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Web surfers makin' waves

Some fliers irked as airport drops Wi-Fi fee but limits content

By Chris Walsh, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published April 13, 2008 at 10 p.m.

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Photo by Illustration by Amy Speer © The Rocky

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Travelers rejoiced late last year when Denver International Airport began providing free wireless Internet access, eliminating a fee for the luxury of surfing the Web while they waited for a flight.

But the switch came with a caveat.

DIA started blocking certain content that travelers might find offensive, a list that includes seven categories ranging from pornography to "provocative attire."

It's an unusual policy for airports, most of which offer travelers unrestricted wireless access to the Web. A review of policies at two dozen of the nation's busiest airports found that DIA and Phoenix Sky Harbor are the only two that block content on their Wi-Fi systems for travelers using their own laptops, according to Rocky Mountain News research.

While DIA also is one of the few major airports to offer the service for free, filtering content is a slippery slope.

DIA chose broad categories, meaning some relatively innocuous sites are blocked. Think Victoria's Secret, the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue and a handful of popular blogs. There's also lots of other, nonsexual content on the Internet that could get snagged in one of the categories.

So it's no wonder some travelers are struggling to comprehend the policy.

"From what we've seen, across the Internet people seem to think that (DIA's policy) is silly," said Paul Brady, editor of Jaunted.com, which bills itself as a pop culture travel guide and also lists airports with free Wi-Fi service. "I myself have never looked over and seen something offensive on someone's laptop at an airport. Of course, some people say you shouldn't have that kind of material in public places. But you've got to wonder why they censor the Internet when you can still buy Hustler in an airport store."

Airport officials said they made the decision to shield passengers, specifically children, from being exposed to sexual material on someone else's laptop.

"We're not trying to block everything and make the only things you see at the airport sunshine and lollipops," said DIA spokesman Jeff Green. "We're trying to protect people from what we know is offensive material. We have a lot of families come through here, and they don't want to be exposed to that."

A Los Angeles-based company called FreeFi Networks provides the Wi-Fi service to passengers under a recently inked contract with the airport. The filtering system, however, is run by a company called Secure Computing, which lets clients block content in 92 categories ranging from hate to gambling to dating sites to sports.

DIA selected seven content areas, including pornography, nudity, sexual material, provocative attire and incidental nudity. It also chose two categories involving the use of sites that allow users to surf the Web anonymously, which circumvents the filters.

The sexual categories include millions of sites that Secure Computing identified using "a number of tools including automation and human review," said Grant Murphy, the company's director of enterprise sales for Web gateway products.

DIA could make the filter less restrictive by abandoning some categories or more restrictive by selecting more.

"It's the decision of the airport to choose which categories they want to include," Murphy said.

In addition to the obvious pornographic content, the filters DIA employs could block sites featuring everything from classic Greek sculptures to celebrities in swimsuits, according to information from Secure Computing.

Also blocked are sites that have descriptions of sexual acts "but are not intended to be provocative," a list that includes sites that sell sex toys and even some focusing on sexual issues for teens.

The filter has irked some travelers. David Byrne of the rock band Talking Heads, for instance, wrote on his blog in February that he was blocked from getting onto Boingboing.net, a site about science, technology, toys and art. The reason: It was listed under the "nudity category" because several of the thousands of postings - including one with photos from the Abu Ghraib prison scandal - contained a nude picture, Boing Boing wrote on its Web site.

Adam Kimont, a traveler from Orlando, Fla., who was using his laptop in DIA's main terminal last week, said he didn't even know the service was running a filter.

He said he likes the fact that the service is free but questions the decision to block content.

"Any type of censorship, even on this level, is discouraging, especially when you consider how critical we are towards other countries like China for this very reason," Kimont said.

Other travelers, though, don't have any problems with the policy.

"If I was paying for it, it would be one thing," said Betsy Kremser, of St. Paul, Minn. "But as long as I have access for free, it doesn't bother me."

DIA said it has received a handful of complaints from travelers who tried to access a site that wasn't sexual in nature but were denied. But the airport also has received feedback from travelers praising the move.

"It could be considered a pretty wide safety net," Green said. "Sometimes, things do fall into it that we don't intend to catch. In those cases, we notified the company. Our goal though is to target offensive material."

Just a fraction of 1 percent of all Web queries at the airport are blocked, according to data provided by DIA, meaning that a vast majority of the sites travelers want to access are available.

Perhaps that's why blocking sites simply isn't a concern for most airports, including those that attract higher numbers of families and children than DIA.

"We have had no problems with this issue," said Rod Johnson, a spokesman for Orlando International Airport, which offers free, unrestricted Wi-Fi service and attracts swarms of children visiting Disney World and other local attractions. "We've had no complaints that sites should be blocked."

In fact, you're probably more likely to encounter sexual images at a public library in Denver. Some content on the library system's public computers is filtered to protect children. Those who are 17 and over, however, can turn off the filters, and Internet access using the library Wi-Fi service is unrestricted.

Many other organizations that provide wireless Internet for the public, from coffee shops to tourism-related organizations, don't filter content either.

"It just isn't really an issue for us," said Tami Door, head of the Downtown Denver Partnership, which offers free, unrestricted Wi-Fi service along the 16th Street Mall. "We didn't spend a lot of time evaluating that aspect of the service, and we haven't heard anything about it."

Travelers passing through Denver International Airport shouldn't raise too much of a fuss, though.

