From: dsc@swcp.com (Dar Scott)
Date: Thu, 14 Sep 95 17:58:50 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Linking = Showing = Transferring?
Message-ID: <v01510102ac7e786c9378@[198.59.115.134]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Whoops!  I mentioned the "linking to a page that links to a page..."
problem without noticing that Joseph Sokol-Margolis had already brought it
up.

Maybe pornography is not in the page (or resource) but in the browser.  For
example, I have a "pornography enabled" browser, because I can use it to
access pornopages.  What if I set up a browser for my child that saw a
smaller view of the net that did not include pornopages.  That browser
would not be "pornography enabled".  The limited view could be created from
some combination of lists of OK sites & pages, lists of off-limits sites &
pages, and certification requirements for those in between (virtual OK
lists).  I have seen the off-limits lists in association with some blocking
products.

Frank Stuart wrote,
>And then there's the problem of URLs not being static.  What may be a perfectly
>innocuos link one day may turn into something not perceived as harmless the
>next.

The blocking (off-limits) lists are then always behind and flawed.  Better
OK lists might be created by the list publisher having contractual
commitments from the site owner.  A virtual OK list publisher would publish
the key for verifying approved pages that have built-in certs.  This would
provide the better probability that the browser was not pornography
enabled.  A page would not show if it had been changed.  A problem to be
solved would be doing this with minimal psychological time costs to the
user.  Another is making sure that getting certs would not be such a pain
that only a few sites would be on the virtual OK list.

Of course, I would not want my kids under 10 to see certain ideological
pages and there might not be a market to justify certs.  I would have to
make my own list or get a cheap blocking list or something from the
major-group-with-same-ideological-bent-as-dar ftp site.

Dar

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