Research »

Sex Work Awareness (SWA) has been named the United States country research partner for the Exploratory Research on Internet & Sexuality (EROTICS) research project, funded by the Association for Progressive Communications. Other research teams are from Brazil, Lebanon-Egypt, South Africa, and India.

We are investigating the use of content filters on public library computers with Internet access. The priority research areas are access to information about sexuality and sexual reproductive health. We need help with this work, and request that people all over the United States visit their local public library and do some simple searches. In places with filters, the items that are filtered are not standard across systems. Filtering today cannot be fine-tuned to exclude only pornographic or violent content rather than health information. For example, in a large east coast city, only the word “anal” seemed to be filtered, which prevented people from gaining access to information about anal cancer as well as any potential sexual content.

If you have any questions or comments about our research project please email us at research@sexworkawareness.org

We need the help of people who live (or visit places) all over the United States to complete this study. We’re asking folks to stop by their local public library and attempt to visit five different websites, and then search five different terms – and report your experience back to us. We have a simple survey with instructions at infoandthelibrary.org, a nice, easy to remember domain. That way, you can access our form and enter your results while you’re at the library.

Why Is This Important?
In the United States, access to the Internet is controlled by both governments and corporations. The right to information may exist, but no corporation is responsible for fulfilling this right and can restrict the ways its software, programs, and platforms are used. Private corporations simply have no obligation to offer free access to information. As a result, information about sexual health and reproductive rights is frequently curtailed.

People in the United States enjoy freedom of speech and access to information at a level that is not found in many other places. However, people who access the Internet through public computer terminals at libraries may have their ability to access information about sexuality limited.

Policies regulating funds granted to public libraries require libraries to adhere to technology protection measures, as part of the mandate in the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA). The stated goal of CIPA is to prevent minor’s access to “harmful content.” In libraries this is done through use of filtering software designed by corporations. Access to certain websites is denied based on blacklists or lists of prohibited keywords created by the corporations that design the software. Because no concrete definition of “harmful content” has been established and agreed upon, varying interpretations have lead to unequal access to online sexuality information. The ways in which access is implemented varies among individual libraries and differ based on city, county, and state.

By understanding how content filtering systems limit access to information about sexuality, we hope to create a national and international dialogue about public access to online sexual health information.

Please help us spread the word about this study!

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