DIA is one of only a handful of major U.S. airports - and the largest one in the country - to offer Wi-Fi service for free. Most large airports charge for it by the day, hour or even minute.

And travelers can always buy their own wireless Internet card and subscription from another provider and use it at the airport if they don't like the free service.

"We understand there are going to be individuals who are not happy about it," DIA's Green said. "But if it's really important to them they can pay to get their own wireless card."

Blocked, blocked, not blocked, blocked . . .

DIA is blocking some Internet content for travelers tapping into the airport's unrestricted wireless access. Some examples:

* You and your husband have been trying to conceive a child. It's been a few years; unfortunately, you've had no luck. While waiting for departure, you decide to explore fertility options. You visit sexualhealth.com. BLOCKED

* You need a new bra. You want to check out Victoria Secret's selection online. BLOCKED

* You find youtube.com videos entertaining and wouldn't mind watching a few to pass the time. NOT BLOCKED

* Wishing you had shed more pounds before your trip to the beach, you feel inspired to look at Kiana Tom's fitness site, kiana.com. Tom is a familiar face on ESPN2 fitness shows and has been featured in FIT magazine. BLOCKED

Access denied

DIA uses a product called Web Washer, offered by Secure Computing, to filter content on its Wi-Fi service. The airport chose seven categories, five of them related to sexual content. Following are excerpts from the company's description of the type of content included in each category:

Anonymizers

Sites that purposely allow users to browse the Web by hiding their IP address, or other personal identification information, in order to bypass local filtering policies and access any Web page. Anonymizer sites will also block any tracking technologies, such as cookies or browser history. Pages that provide free proxy IP addresses or detail how to bypass filtering are included in this category.

Examples:

* anonymizer.com

* megaproxy.com

Anonymizing utilities

Sites that result in anonymous Web browsing without the explicit intent to provide such a service. This category includes URL translators, Web page caching, or other utilities that may function as anonymizers but without the express purpose of bypassing filtering software.

Examples:

* babelfish.altavista.com

* archive.org

* worldlingo.com/en/ websites/url_translator.html

Incidental nudity

Sites that contain non-pornographic images of the bare human body like those found in classic sculpture and paintings, or medical images.

This category is designed for use as a selective blocking category to allow or block sites in order to address cultural or geographic differences in opinion about nudity. For example, use this category when you want to block access to nudity, but allow access when it is not the primary focus of a site, such as news sites or major portals.

Examples:

* thesun.co.uk

* stern.de

* express.de

Nudity

Sites that have non-pornographic images of the bare human body. Classic sculpture and paintings, artistic nude photographs, some naturism pictures, and detailed medical illustrations are included in the Nudity category. High-profile sites where nudity is not a concern for visitors do not fall under this category.

Examples:

* avalon-resort.com

* denverbreast.com

* jaedasfineart.com

* boingboing.net

Pornography

Sites that contain materials intended to be sexually arousing or erotic. This includes fetish pages, animation, cartoons, stories and child pornography.

Examples:

* hustler.com

* thehun.net

* paysitereviews.com

Provocative attire

Sites with pictures that include alluring or revealing attire, lingerie and swimsuits, or supermodel or celebrity photo collections but do not involve nudity.

Sites with swimwear or other such attire that is not intended to be provocative will not fall under this category. For example, Olympic swimming sites will not be categorized as provocative attire.

Examples:

* hot-latina-babes.blogspot.com

* kiana.com

* victoriassecret.com

Sexual materials

Sites that have descriptions or depictions of sexual acts but are not intended to be arousing or erotic. Examples of sexual materials include sex education, sexual innuendo, humor or sex-related merchandise.

Examples

* kamasutra-sex.org

* sexualhealth.com

* mypleasure.com

walshc@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2744

Comments

  • April 13, 2008

    11:12 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    andybosselman writes:

    Sunshine and lollipops? Give me a break.

    If Disney's airport doesn't need lame restrictions ours shouldn't either.

    Andy
    http://andybosselman.blogspot.com

  • April 14, 2008

    7:16 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Jim writes:

    I suspect the blocking has more to do with concorse vendor profits than morality.

  • April 14, 2008

    8:53 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    fntsymtn writes:

    It's free access, why are people complaining if some content is filtered?

    Maybe DIA should provide a "pay per use" service that does not have the filters so that people can have their cake and eat it too.

  • April 14, 2008

    1:09 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Ztliano writes:

    Children should be exposed to sex, because it is NATURAL! Religious people think it ain't. Lol. So I don't agree with blocking content. And if the child next to me doesn't like it, tough.

  • April 14, 2008

    3:03 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    EdVMorales writes:

    Catch 22 here. YOu can buy a playboy at the news stands but can't on the internet. Too funny!

  • April 14, 2008

    6:03 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    kevinjjones writes:

    "In fact, you're probably more likely to encounter sexual images at a public library in Denver. Some content on the library system's public computers is filtered to protect children. Those who are 17 and over, however, can turn off the filters, and Internet access using the library Wi-Fi service is unrestricted."

    Well, yes, and our libraries are turned into taxpayer-supported free adult video arcades because of it. Librarians are disgusted and fearful, resourceful kids are becoming porn addicts when their parents think they are studying, and the library chairs are collecting mysterious stains. Meanwhile, the library administration blithely yammers anti-censorship platitudes.

    I'm glad DIA has a few minimal anti-pornocratic standards, unlike some other places. Maybe that stack of "Hustler" magazine should be the next to go.