Date: Fri, 8 May 1998 09:05:01 -0400
From: belmonte@cns.nyu.edu (Matthew Belmonte)
Message-Id: <199805081305.JAA29290@cns.nyu.edu>
To: senator@dpm.senate.gov, senator_al@damato.senate.gov
Subject: oppose S.1619

As your constituent I want to express my opposition to S. 1619, the Internet
School Filtering Act.  While a good idea in principle, such filtering is most
efficiently and uninvasively handled at the level of individual communities and
families, not at the level of the federal government.  While a variety of
filtering software exists, each filtering product reflects the biases and
shortcomings of the vendor that produces it.  As a study by the Electronic
Privacy Information Center (http://www2.epic.org/reports/filter-report.html)
has shown, some of these products block access to useful and child-appropriate
information.  Local communities should have the freedom to experiment with a
variety of blocking strategies, including the option of no blocking at all if
that's what parents, students, and community members decide on.  This
decision does not need to be legislated at the federal level.