La règlementation des contenus illicites circulant sur le reseau internet en droit comparé

C) Software of filtering

Internet network is very much used by the young people, at the house generally, without no monitoring being carried out in general. According to the latter, « their parents do not assoient themselves beside them when they are trotted in Internet (68%), that they do not use filters to block sites (65%) and do not check which sites they visited (54%) »^546(*). However, the software of filtering is developed and recommended. Indeed, the new legislations lay out that the FAI must inform their subscribers of the existence of average techniques making it possible to restrict the access to certain services or to select them^547(*). Europe also encourages the Net surfers to use the tools of filtering and classification by taking account of diversities cultural and linguistic^548(*).

This software rests on various methods. They can block the access to Web pages which contain such or such words or which appear in a list or arrive to sites established in a list drawn up by the organization to the origin of the software. This filtering can be done as well for the forums of discussions as for the electronic courriels by eliminating certain messages because of particular characteristics. The companies also developed protocols in order to make the network surer. Protocol « Platform Content for Internet Selection » (P.I.C.S.) aims at facilitating the control of contents Internet on the level of the recipient. It is about a mechanism on which it is possible to found services of calibration and software of filtering. The users can thus have access only to desired information and eliminate those which disturb them.

All this software of filtering is not reliable at 100%^549(*) and they do not present a perfect protection for the young people since « more than one young person out of ten said that it had decontaminated the filters of the computer at the house or the school »^550(*). However, the majority of these tools can block a certain number of undesirable information and prevent that any message does not circulate on the network. They should however be updated to raise their effectiveness. They are necessary and allow the installation of more flexible legislations.

The major problem that this software meets is that they filter information while being based on words or electronic addresses. This kind of classification can appear harmful. Indeed, it can in certain cases censure sites which do not represent any danger, which is completely licit or, on the contrary, to let pass from information which should be blocked. For example, the pornography is easier to censure than are to it the heinous, racist remarks and violent one. Nevertheless, while filtering starting from words, of many sites will be also censured whereas they should not be it. Thus if we prohibit the word « center » or « sex », of many other sites containing these words will be prohibited whereas certain could treat breast cancer or victims of sexual abuse. The same applies to the filtering carried out by electronic addresses, since it can happen that undesirable contents are in apparently acceptable sites.

In spite of multiple defects, the software of filtering remains a good way more especially of supervising and of controlling the sites visited by the young people. Indeed, a control on the level of the reception in the family and educational circle appears more effective thanks to the use of this software which makes it possible to block the addresses of sites regarded as inappropriate in a given medium. They remain however imperfect, this is why a parental control is necessary.

* ⁵⁴⁶ REPORT/RATIO OF ENVIRONICS RESEARCH GROUP, Canadian Young people in a connected world  : the prospect for the pupils, p.17, October 2001, on line on  : Network education-media < http://www.media-awareness.ca > (site visited on February 20, 2004). The young Québécois are even supervised than young Canadian. Indeed, the young people say that their parents never assoient themselves with them when they sail in Internet (70  %), never use filters to block the undesirable sites (81  %) and never check the sites that they already visited (68  %).

* ⁵⁴⁷ Project of LEN, above mentioned, note 227, art (à) (adopted in second reading as a national Parliament) and Law of August 1, 2000, above mentioned, note 17, art 43-7.

* ⁵⁴⁸ See the Recommendation Rec (2001) 8 of the Committee of the Ministers to the Member States on the self-regulation of the cyber-contents (above mentioned, note 18) and the Decision n°276/1999/EC, above mentioned, note 422, Considering 15.

* ⁵⁴⁹ «  The various software and protocols used do not allow an effective filtering of the individual contents of each message and that any user of forums Internet can reach without control the whole of the messages  »  : Mr. G.C. Public Ministère, above mentioned, note 124, p. 440.

* ⁵⁵⁰ REPORT/RATIO OF ENVIRONICS RESEARCH GROUP, COp cit., note 546, p.15.