Having an intimate knowledge of the Internet, I recognize that there is exponentially more harmful content than educationally beneficial content available on the Internet. I now realize that trying to block out the harmful content while still allowing access to the beneficial content is a completely foolhardy goal that simply cannot be accomplished. A considerably more realizable goal would be to identify quality, relevant educational material available on the Internet and provide access to that using a white-list at the exclusion of everything else. This is exactly the approach schools take when choosing textbooks and I believe the same approach would work well with the Internet. I should point out that this is the polar opposite of the message I was preaching several years ago, but having spent 11 years playing Don Quixote, I have finally come to this new conclusion.

I know a lot of people would be outraged at my opinion, but I have seen more than anyone’s fair share of the garbage available on the Internet. By virtue of being a developer of an Internet filtering product, I have acquired an intimate knowledge of things I wish I had never seen or heard of. I thought by developing a filtering product I would somehow be protecting others from this stuff, but after 11 years of watching how the peddlers of the filth sneak and weasel their way past the filters, I now realize I have spent countless thousands of hours trying to stop a giant snowball from rolling down a very steep hill.

I am not suggesting that the material referenced in the ACLU letter should or should not be allowed, I am simply saying the schools shouldn’t be obligated to provide access to anything not specifically related to the education they should be providing our children.