By Brian Langone

Internet censorship is essentially a method used by corporations, governments and others in order to filter what a user can view on the internet.

Businesses use censorship to ensure their employees are not distracted online. Families may use censorship in order to limit what sites their children can access. Governments use censorship to prevent citizens from: Viewing political pages that are against the ruling party News pages that would inform citizens of demonstrations or conflicts. Pages they would deem obscene.

There are a number of ways to employ censorship. They include: Software such as Net Nanny and CYBERsitter. These programs use a blacklist that has a number of sites deemed offensive. These programs also look for keywords on a site and if they are found it will block access to the site. Firewalls can also be used, they block what goes in and out of a network. Many businesses rely on firewalls. Countries also use firewalls in order to limit what their citizens can view. Some countries even have physical surveillance systems such as cameras at computer locations.