AOL has done it again. As of right now, their "parental controls"
don't keep porno mailers or predators away from kids but do keep TG youth
away from medical/help sites, and their chat room title prohibition defies
belief in its restrictiveness.
A few days ago, a friend set one of his screen names to "highest
parental control" (as in "this account is for a 12-yr-old) so some porno
spammers would dorop him from their lists. This did nothing to stop the
porno ads, but does keep TG youth out of medical/self-help sites. The ads
came through as explicit as ever, meanwhile when we used that particular
account to get on the web,. the self-help site Long Island Trans Experience
(www.litransexperience.org) was totally blocked.
As for chat rooms, if you're a member and go into "start your own
chat," the banned title words list is ridiculous. Let's see, both "queer"
and "genderqueer" are banned, even though both are used positively by the
LGBT community. "dyke" is banned even when talking about the Boston Dyke
March or the news show Dyke TV. Any title with the letters "S-E-X" is
totally banned. This includes of course both "transsexual" and "intersex"
are forbidden topics. As is "safe sex". As is even discussing place names
like "Sussex, England" or "middlesex new jersey." And the word "breast" is
forbidden even in medical context like "breast health" or "breast cancer."
I have both emailed and called AOL and they simply do not care about
this. I emailed their "help desk" and their "complaints" and "Terms Of
Service" (TOS) and have only gotten "please go to the suggestion box" (maybe
a "circular file?"). Bear in mind that AOL's recent history includes the
1993-94 ban on profiles with the words
"transgender"/"transvestite"/"transgender" as "vulgar" (thank you Gwen Smith
for telling me about that one!) and the late 2000 grant to Corla Ridge
(ex-gay) Church. And when I called them today, the 1st person I got told me
"the breast cancer tyhing is legitimate concern but I don't see about those
other things" meaning the LGBT issues, and that :discrimination isn't against
the law.," While the next person I got apologized for him and said AOL is
"LGBT friendly" I don't trust them at all, especially when I got such a weak
response to my conerns with them. I urge you to do whatever you can to look
into this and see what you can do to get AOL to wake up and join the 21st
Century, or at least the 20th. And I urge you to send this to anyone you
think cares about this.
Thank you,
Cynthya BrianKate