CYBERsitter Correspondence Round 2

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


The MoJo Wire:

To: bmilburn@solidoak.com
From: Jennifer Hattam
Subject: CYBERsitter blocking policy question
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 1997

Mr. Milburn,

It has been reported to The MoJo Wire that CYBERsitter is currently blocking The Ethical Spectacle (http://www.spectacle.org). Please let me know if this is correct, and if so, which part of your policy they violated (i.e. why are they being blocked?).

Thank you in advance for your reply.

Jennifer Hattam
MoJo Wire Fellow

Solid Oak’s response:

From: terminator@solidoak.com (The Terminator)
To: Jennifer Hattam
Organization: Solid Oak Software, Inc.
Subject: Re: CYBERsitter blocking policy question
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 1997

Dear Sender,

Unfortunately, we do not accept unsolicited e-mail that is intended to be harassing, is politically motivated, or in any way offensive to the employees at Solid Oak Software.

Therefor[sic], we will appreciate your cooperation in not contacting this company again regarding these issues.

What we can tell you is that CYBERsitter has absolutely no "hidden political agenda", regardless of what our critics might try to claim. The site in question is blocked by CYBERsitter simply because it publishes or maintains links to other sites that publ[sic]

When a customer purchases our product, they have every right to expect and demand that reasonable efforts be expended on our part to insure that once CYBERsitter is installed, its operation be as secure as possible.

Any site that publishes information that lessens the value of our product to our customers, or makes an overt effort to subvert parental rights to supervise and control the on-line activities of their minor children, will be blocked.

Thank-you

Fact:

Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and billionaires wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do.

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2024 demands.

payment methods

Fact:

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2024 demands.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate