So You Want To Visit An Inappropriate Web Site...
If you're CBS News, you block sites by keyword – sites with words like "sex" in the domain name, for example – and allow reporters to request access if they need it. You also block peer-to-peer networks like Kazaa. "It's a difficult balance," says Phil Oester, director of data security for CBS Corporation. "The challenge is to allow reporters to do their work, but you don't want people browsing to porn sites in the middle of the day."
If a reporter needs access to a site, they e-mail in a request, something that Oester says happens every two weeks or so. If data security finds that they're blocking a legitimate site – Oester offers sexoffenders.com as an example – they open the site up to general use. Oester says data security does not always grant requests. I asked him how he would respond to a reporter requesting access to child pornography sites for a potential story.
"Even if they're doing a news report on that topic, there is some question as to whether they should be allowed to visit those sites," he says. "It could offend someone who is walking by your desk. They could end up filing a sexual harassment claim. As a corporation, we have to protect ourselves from that possibility, while still allowing reporters to do their work."
The keyword search isn't perfect, of course. It blocks www.sex.com, but also sites with the word sex in them, like www.expertsexchange.com. (That URL, which one cannot access from CBS, takes you to a search engine site. The real "Experts Exchange" site, perhaps because someone realized the problem, is at www.experts-exchange.com.)
This story names "The 6 Worst Domain Names EVER!" Along with Experts Exchange, there's "Who Represents?" (http://www.whorepresents.com), Pen Island (http://www.penisland.net), Therapist Finder (http://www.therapistfinder.com), PowerGen Italia, a power utility company in Italy (http://www.powergenitalia.com), and The Mole Station Native Nursery, an Australian plant nursery (http://www.molestationnursery.com). I was able to access all of the above, except for PowerGen Italia, from my desk at CBS. The Mole Station Native Nursery, perhaps realizing the potential problems with its URL, now redirects to a less problematic domain name.
Oester says he'd like to block social networking sites like MySpace, but does not because it would cause problems for journalists. "Personally, I think that's just a big waste of time for people, but I'm hearing from our news reporters that they get on there, do reports about it, and do reports on things they've read on there," he says. "It's very difficult for us to block these sites."