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Cyber Patrol is a software program produced by The Learning Company. It is intended to block access to World Wide Web sites in several categories: violence/profanity; partial nudity; full nudity; sexual acts; gross depictions; intolerance; satanic/cult; drugs/drug culture; militant/extremist; sex education; questionable/illegal and gambling; alcohol and tobacco. Cyber Patrol also provides a "filtering" service for 85% of the Internet service providers in the US, including America Online, CompuServe, Prodigy, AT&T, Bell AtlanticNet and Scholastic Net. For customers of these Internet service providers, it currently blocks access to over 500,000 Websites it considers objectionable.
The American Family Association is a lobby and information group which promotes traditional views of the family. In 1998 AFA discovered that its Web site <www.afa.net> was being blocked by Cyber Patrol on the grounds that AFA is "intolerant" of homosexuality. Evidently Cyber Patrol was acting on a complaint by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). GLAAD had earlier been given a seat on Cyber Patrol's 12-member oversight committee after it complained that some homosexual Web sites were being blocked.
Cyber Patrol has also "blocked" access to several other Christian sites, including the Charlotte Christian News; WRCM, a Christian radio station; INSP, the Inspiration cable television network; and Quiet Thunder, a cartoon and children's ministry.
Because no blocking program is completely effective, connections to AFA's site have actually increased from 13,000 to 26,000 contacts per month since the blocking began. Ironically, AFA has been a strong supporter of Internet blocking, while GLAAD has been a strong opponent of such blocking. JC
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