A popular blocking service thousands of American schools use failed to block pornographic Web sites from children, according to a report issued last week. ]
The Censorware Project report says N2H2 Inc.'s popular Bess blocking service overblocked some apparently innocuous and academic sites while allowing access to "hundreds" of explicitly pornographic sites, according to ZDNet News. The report is called "Passing Porn, Banning The Bible: N2H2's Bess in Public Schools."
"There's no question," says N2H2's Jim O'Halloran, "that from time to time a number of sites which should [have been] blocked may be identified as not blocked. We do not claim to be 100 percent effective." But O'Halloran, N2H2's vice president for marketing, insists Bess is "near" 100 percent.
The company accuses the report of containing "misrepresentations and falsehoods". O'Halloran says the report may claim Bess didn't block "hardcore.com," but that particular site has been blocked for the past two years.
