the Internet."
The Cyber Patrol oversight committee's apparent reluctance to acknowledge
GLAAD's contradictory position of opposing Internet filtering while blocking
sites like AFA's has not gone unchallenged within the committee.
Bob Peters, president of Morality in Media, in a letter to the committee,
cited the ruthlessness with which homosexuals intend to advance their cause by
quoting from a homosexual magazine article which expressed their strategy for
convincing "straight" people that the homosexual lifestyle should be accepted.
"At a later stage of the media campaign for gay rights," Peters said, "it will
be time to get tough with remaining opponents. To be blunt, they must be
vilified. The public should be shown images of ranting homophobes whose
secondary traits and beliefs disgust middle America. These images might
include: the Ku Klux Klan demanding that gays be burned alive or castrated;
bigoted Southern ministers drooling with hysterical hatred to a degree that
looks both comical and deranged; menacing punks, thugs ... a tour of a Nazi
concentration camp." Peters also noted that GLAAD has likened Christian and
pro-family groups to "Radical Right, White Supremacist, and Neo-Nazi"
organizations.
"In my view, AFA is an organization which is in the mainstream of legitimate
discussion and debate on the subject of 'gay rights,'" Peters wrote. "AFA does
not promote, encourage or condone violence, harassment or persecution of
homosexuals; nor does it advocate that homosexuals be denied the same rights
that all other citizens have. AFA does oppose efforts to equate race, ethnic
origin and religion with the practice of same-sex sexual behaviors for
purposes of special civil rights laws."
As recently as 1995, Cyber Patrol blocked some homosexual Internet sites like
GLAAD's -- until GLAAD complained. Shortly thereafter, GLAAD was given a seat
on the Cyber Patrol oversight committee. "We made a commitment to correct the
situation and handled the entire matter within the time frame that was
established together with GLAAD," Getgood said in a news release.
Orthodox Christianity has long been a target of GLAAD criticism. In the past
year, GLAAD has intensified its rhetoric against the Southern Baptist
Convention's boycott of The Disney Company over concerns about a moral decline
in the conglomerate's values.
When minister and professional football star Reggie White told the Wisconsin
legislature March 26 that America is "going away from God" by "allowing
homosexuality to run rampant," GLAAD immediately sent out a call for its
Internet site newsletter subscribers (it claims 70,000) to voice their opinion
concerning White's remarks to White's team, the Green Bay Packers, and the
National Football League. White was denounced harshly in public and reportedly
lost his chance to work as a sportscaster for CBS once he finishes his
football career.
"As soon as someone like Reggie White speaks out, you're labeled a bigot, or
that you're intolerant," said AFA's Smith. "It's OK for them to oppose a
biblical viewpoint, but we can't promote one."
GLAAD unleashed a barrage of criticism against Sen. Lott, a Southern Baptist
layman, after he affirmed on Armstrong Williams' syndicated talk radio show
that "homosexuality is a sin, and that gay people should be assisted in
dealing with it just like alcohol ... sex addiction ... or kleptomaniacs.
There are all kinds of problems, addictions, difficulties, experiences of
things that are wrong, but you should try to work with that person to learn to
control that problem."
And GLAAD issued strong criticism when Christian and pro-family groups placed
advertisements in The New York Times, Washington Post and USA Today in July
offering help to homosexuals who want to leave their current lifestyle.
But in his letter to the Cyber Patrol committee, Morality in Media's Peters
highlighted yet another of GLAAD's contradictory positions: "There is now an
effort under way to prevent mental health professionals from providing therapy
to assist individuals who want to break free from the gay lifestyle. In other
words, it is OK for mental health professionals to 'confirm' persons in the
'gay lifestyle' but not to help them escape."
Internet filtering software designed to protect children "surfing" on the
Internet is not new. Prodigy was the first major on-line service to offer
parental access controls, beginning in the late 1980s. In recent years The
Learning Company has soared to a ranking of 223 on the Inc. 500 list of the
fastest-growing privately held companies in the country. The Learning
Company's Cyber Patrol, which claims to block out more than 500,000
Internet sites, is the nation's most used Internet filtering software.
The Learning Company reached a milestone in 1996 when it announced a deal to
provide Internet filtering software technology to America Online. With 12
million customers, AOL is the nation's most popular Internet provider. Four
telephone calls by Baptist Press to AOL were made in an attempt to discuss
AOL's relationship with The Learning Company and Cyber Patrol. None of the
calls were returned.
Under the terms of the agreement between AOL and The Learning Company,
according to a Sept. 9, 1996, news release, The Learning Company is charged
with dividing the AOL parental control sites into "Kids Yes," geared to
children 6 to 12 years of age, and "Teens Yes," for adolescents 12 to 16 years
old. Parents can access AOL's parental controls at keyword: Parental Controls.
The Cyber Patrol software program has been rated tops in the industry, but the
oversight committee's controversial decisions has caused some Christian and
pro-family organizations to reconsider which parental control software is
best.
"It's not trustworthy," said Dwayne Hastings, director of communications for
the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC). "I would
recommend any family to remove the software totally.
"Software that alleges to screen out offensive content are notoriously
ineffective," Hastings continued, noting most such filters as no more
effective than "a screen door in a hurricane."
Instead of client-side filtering software, Hastings suggests concerned
Christians check into service providers that screen web sites at the server
level before they can be accessed. The service utilizes "state-of- the-art
server-side" database filters to block Internet sites that contain dangerous
and offensive material from ever reaching the home computer. (See contact
information in sidebar)
Meanwhile, Smith said some unexpected opportunities have come AFA's way:
Traffic at the AFA Web site has nevertheless doubled since the Cyber Patrol
blockage. The organization averaged 13,000 contacts a month before the ban.
Now it gets more than 26,000 a month. Smith acknowledged that some of it is
hate mail from homosexuals, but three homosexual men -- asking for help in
getting out of their lifestyle -- have been among those recently contacting
the site.
"We believe that God is changing many homosexuals," Smith said. "The
Lord's taken what's meant for evil and made it something good."
Contact Information:
Cyber Patrol
600 Worcester Road
Framingham, MA 01702
Phone: (800) 828-2608
Web: www.cyberpatrol.com
E-Mail: webmaster@cyberpatrol.com
American Family Association
PO Drawer 2440
Tupelo, MS 38803
Phone: (601) 844-5036
Web: www.afa.net
BP - Baptist Press)
[Forwarded For Information Purposes Only - Not Necessarily Endorsed
By The Sender - A.K. Pritchard]
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