Exploring the factors affecting internet content filters acceptance

  • Authors:
  • Shuk Ying Ho;Siu Man Lui

  • Affiliations:
  • Department of Information Systems and Management, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology;Department of Information Systems and Management, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

  • Venue:
  • ACM SIGecom Exchanges
  • Year:
  • 2003

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Abstract

Data traveling along the Internet wire is generally unrestricted. The Internet may always bring surfers fun, but sometimes give them unpleasant experiences. Web surfers may be exposed to gory pictures of adult-oriented contents unwittingly. International organizations are working on content rating systems and software filters for the Internet. These tools empower the general public to understand the electronic media by means of the open and objective content labels. Though filters accompany some common browsers out of the box, they are disabled by default. As a result, the efforts spent by these organizations to protect users from Internet harms are wasted. This paper presents an exploratory study on one's acceptance of the Internet content filters in publicly accessed computers. Demographic factors, such as gender, and perception factors, such as severity of the Internet problems, were examined by way of multivariate regression. Results show that the acceptance of blocking filters is significantly related to one's demographics and perception of the Internet. This article discusses implications of the findings, from both an academic and a commercial perceptive, for future research.