Analysis of first 50 URL's blocked by I-Gear in the .edu domain

This analysis was done on a copy of I-Gear's blocked-site list that was current as of February 20, 2000. We only examined URL's that were blocked in the "Sex/Acts" category, defined by I-Gear as follows: "Sites depicting or implying sex acts, including pictures of masturbation not categorized under sexual education. Also includes sites selling sexual or adult products."

The totals for each category were:

  • Obvious errors: 27 sites -- 54%
  • Marginal errors: 10 sites -- 20%
  • Not errors: 13 sites -- 26%

Total error rate:
74%

URL:
http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/spraxlo/R/superModels.html
Result:
Obvious error
"Semi-Automatic Morph Between Two Supermodels". An experiment in computer animation by an MIT student; shows the face of Cindy Crawford morphing into the face of Claudia Schiffer.
URL:
http://alumni.caltech.edu/~abostick/sexpage.html
Result:
Not an error
Links to adult newsgroups.
URL:
http://alumni.caltech.edu/~brooke/awtaman.txt
Result:
Obvious error
"How to Fly and Fight in Air Warrior". A 444 K file listing tricks and skills for a flight simulation game. The page may have been blocked due to a joke "disclaimer" at the end of the file saying "All models over 18 years of age".
URL:
http://www.amherst.edu/~mcspinks/ibft/ibft013.txt
Result:
Marginal error
"How To Get By When You're Just As Dumb As Everyone Else, But Uglier". A humorous look at what you might want to be when you grow up. Contains some profanity but obviously not "pornographic".
URL:
apoplexy.life.uiuc.edu/bio100/lessons/sex_links.html
Result:
Obvious error
The URL has since been taken down, but the maintainer of the Bio 100 page at apoplexy.life.uiuc.edu/bio100/ said it was "a page of links that dealt with meiosis and fertilization in both plants and animals".
URL:
http://arisia.bcc.ctc.edu/servers/exp/exp8-97.html
Result:
Obvious error
August 1997 statistics for an experimental Web server.
URL:
http://astro.ocis.temple.edu/~conniely/rxteacher.html
Result:
Marginal error
A "penis" joke. (You have to go read it.) Suggestive, but obviously not "pornographic".
URL:
http://attila.stevens-tech.edu/~mparekh/
Result:
Obvious error
"Milan's Homepage". Includes some photographs of girls, including some showing bare midriffs, but nothing pornographic.
URL:
http://axp150.microstation.uic.edu/users/rich/humor/fuck.htm
Result:
Not an error
Uses of the word "fuck" throughout history. ("Heads are fucking going to roll" -- Anne Boleyn. "Who's fucking going to know?" -- Richard Nixon.) We give I-Gear the benefit of the doubt even though this page has no pornography, only profanity.
URL:
http://babcock.cals.wisc.edu/bab/des/lacs/lac4/machine.html
Result:
Obvious error
Diagram of a milk pasteurization system, written in Portuguese.
URL:
http://batch1.csd.uwm.edu/People/davidjay/sx.html
Result:
Not an error
Adult links, including an age warning.
URL:
http://blue.temple.edu/~dlowe/
Result:
Obvious error
A student home page with nothing offensive. Includes some celebrity pictures, but all of the celebrities are fully clothed.
URL:
http://www.bluffton.edu/~johnsl/homosexuality.htm
Result:
Obvious error
"Homosexuality in the Bible". Described by the author as "a sort of study guide to enable and assist people interested in looking at what the Bible says about this issue".
URL:
http://bombalurina.ucsc.edu/people/bongo/sex.html
Result:
Not an error
Links to nude pictures.
URL:
campuspress.colorado.edu/macwebchat/ch1.html
Result:
Marginal error
A Web-based chat room, very hard to use with a modern browser, but nothing pornographic. (The state of the page may be in constant flux if it's updated dynamically by the chat script.)
URL:
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cv/
Result:
Not an error
Columbia University's BDSM discussion organization.
URL:
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/1998/1998-10-16.html
Result:
Obvious error
Book review of Roman Sexualities, published by Princeton University Press. A 9,484 essay on the historical facts described in the book. Extremely unlikely to arouse anyone, in spite of the title.
URL:
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~jod/latinconf/10.html
