Information Technology Reference
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own interest above that of Jerry. After the party, Kate had another opportunity to be
honest with Jerry. Unfortunately she did not trust Jerry enough to admit she had taken
the picture and ask his permission before posting the photo. Instead, she said nothing to
Jerry and simply posted the photo to her blog. Overall, Kate's actions at several points in
the story do not seem to be characteristic of a good friend.
SUMMARY
The analyses from the perspectives of Kantianism, social contract theory, rule utilitari-
anism, and virtue ethics do not support Kate posting the photo without asking Jerry's
permission, though each analysis uses a different line of reasoning to reach that conclu-
sion. Kate imagined (correctly, as it turns out) that Jerry would be angry if she took a
photo of him wearing the Tory Party T-shirt, and that is why she took the photo when
he wasn't looking. Kate figured it would be better to beg for forgiveness than ask for per-
mission, but what she did was cut Jerry out of a decision that affected both of them. This
is no way to treat anybody, much less a friend. Kate would have been better off trying to
persuade Jerry that putting the photo on her blog would be to their mutual advantage,
posting the image only after obtaining his consent.
Many parents and guardians believe they ought to protect their children from exposure
to pornographic and violent materials. A few years ago the center of concern was the
Web, and a large software industry sprang up to provide browsers with the ability to
block inappropriate images. Now smartphones are becoming commonplace, and some
parents are being forced to confront the unpleasant reality that their children have
emailed sexually provocative images of themselves to friends or even strangers.
A
Web filter
is a piece of software that prevents certain Web pages from being displayed
by your browser. While you are running your browser, the filter runs as a background
process, checking every page your browser attempts to load. If the filter determines that
the page is objectionable, it prevents the browser from displaying it.
Filters can be installed on individual computers, or an ISP may provide filtering
services for its customers. Programs designed to be installed on individual computers,
such as CyberSentinel, eBlaster, and Spector Pro, can be set up to email parents as soon
as they detect an inappropriate Web page [58]. America Online's filtering service is called
AOL Parental Controls. It enables parents to set the level of filtering on their children's
accounts. It also allows parents to look at logs showing the pages their children have
visited.
Typical filters use two different methods to determine if a page should be blocked.
The first method is to check the URL of the page against a blacklist of objectionable sites.
If the Web page comes from a blacklisted site, it is not displayed. The second method is
to look for combinations of letters or words that may indicate a site has objectionable
content.
