[eff-austin] Anti-Censorship Tool Would Evade Porn Filters (fwd)

[Jim Choate]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 22 May 2003 05:11:40 +0000
From: Carl Webb <webbcarl at hotmail.com>
To: eff-austin at effaustin.org, tlc-discuss at lists.cwrl.utexas.edu
Subject: [eff-austin] Anti-Censorship Tool Would Evade Porn Filters

Education Week: American Education's Newspaper of Record

Anti-Censorship Tool Would Evade Porn Filters

By Andrew Trotter


Less than a year after a federal law began requiring school districts to
protect their Internet connections from pornography and other objectionable
materials, a new software tool offers a loopholecourtesy of Uncle Sam.

The software, called Circumventor, can be installed on any Windows-type
computer with unfiltered access to the Internet, such as a home computer.
That machine then can be a springboard for Web requests from computers, such
as those in schools, that have filters. Such a setup makes it possible to
retrieve unauthorized Web pages and rebound them to the requestor, past the
filter's outstretched arms.

A student on a school computer, for example, would start the process merely
by typing the Web address of the unfiltered computer into a Web browser,
such as Internet Explorer.

Circumventor wasn't meant to help youngsters download porn in the school
library. It was developed by the federal government to allow people overseas
who live under repressive governments to get news and information online.

"Various hostile governments like Cuba and China are blocking Web
siteswe're looking at technologies that can help," said Ken Berman, the
program manager for Internet anti-censorship at the International
Broadcasting Bureau. The bureau, which oversees the radio and Web services
of the Voice of America, in Washington, paid software programmer Bennett
Haselton to develop the tool.

Mr. Haselton is better known as the founder of Peacefire, a nonprofit,
Seattle-based group opposed to censorship on the Web, even for
schoolchildren. And he has been touting to the news media and on Peacefire's
Web site that, in addition to defeating "the great firewall of China," the
anti-censorship software can evade the Internet filters in nearly all
schools and many homes.

"We know that millions of teenagers have uncensored Internet access anyway
and are clearly handling it responsibly," Mr. Haselton said in an interview.
"Why isn't it right for all of them, not just for those lucky enough to have
it?"


Clearing the Filter

Circumventor takes a task usually requiring an expertcreating an "anonymous
proxy server"and automates it so it can be done in a few minutes by someone
with modest computer skills, Mr. Haselton said, and the software is
available for free on the Web.

However, Mr. Berman of the International Broadcasting Bureau noted that the
software is still a test version. He added: "We don't want to put taxpayer
dollars into helping people browse porn."

Even so, one filtering-company executive acknowledged that the method is
effective.

"It does work to get around filters," said David Burt, the public relations
manager for the Seattle-based N2H2 Inc.

Still, he said the company's Bess filtering system, which is widely used in
schools, would detect a Circumventor-equipped computer if "a substantial
number of people" started using it.

"But you can set it up in your home for 10 of your friends, and they can
probably get around the filtering," Mr. Burt conceded.

Nancy E. Willard, the director of the Responsible Netizen Institutea
private group based in Eugene, Ore., that promotes safe and responsible use
of the Internetcalled Circumventor "very significant" because it exposes
filtering as a "quick fix" that is unreliable and fails to teach children to
be responsible Internet users.

She cited a 2002 study by the Kaiser Family Foundation that tested the six
filtering products that are most widely used in schools. The study concluded
that filters block access to valuable health information on the Web and let
objectionable materials slip througherrors that increase at the more
restrictive settings.

"Given that environment, there's going to be really strong interest,
especially among technically sophisticated students, to set up these
[anti-filtering] systems for themselves and their friends," Ms. Willard
said.

In many cases, she said, "this is not at all badthey're doing it to get to
the [appropriate] sites that they're being blocked from."

Schools would be better off responding to the Web's inappropriate content by
emphasizing education and supervision, she argued.


Why Schools Care

No reports have surfaced that Circumventor has been used in schools, but
some school technology officials are talking about the software.

In the 7,000-student Mankato, Minn., school district, Doug Johnson, the
director of media and technology, said the potential use of the software
highlights the issue of "overblocking" of valuable information.

"I'm always worried that schools are going to be increasingly irrelevant to
kids, who'll say, 'Why should I bother to do my research at school?'" he
said.

The Mankato district filters at a minimum level to comply with the federal
Children's Internet Protection Act of 2000, which requires that schools that
receive federal technology funds equip their computers with filters. The
law's identical mandate for public libraries has been put on hold by a
federal court, pending the outcome of a legal challenge.

Mr. Johnson said Internet filters do spare students and teachers the
nuisance of accidentally running into porn during Internet research, but he
believes filters "provide a false sense of security."

What's more, every Mankato school has a computer in its media center in a
supervised location that is left unfiltered for teachers and students to
use, he said.

Mr. Haselton, meanwhile, said the software companies that make filters can
come up with ways to defeat Circumventor, but the process would take "a few
months" and require that their customers install software upgrades.

Plus, he predicted, more filter-evading tools will be devised in the
not-too-distant future. In fact, the Peacefire Web site solicits ideas from
visitors on better evasion techniques.

"We will continue to do stuff like this, helping to defeat Internet
censorship in Chinaand Stateside," Mr. Haselton promised.


On the Web
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Peacefire, the organization founded by Bennett Haselton, posts "Instructions
for Setting Up a Simple Circumventor."
http://www.peacefire.org/circumventor/simple-circumventor-instructions.html

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