The ADL: More about the “monitors” — Jan 2005

" The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) of B'nai Brith, USA other traditional enemies of Free Speech: Anti-Nazi League Australian Government Australian B'nai Brith Anti-Defamation Commission Board of Deputies of British Jews Center for Democratic Renewal, Atlanta Canadian Jewish Congress Canadian League of Human Rights of the B'nai Brith Coalition for Human Dignity, Oregon Community Security Trust of Board of Deputies German Government Jewish Telegraph Agency Searchlight and Gerald Gable Simon Wiesenthal Center Surfwatch Internet censorship What is HateFilter? ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE HateFilterâ„¢ is a software product designed to act as a gatekeeper. It protects children by blocking access to World Wide Web sites of individuals or groups that, in the judgment of the Anti-Defamation League , advocate hatred, bigotry or even violence towards Jews or other groups on the basis of their religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or other immutable characteristics.

ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE HateFilter does not seek to remove these sites, or to censor their content . It is tool for parents, helping them to make informed judgments as to whether their child is mature enough to be exposed to these hateful ideas. ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE HateFilter does not seek to limit speech (even the hateful kind) on the Internet. But the Internet is not a library or bookstore where material is labeled and organized in ways which protect children. Parents who want to limit their children's exposure to hate material in cyberspace should have that choice. ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE HateFilter doesn't just block sites. It encourages parents to teach their children about the nature of bigotry and the hatemongers who promote it.

It offers users who try to access a blocked site the chance to link directly to a portion of the ADL Web site to learn more about hate's causes and effects. ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE HateFilter will be updated regularly. However, in light of the constantly changing nature of the Internet, ADL cannot guarantee the accuracy or completeness of its identification of objectionable sites, and assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions. ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE HateFilter uses the filtering technology of CyberPatrol® from the Internet Solutions Group of the Learning Company. It has all the features of CyberPatrol including the ability to assign multiple passwords and create up to ten user profiles to tailor usage to the needs of each member of the family.

Users have access to all the other parts of CyberPatrol including the CyberNot list blocking access to pornographic and other offensive Web sites. — Important — ADL is responsible for the content of the ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE HateFilter list ONLY. CyberPatrol is responsible for ALL THE OTHER choices reflected in its CyberNot web site filtering list AND any other blocking criteria used by the program. Users who only want the ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE HateFilter MUST disable all the other content categories in the World Wide Web section program as well as the filtering of Internet Relay Chat (IRC), newsgroups, e-mail and games sections. The instructions for adjusting the filtering criteria are found in the help screens that accompany the program. © 1998 Anti-Defamation League Related stories on this Website: Surfwatch German Web censors Australia Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties Switzerland 1998