Is Big Brother watching over you? Who decides what material is right or wrong for your mind or for your children? Conservative forces are taking advantage of fears over online porn to quash other ideas as well.

   America Online's (AOL) youth filters were screening out liberal sites with political content. AOL's youth filters are supposed to keep children away from pornography and violence on the internet, but they also seem to be designed to black out many liberal political organizations and allow conservative sites to fly through the filter with no problem. CNET News tested AOL's latest software, version 5.0, by pulling up more than 100 political sites in the "kids only" mode over a period of several days. AOL's filters for children consistently allowed the viewing of far more conservative sites such as that of the National Rifle Association, and not Democratic and liberal sites such as that of the Democratic National Committee.

   CNET staff members were able to pull up conservative sites such as those of the Libertarian Party, the National Rifle Association, and a variety of gun manufacturers' sites. Sites such as those of Ralph Nader's Green Party, Ross Perot's Reform Party, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, and Safer Guns Now did not make it through the filter. These liberal sites produced the message "not appropriate for children" although none of the sites blocked contained depiction of nudity or even models in swimwear. Although much of this has now been corrected, it seems that AOL's intention was to keep more than just indecency away from children.

   The filtering program was developed for AOL by The Learning Company, which is an educational software company owned by Mattel. The program was designed by reviewing submitted sites in order to develop a "whitelist" of sites approved for young children. AOL spokesman Rich D'Amato told CNET News that he was "unaware of any conservative bias" in the youth filters and explains that if some sites are included it is probably because someone submitted them.