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Study: 1% of All Websites Are Pornographic; Filters Over 90% Effective

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 15, 2006 - 3:36pm.
Philadelphia - According to the findings of a U.S. government study, about 1% of all websites indexed by Google and Microsoft are sexually explicit, the Associated Press reported.

The study was conducted in association with a court case challenging the government's 1998 Child Online Protection Act (COPA), which would have compelled explicit site owners to secure proof of age before allowing Americans to enter their sites. The law was blocked via a preliminary injunction by the Supreme Court in 2004.

Philip B. Stark, a statistics professor at the University of California at Berkeley, found that AOL's Mature Teen filter technology successfully blocked 91% of explicit sites, while other, less-restrictive filters blocked at least 40% of explicit sites.

The study also found that 6% of all searches yield at least one explicit site, and the "most popular" searches returned an explicit site result nearly 40% of the time. However, about 50% of all explicit sites are hosted outside the U.S., where the COPA law would not be enforceable.

"Filters are more than 90 percent effective, according to Stark," ACLU attorney Chris Hansen told AP. "Also, with filters, it's up to the parents how to use it, whereas COPA requires a one-solution-fits-all (approach)."

Closing arguments in the ACLU's challenge to the COPA law are expected to be heard on Monday.

Related Links:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/internet_blocking (AP)
tags: Internet | Law | Reports | Metrics | Adult | Censorship | Children | Parental Control | ACLU | COPA |



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