The Volokh Conspiracy - This Blog Contains Offensive Content -- Businesses, Be Aggressive About Preventing Users from Accessing It:

Ars Technica reports:

[A]ccording to a new report by ScanSafe, a vast majority of blogs host content that is considered "offensive" and potentially "unwanted." ScanSafe's Monthly "Global Threat Report" for March 2007 says that up to 80 percent of blogs host offensive content, ranging from "adult language" to pornographic images. The company suggests that businesses should be aggressive about preventing users from accessing some or all of this material. And of course, they'd hope that you'd use their products to do so.

But what's offensive? "A blog merely has to contain a single instance of profanity to be considered offensive, according to ScanSafe." Given that we have no hesitation about quoting material containing profanity, or using it as examples — for instance, I would never replace "fuck" in a quote with "f-word" or "f---" — we doubtless use many such words (though I'm pretty sure that you'll almost never see us use such terms in our own voice in anger).

Treating a site as "offensive" on these grounds strikes me as a pretty silly exercise — perhaps suitable if you're trying to shield your 6-year-old (though I doubt that trying to block Internet profanity is an effective way of trying to keep your 6-year-old from using profanity), but surely not if you're trying to protect your business.

Thanks to InstaPundit for the pointer.

	[Eugene Volokh, April 25, 2007 at 12:42pm] Trackbacks This Blog Contains Offensive Content -- Businesses, Be Aggressive About Preventing Users from Accessing It: Ars Technica reports: [A]ccording to a new report by ScanSafe, a vast majority of blogs host content that is considered "offensive" and potentially "unwanted." ScanSafe's Monthly "Global Threat Report" for March 2007 says that up to 80 percent of blogs host offensive content, ranging from "adult language" to pornographic images. The company suggests that businesses should be aggressive about preventing users from accessing some or all of this material. And of course, they'd hope that you'd use their products to do so. But what's offensive? "A blog merely has to contain a single instance of profanity to be considered offensive, according to ScanSafe." Given that we have no hesitation about quoting material containing profanity, or using it as examples — for instance, I would never replace "fuck" in a quote with "f-word" or "f---" — we doubtless use many such words (though I'm pretty sure that you'll almost never see us use such terms in our own voice in anger). Treating a site as "offensive" on these grounds strikes me as a pretty silly exercise — perhaps suitable if you're trying to shield your 6-year-old (though I doubt that trying to block Internet profanity is an effective way of trying to keep your 6-year-old from using profanity), but surely not if you're trying to protect your business. Thanks to InstaPundit for the pointer.