Result:
Obvious error
75 K of Latin.
(We later found out that this is actually the text of St. Augustine's Confessions -- an English translation can be found here.)
URL:
http://ccel.wheaton.edu/gibbon/decline/decline4.txt
http://ccel.wheaton.edu/gibbon/decline/decline6.txt
Result:
Obvious error
Parts 4 and 6 (of 6) of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Edward Gibbon.
URL:
http://ccel.wheaton.edu/owen/justification/justification.txt
Result:
Obvious error
"Justification of Faith Through the Righteousness of Christ". An essay by John Owen.
URL:
http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~jepsy/oral2.html
Result:
Not an error
"Guide to oral sex".
URL:
http://www.cen.uiuc.edu/~dforsyth/mastrb8.htm
Result:
Not an error
Synonyms for masturbation.
URL:
http://cobweb.washcoll.edu/student.pages/chris.klimas/stories/to.sit.hqx
http://cobweb.washcoll.edu/student.pages/chris.klimas/stories/whatare.html
Result:
Obvious error
Non-pornographic fiction written by a student. The first file is too large to download quickly, but the second story, "What are you thinking?", is fast to read and obviously not "obscene".
URL:
http://cog.brown.edu/brochure/people/duchon/humor/puns.html
Result:
Marginal error
137 K of puns. Out of about 300, about four mention sex (and none of those would qualify as illegal for minors).
URL:
http://www.coins.nd.edu/~gklima/lectures.htm
Result:
Obvious error
Lecture notes for an introductory philosophy course.
URL:
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/jester/knotts/knottssex.html
Result:
Not an error
This page has a "You must be 18" warning, even though if you go to the next page, it turns out the warning was only kidding. But we give I-Gear the benefit of the doubt that they could have blocked the page after seeing just the warning.
URL:
http://www.columbia.edu/~nss22/
Result:
Not an error
Forwards to the "celebrity vixens" site which features some nudes.
URL:
http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/usr/hfien/guido.html
http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/usr/hfien/mocbadiary.html
http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/usr/hfien/townie.html
Result:
Marginal error
Heavy profanity in the first and third file, used for comic effect, but no pornography and not even any sexual references in the three documents. The title of the first page may have caused it to be blocked: "Guido Studies: Da Time Has Cum".
URL:
http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~moose/sigs.html
Result:
Marginal error
A collection of witty signature files. Includes some humorous sexual references ("The first time I had sex, I was terrified, I was alone...") but nothing very offensive, pornographic, or illegal for minors.
URL:
http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~nifty/page
Result:
Not an error
Contains a link to a photo of two nude men -- no genitalia are visible, but the picture is suggestive enough that we give I-Gear the benefit of the doubt.
URL:
http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~roboman/proverbs.html
Result:
Obvious error
"Old Polish Proverbs". This is actually not a collection of Polish jokes but a page of what might be real proverbs (although probably not authentically Polish). Some are sexual but not offensive by most people's standards: "If the universe has any purpose more important than topping the woman you love and making a baby with her hearty help, I've never heard of it." (Note: David Siegel, siegel@acm.org, later informed us that this quote actually comes from the science fiction novel Time Enough for Love, by Robert Heinlein. It comes from a section full of "wise observations" later separately printed as The Notebooks of Lazarus Long.)
URL:
http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~jrs1/
Result:
Not an error
Includes some nude photos of the actress Natasha Henstridge from Playboy Japan.
URL:
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dtw/
Result:
Obvious error
"Duane's Gay Home Page" -- home page of a Senior Research Programmer at Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute.
URL:
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mwm/txthome.html
Result:
Obvious error
