As young people surf the Net in ever-increasing numbers—from schools, libraries and their homes—the risk of them accidentally encountering hate material grows—as does the issue of how to shield them from undesirable online content.

Filtering Software

One technical solution often recommended for protecting children is filtering software. Parents and educators can install this software onto their computers, and program it (usually via keywords or phrases) with the type of material they don’t want kids to access. The filtering software then "filters out" sites with that kind of content, and blocks the computer browser from going there.

Such software is certainly an option for parents of young surfers, who aren’t yet adept enough to turn off the filtering software. But as kids get older and more tech-savvy, they can easily find out how to override certain programs. And, of course, filtering software isn’t particularly selective: if a parent programs it to block all references to "hate" or "Holocaust," for example, the software will certainly screen out most hate Web sites—but it will also block access to valuable and legitimate resources such as sites dedicated to anti-racism, Jewish culture, war museums, and even discussions of anti-hate legislation.

Another option is to block access to Internet areas that have already been identified as hate sites. The Anti-Defamation League, a U.S. non-profit human-rights group, has developed a product called HateFilter that specifically targets several hundred such Web sites.

But regardless of the potential benefits and the drawbacks of such technology, the larger issue is whether to use it to censor young people’s access to the Internet in the first place. Filtering software is not a complete solution: hate often comes in subtle forms that filters would not pick up.

Parental Guidance

The first and best defence for kids on the Internet is always adult guidance. Kids need to know the historical facts about racism and world events, and to talk with parents and teachers about the claims made by hatemongers.

Adult involvement is rarer than we might think. MNet’s 2001 survey "Young Canadians In A Wired World" revealed that many kids surf the Net at home with little or no parental supervision or awareness. Seventy per cent of the kids surveyed said their parents "rarely" or "never" ask them about the sites they visit.

Hate on the Net is not always obvious: although hard-core sites are easy to detect, some hatemongers use more subtle tactics to attract new blood. They create fun-and-games sites for children and music sites for teens; infiltrate chat-rooms and newsgroups frequented by kids; and even set up sites where children might go for homework assignments. The most effective long-range strategy for helping young people is to give them lots of information about online hate—as well as the critical thinking skills to decode messages of hate, and read between the lines.

A teen might reasonably expect, for instance, a Martin Luther King site to be a place where they could find information on a significant figure in American history. But this Martin Luther King site serves up a potent brew of racism, anti-Semitism and Communist conspiracy theories—all in the guise of historical data. Young people need to understand that the Internet has no gatekeepers and they need to be able to distinguish between such biased prejudicial material, and fair and accurate information.