Technical Difficulties: Youth, Sex, and the Discourse of the Dangerous Internet.

As the Internet becomes an increasingly central part of public and private life, we are inundated with reports of its dangers and threats, particularly for "our children." As a result, Internet filtering software packages are at the center of the national debates about kids, sex, and the Internet. In December 2000, Congress passed the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), which requires all schools, libraries, museums, and other public institutions to have some type of filtering mechanism in place in order to receive federal funding for computers or Internet access. Enmeshed within the larger discourse of Internet dangers, while at the same time part of a separate, but related discourse surrounding children's sexuality, Internet filtering software occupies a location fraught with fear and anxiety. This study is an in-depth examination of one aspect of the cultural space occupied by filtering software-its own marketing as represented by the product websites. Through the qualitative content analysis of six websites, I look at the dangers for which the products present solutions, the mechanisms proposed to manage the risks, and suggest some consequences that may result from these mechanisms of protection. These sites not only present exposure to pornography, sexual images, sexual experiences, and sexual information as the primary concern of parents and others charged with protecting children, but also simultaneously function to reify and recreate those fears. Future research on filtering software needs to locate the concept of a filtered Internet in the actual lived experiences of young people. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]