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Net Nanny ExaminedNet Nanny is one of the lesser-used blocking programs; very few Peacefire members have indicated that it is being used at their school, and a survey of 24 libraries using blocking software did not include any that were using Net Nanny. However, in 1997, a student at Central Texas Community College reported that the software was being used on campus computer terminals. Then, in February 1998, Friends University installed Net Nanny on their campus computer system. In the latter case, staff at Friends University reported that the software blocked information on sexually transmitted diseases, the politics of prostitution, and even a site about Adam and Eve.Net Nanny was one of the four blocking software programs criticized in the 1996 article "Keys to the Kingdom", which listed some of the sites blocked by Net Nanny, CYBERsitter and Cyber Patrol. Although the authors wrote that the list of blocked sites used by each program was encrypted and could not be read by the user, Net Nanny comes with an unencrypted list of about 3,500 blocked sites -- making it the only program so far that allows the administrator to see the list. It also blocks much less than any of the competing programs (which usually come with "blocked site lists" of about 100,000 Web sites). Net Nanny has claimed that they give more control to the administrator (i.e. parent, teacher or librarian) by not encrypting their list; however, Peacefire members whose schools are using the software have reported that the default sites selected by Net Nanny are blocked in the overwhelming majority of cases. Because filtering software companies usually encrypt their blocked site lists to protect them from being used by competitors, Net Nanny has less motivation to encrypt their list, since it represents an investment of much less time and money.
Although the blocked site list is short, Net Nanny employes a more severe word
filtering mechanism than most other
programs. It is often reported that blocking
software will block an entire page based on the occurrence of a single word. This
is not usually true; Cyber Patrol
and SurfWatch will
block pages only if a banned word appears in the URL, and
CYBERsitter will simply remove the word
from the page. Net Nanny, however, blocks all pages by default that contain the
words "sex", "drugs" or "pornography", and can even be configured to hang up the
modem or lock up the computer if a banned word appears on the screen. This was
the default configuration reported to be in use at
the Central Texas Community College. For example, the
Net Nanny
FAQ (which has since been removed from the Web) states:
Although Net Nanny blocks fewer Web sites than any competitors, it does block access to about the same number of newsgroups, including:
While the Banned Books page and Femina.com are blocked because the URL's exist as entries on Net Nanny's blocked site list, more Web sites are blocked because they contain keywords which activate Net Nanny's word filter. TIME journalists reported in an August 1997 article that Net Nanny blocked the National Organization for Women Web site (which was the source of much more controversy when the same Web site was blocked by CYBERsitter). A Friends University professor also described being denied access to information the Episcopal Church's position on homosexuality, at an unspecified Web site.
Net Nanny is the only program which includes the names of mailing
lists on its list of banned keywords, including:
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