The Anti-Defamation League’s HateFilter, a computer program that blocks out racist and hateful Web sites, wasn’t programmed to lock out the incendiary homepage of Littleton gunmen Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.
The site, which had links to bomb-making information and anarchist groups, was too obscure, said Kenneth Jacobsen, assistant national director of the New York-based agency.
For the program to work, human searchers must first find the site and program it into the HateFilter; no one had found Klebold and Harris’ site in this case.
However, that’s not the program’s point, said Jacobsen, in town earlier this month to meet with local ADL officials.
Instead, Jacobsen said, the HateFilter mainly is to prompt parents “to address hate on the Internet seriously. The issue really is of parental supervision. The Internet is a technology so vast that we’re trying to just keep up.”
In the aftermath of the Littleton shooting, more and more people are looking at the Internet as an influence on hate crimes. That has raised the question of whether there is any way to protect children at all from the Internet without resorting to censorship.
Concerned about the numerous, easily locatable Web sites on subjects ranging from bigotry to bomb-making, some parents are asking ADL and other anti-hate organizations to up their profile in stopping the spread of violence.
Jacobsen’s response has been to welcome such calls, but to also caution against perceiving ADL as a cure-all.
“This is the time to take a look at the larger society and ask questions” about how people deal with hatred, Jacobsen said.
“This event has had a much greater impact on the psyche of our country than anything else in a long time. We at ADL don’t have all the answers. But we are trying to think harder about how to deal with [these] problems.”
Jacobsen said ADL has decided the best way the agency can help is to pump up promotion of the HateFilter and discuss the agency’s expertise in tracking hate groups.
Earlier this month, ADL sent its national director, Abraham Foxman, to speak at President Clinton’s roundtable discussion on violence in schools. The meeting was attended by a variety of media moguls, gun control advocates and opponents, Internet gurus and others.
While ADL has seen several racist groups bolster their outreach efforts using the Internet, so far no one knows if such tactics are luring more people.
But Jacobsen did not mince words on the dangers of such Web activity.
“Today, the Internet is a major way young people get exposed to hatred. The old way of doing mailings and meetings is old fashioned. Hate groups all claim this technology is a new opportunity to grow.”
Another way ADL is trying to combat hate is by placing a greater focus on programming for kids, Jacobsen said.
“We’re focusing on bias and tolerance education for children far more today than we’ve done in the past,” he said.
Parents should do the same, Jacobsen advised. In addition to having a talk on the birds and the bees, he suggested one also speak about the dangers of hate and violence.
“There are things people should be doing that has little to do with ADL. We can come in and help children deal with bias. But it really depends on parents and the community following up.”