SOFTWARE FILTERS: HOW WELL DO THEY WORK?

By NOAH ROBISCHON

Last week's ruling puts responsibility for determining what children may see on the Internet squarely in the hands of parents and teachers. Several software products, including SurfWatch, Cyber Patrol and Net Nanny, allow adults to screen content on their home PCs, while most of the large online providers offer built-in "parental controls" or free screening software. But computer programs don't obviate the need for adult supervision. Even SurfWatch, which pays graduate students to troll the Internet in search of offensive material, promises only 90% effectiveness. And to achieve that, its software filters must, of necessity, err on the side of caution. SurfWatch once banned a portion of the White House home page because it contained the keyword couples.

Here are some of the things the newest version of SurfWatch will--and won't--do.

--Block pictures of Pamela Anderson in the nude: http://www.accent.net/leaf/pam.htm

--Block the Internet Relay Chat channel innocently named #nancy (in reality an S&M pickup spot), as well as the famously steamy #hottub channel

--Block the instructional "how to use a condom" page: http://www.safersex.org/condoms/howtouseacondom.html But not the rest of the safer-sex page: http://www.safersex.org/

--Block this white-supremacist home page: http://www.stormfront.org And this list of militia-movement Websites: http://www.yahoo.com/Society--and--Culture/Alternative/ Militia--Movement/

--Block the official home page of Zima malt liquor: http://www.zima.com And this site dedicated to female cigarette smokers: www.fortnet.org/~jejs/smoke.html

--Block a newsgroup chronicling imagined liaisons of the purple dinosaur: news://alt.sex.barney But not this comparably frivolous newsgroup: news://alt.barney.die.die.die --By Noah Robischon

For the full decision and links to screening software, see TIME's TechWatch Website on Pathfinder at http://techwatch.com