Anti-Defamation League hosts hate filter
The group, which has been monitoring hate groups for 85 years, teams up with The Learning Company to create a filter that screens out hate sites on the Internet.
Dubbed the ADL HateFilter and available from the ADL's Web site, parents can install the screen on home computers and thereby keep "bigotry and prejudice out of their homes," ADL national chairman Howard Berkowitz said.
The ADL HateFilter sits atop The Learning Company's Cyber Patrol product, a filter that is used by both parents and teachers to block children's access to Internet sites "containing drug information, sexual text, nudity. Things that parents may consider inappropriate for children," a spokeswoman for Cambridge, Massachusetts-based software maker said.
The ADL HateFilter does not just screen hate sites, but also provides a link where users can obtain information about the hate groups, the Learning Company's Susan Getgood said.
"We've basically been doing this for 85 years, we just transferred the information to the Internet," explained ADL spokeswoman Myrna Shinbaum.
The sites filtered are those that, in the ADL's judgment, advocate hatred, bigotry, or even violence toward Jews or other groups on the basis of their religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or other immutable characteristics.
The ADL, founded in 1913, is holding its 85th annual National Commission meeting in Boston.