Home page of a Research Associate at CMU. Consists mostly of links to educational astronomy sites, with some anti-censorship sites at the end of the list (and no adult links).
URL:
http://www.cs.iastate.edu/~jttucker/
Result:
Not an error
Includes some fairly profane humor under the "jokes" section (the Pope swears in the last joke on this page, which is pretty funny).
URL:
http://www.cs.umass.edu/~jg/pierce.html
Result:
Marginal error
A male student with a picture of a nipple piercing. (Ironically given that his page was censored, the student added a comment that "Many people are very closed minded about things like body piercing, tattooing, homosexuality," etc.
URL:
http://www.cs.umd.edu/~dabe/txt/suck.cock
Result:
Not an error
A file about oral sex.
URL:
http://www.cs.unca.edu/~massey/csci107/lectures/compwork.ppt
http://www.cs.unca.edu/~massey/csci107/lectures/networks.ppt
Result:
Obvious error
The latter file is now located at http://www.cs.unca.edu/~massey/csci107/lectures/networks/networks.ppt. The files are slide presentations used in Computer Science 107, taught by Professor Massey.
URL:
http://csf.colorado.edu/femisa/apr96/0015.html
Result:
Marginal error
An Associated Press article about a physician who won a Nobel Prize for research into neurological viruses, and was later accused of having a relationship with a teenage girl.
URL:
http://www.CSUA.Berkeley.EDU/~safari/
Result:
Not an error
Adult links; includes an adult warning.
URL:
http://www.csulb.edu/~jvancamp/article1.html
Result:
Obvious error
"Indecency On the Internet: Lessons from the Art World". Ironically, an article about Internet censorship, comparing Congressional attempts to censor the NEA and the World Wide Web.
URL:
http://www.csusm.edu/public_html
Result:
Obvious error
The directory containing all student, faculty, and staff home pages at California State University at San Marcos.
URL:
http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/309m/cyber/cyberinfo.html
Result:
Obvious error
A page about the controversy surrounding the "Cyberporn" cover story in Time magazine, based on a notorious flawed study by Marty Rimm.
URL:
http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~benjamin/309mspr95/mandi/sex_pornography.html
Result:
Obvious error
One student's brief writing on censorship of pornography on the Internet.
URL:
http://cyberbuzz.gatech.edu/gala/challenge_queers.html
Result:
Obvious error
A copy of "a leaflet distributed at pride march in NY". An emotional writing against homophobia; includes some derogatory words for gay people like "faggot", but obviously not used in a way that would encourage their use.
URL:
hcyberpark-mall.com/ftp://mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives
Result:
Obvious error
Resolves to http://massis.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/, "TELECOM Digest and Archives", the archives of "an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics". No offensive content, and the page even has a SafeSurf rating of "for all ages".
URL:
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~rbear/beggar.html
Result:
Obvious error
Transcript of "The Beggar's Opera", a classic 18th-century "satirical operetta" by John Gay.
URL:
http://www.duke.edu/~nbuckley/hotsex.html
Result:
Marginal error
Has a link with the caption "If you are under 21, do not, repeat, donut, follow this link," but this turns out to be a joke. A computer could have examined the page and thought that it consisted of links to adult sites, but the page is obviously tongue-in-cheek and does not consist of any actual pornography or pornographic links.
URL:
http://www.duke.edu/~xl2/
Result:
Obvious error
Joke headlines from years in the 20th century: "1920: Women Experience Futility of Voting Firsthand", "1968: Hippies, Beatniks Sign Historic Personal Hygiene Ban", "1999: AOL Offers 50 Hours of Free Downtime", etc.
URL:
dystopia.ucs.indiana.edu/~tkulp/enter.htm
Result:
Obvious error
Moved to http://dystopia.ucs.indiana.edu/~tkulp/, which lists photographs that an Indiana University student took on a road trip. Obviously no pornographic pictures, although I-Gear's software may have been fooled by the caption of one of the photos, "Hot chick on cool lava".