FC: Porn and filtering: Brits love smut; J.Wallace on N2H2's woes

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[Below, coincidentally, is a press release forwarded by an N2H2 rep and an 
analysis of N2H2 by a prominent critic of filtering. --Declan]

**********

Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2001 10:15:56 -0700
From: "David Burt" <dburt () n2h2 com>
To: <declan () well com>
Subject: Those Naughty Brits: Almost four million Britons visited adult 
websites during June

Looks like it's more than upper lips that are getting stiff with
Englishmen log on to the net. --David

Almost four million Britons visited adult websites during June
http://www.netvalue.com/corp/presse/index_frame.htm?fichier=cp0034.htm

London, August 9th 2001

Pornography web sites were visited by 3.8 million home Internet users in
the UK in June 2001, according to Internet monitoring company NetValue.
This accounts for more than a quarter of the entire UK home Internet
population.

UK visitors to adult websites spent more than 45 minutes on these sites
each in June. Pornographic sites make up 41.2 per cent of all the sites
visited in the UK with a significant audience. Students (23.2 per cent),
manual workers (15 per cent), and professionals (12.8 per cent) are the
largest groups of UK visitors to pornographic sites.

However Germany has the largest audience for online pornography in
Europe with more than 5.3 million Germans visiting an adult site in
June. They also spent more time on these type of sites than any other
nationality - each German visitor spent almost an hour on pornographic
sites in June. NetValue data also showed that more than half (52.3 per
cent) the websites visited in June by a significant number of German
users were of an adult nature.
        
Spain has the greatest proportion of visitors to pornographic sites - 40
per cent of Spanish home Internet users visiting a pornography site in
June.

"Pornography has become a lucrative online business, with many companies
now recognising it as a valuable additional revenue stream," NetValue's
Alki Manias said. "And this would seem to be a stable business area -
the popularity of online pornography continues unchecked."

Pornographic sites are also popular amongst the earliest adopters of the
Internet. People who first got online at home before 1997 account for
18.5 per cent of visitors to pornographic sites, though they only make
up 14.1 per cent of the whole UK online population.

In the UK, lastminute.com has just introduced an auction for adult toys
and aids, whilst in Germany, Freenet.de and T-Online are also moving
into the adult business.

-----------------------------------
David Burt, Public Relations
N2H2, Inc.
E-mail:dburt () n2h2 com
Web: http://www.n2h2.com
Address: 900 4th Avenue, Suite 3600
Seattle, WA 98164
Office Phone: 206 892-1130
Cell Phone: 206 915-1283
Fax: 509 271-4226
-----------------------------------

**********

From: jw () bway net
To: declan () well com
Subject: N2H2 Inc., censorware and freedom of speech
Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2001 02:13:23 GMT

I've just posted the first in a series of articles profiling censorware 
company N2H2 Inc. of Seattle:

http://www.spectacle.org/cs/bess1.html

That one is on the company's financial situation--fifty cent stock price, 
seven million dollar loss for the quarter, facing delisting by 
NASDAQ.  Future articles will cover the company's claim that it uses 
sophisticated artificial intelligence, give examples of what it really 
blocks and doesn't, and at the "human review" process it uses. In a 1999 
report, The Censorware Project, http://censorware.net, disclosed that N2H2 
blocked numerous innocuous and sociallly useful sites including Bible pages 
and Feminists Against Censorship, while letting through hardcore porn like 
asiansluts.com. I'll be examining whether N2H2's track record has changed 
since then.

I would be delighted to see some professional journalists take a look at 
this company, which has achieved a significant penetration of the K12 
market. I would be happy to help in any way I can--brainstorm, exchange 
information, even point you to the sources I've found.

Hope to hear from you......

**********




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