Media Release

Electronic Frontiers Australia Inc.

                    Media Release                  March 28th 1999

PROBLEMS WITH NET CENSORSHIP IN NSW SCHOOLS

Electronic Frontiers Australia today warned of problems with the Internet
filtering system used by NSW state schools.

The United States based Censorware Project has released a study of
Internet filtering in the Utah public school system.  The filtering
system used by Utah schools, SmartFilter, is also used by NSW schools.

"SmartFilter's vendors claim that all blocked sites are checked by
people", said EFA board member Danny Yee, "but the report demonstrates
that this is false, and that the system in fact uses automated keyword
matching."

The study shows that hundreds of sites have been inaccurately
blocked by SmartFilter.  Among them are the Iowa Division of Narcotics
Enforcement (in the "Drugs" category); the home page of a Mr Walter Wager
("Gambling"); a copy of the works of Shakespeare ("Criminal Skills");
the Web's best known *anti*-hate-speech site (as "Hate Speech"); and an
assortment of non-sexual gay and lesbian sites ("Sex").

Because the SmartFilter block lists are not public, the bad blocks found
by the Censorware Project are only a sample.

"This is what inevitably happens when when you let automated filtering
software perform censorship", commented Mr Yee.  "And it is not something
technological progress will fix - avoiding these kinds of ridiculous
blocks would require human level artificial intelligence."

"Those responsible for the NSW school filtering system should definitely
read the Utah report.  The drawbacks of using SmartFilter may outweigh
the benefits."

"Using such systems in schools is bad enough", Mr Yee concluded, "but
it is now proposed that they be used country-wide, to censor the entire
Australian Internet!"

ENDS

      --------------------------------------------------------------
      Electronic Frontiers Australia Inc  --  http://www.efa.org.au/
      representing Internet users concerned with on-line freedoms
      --------------------------------------------------------------
      Media Contacts

      Kim Heitman          Danny Yee
      Phone: 08 9458 2790  Phone: 02 9351 5159 (w) / 02 9955 9898 (h)
      kheitman@it.com.au   Email: danny.yee@efa.org.au
      --------------------------------------------------------------

BACKGROUND

The Censorware Project press release
	- http://censorware.net/press/press_03-23-99.html

The Utah report
	- http://censorware.net/reports/utah/

SmartFilter used in NSW schools
	- http://www.ozemail.com.au/~pware/misc/dse_access.html

More information about SmartFilter 
	- http://peacefire.org/censorware/SmartFilter/

SmartFilter categories and examples
	- http://www.mns.net.au/info/SmartFilter.html

Alston suggests automated filtering be used on Australian Internet backbones
	"there are application blocking levels, there are filters and
	other systems that can be applied by ISP's, by backbone network
	providers, there are a whole range of ways in which proxy servers
	can be used to filter."
	- http://www.dcita.gov.au/nsapi-text/?MIval=dca_dispdoc&ID=3653

One parent's experiences:
	From: "Mark Hughes" 
	To: "Link" 
	Subject: NSW Government Censorship
	Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1999 18:07:13 +1100

	My 10 year old son goes to a NSW Government primary school.
	With much fanfare, the NSW Government (like all other governments)
	has boasted about it's computers / internet in schools policy.
	And my son's primary school has quite a few computers, and
	connection to the internet (ISDN line).

	So I asked him what it was like using the internet at school.
	His response - "not worth using".  He told me that a search with
	any of the common search engines on relatively tames subject -
	like pokemon games (currently a hot item with 10 year olds)
	- brought up hundreds of sites, but clicking on most of them
	resulted in a long delay before the censorship software came
	back with an 'access not permitted' screen.

	I asked my daughter (NSW Govt High School student) what her
	experience was using the internet at school.  Same response.
	"Not worth it - so many sites are blocked, it slows down using
	the web so much that its a waste of time".

	Needless to say, I let my kids cruise the net from home where
	we're not silly enough to use censoring software.

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