Monday, March 10, 2003

Stupid Idea #413: Porn 'Filter' Uses Peer Pressure Yet another example proving Texas is the buckle of the Bible Belt -- a Dallas man has started a company which, for a monthly fee, will monitor and log your Internet surfing and send a copy to an acquaintance, or even your preacher. Instead of relying on filters, the approach, which NetAccountability has been pitching primarily to religious groups, calls for Web users to share records of their online activity. Users pick a friend, spouse or other confidant who receives a regular report showing which sites they visit, highlighting potentially objectionable material. So this guy decides filtering software doesn't work [duh] and thinks voluntary measures will prevent a surfer from visiting an "objectionable" site? Although the method probably won't appeal to folks who like to keep their surfing habits private, Cotter says he believes it is more effective than relying on filters. I'm sure no one in the user's family can figure out a way to establish an account with another provider, or surf from a different location, or use an anonymizer, or any of the myriad ways to exploit this porous line of defense. Peer pressure, indeed. Talk about preaching to the converted. It's hard to imagine anyone would be stupid enough to fall for this pitch but apparently there are plenty of takers. From Cotter's viewpoint, the problem with filters is more psychological than technical. The best way to stay away from racy sites is to make a conscious decision to avoid them, he said. "It puts a little more power back in the user's hands," agreed Scott Covington, NetAccountability's CEO. Covington said the service, which costs about $4 a month, has attracted close to 12,000 users since its launch in October. Wait a minute. These guys are pulling in almost $50K per month to share server logs. Who said you can't make any money on the Internet anymore? While $600,000 per year pales in comparison to the more famous net success stories, it's not chump change. Now if I can just find someone who wants to be monitored. Maybe Republicans could sign up so their friends could find out if they're closet Democrats. Or vice versa. Or the government could monitor us to see if we're Iraqi sympathizers. Oops, that one's been done. 9:41:48 AM    Oh yeah? []