Attn: Brian Milburn
Ordinarily, I support any product that helps parents become more
involved in the lives of their children. Too often, I think, parents
don't know what their children are encountering in the real world and
fail to help them understand it when they do know.
Your comments in reponse to the reverse engineering of your Cybersitter
product by Bennett Haselton ("He doesn't know anything, and he's just a
kid,") call into question your own beliefs about children. Mr. Haselton
is obviously smart enough to find the weaknesses in your product, and -
at 18 - he is legally an adult. To dismiss him as ignorant or irrelavent
simply because of his age is probably the type of thinking that created
this problem in the first place.
Furthermore, the wholesale blocking of informational web-sites such as
the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission and NOW
indicate a bias on the part of your company that I find quite troubling.
Gay and lesbian teenagers are among the highest risk groups for suicide
and sexually transmitted diseases. It is my opinion (and one which I
know is shared by many in the scientific community) that a major factor
contributing to this increased risk is the unwillingness of parents to
discuss these issues openly and honestly with their children. I believe
it is irresponsible of you to automatically block these sites (if in
fact that is what is happening). If parents knowingly choose to block
access to these sites, that is certainly their right. If your product
does not AUTOMATICALLY block certain sites, but suggests options which
the parents can accept or reject, I have no complaints. On the other
hand, if someone at your company is making a decision which sites are
suitable for children and which are not, I can only say that people like
Mr. Haselton have my full support in their endeavors.I welcome your
comments.
Todd Penland, McLean, VA  penlandt@sprynet.com