Internet filters can also block health sites

Devices intended to protect young people from pornography may screen out useful medical information.

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. Jan. 20, 2003.

Washington -- Teens are more likely to seek health information online than from physicians, but they could well be stymied by Internet filters.

A study funded by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation found that the filters required in schools and libraries can block access to health information. If set on their most restrictive levels, Internet filters can block access to a wide array of sexual health issues such as safe sex and condom use, said the study, published in the Dec. 11, 2002, JAMA.

However, filters can be adjusted to allow access to health information while still blocking pornography, noted the researchers.

"Filters can strike a good balance between protecting kids from pornography while still giving them access to online health information, but only if they're configured carefully," said Kaiser Family Foundation Vice President Vicky Rideout. "Otherwise they can be a serious obstacle, especially on issues such as pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and birth control."

Ann Arbor, Mich., family physician Caroline Richardson, MD, an author of the study, is also concerned about the impact of the restrictive filters on teens who don't show up for care in physicians' offices. "There tends to be a gap in care, especially for those teens who are uninsured," she said. "They may need access to health information, but not have access to health care."

Dr. Richardson, who is also a lecturer in the University of Michigan's Dept. of Family Medicine and a research scientist at the Dept. of Veterans Affairs, points to the Internet's increasingly important role in the nation's health care delivery system as a driving force behind the study.