Pros

Cons

Filtering programs are an easy way for adults to monitor students from being exposed to inappropriate and lude material without the physical presence of the adult.

Some Web pages are blocked incorrectly by blocking software, so information is not granted to the student that may be needed.

Filters block out the material that is sent to children and prevents them from speaking and interacting in chat rooms with predators.

Some filter programs have new installation programs that can search your browser’s cache to check if you have visited certain sites. If you had searched sites that are not acceptable to the program, it generates a fake error message and refuses to install. Cybersitter was one such program.

Some filters block email messages with words that could be harmful to a child. An example would be if a child sends a pipe bomb recipe to another student. The message would be blocked due to the word "bomb."

Programs such as Net Nanny block whole pages if one word is flagged. Therefore a page containing the word "drugs" would prevent someone from seeing a page about medical disorders for a health report or to learn about a medical condition.

Many filtering systems provide a list of acceptable sites for the child to locate and use.

Some pages are filtered out from programs due to the material being opposed to by a filter site, such as Safer Sex pages and information about gay and lesbian rights. These topics are important to older students and college students and should not be blocked because of the feelings of one company.

Filtering systems are allowed to be installed on servers to be used on multiple workstations, so that no person could turn off the filter.

Many filtering programs violate the first amendment and are being brought up on legal charges.