Accountability, conversation, pr0n

Two Christian pastors have created a kind of opt-in spyware called X3Watch, which forwards lists of questionable websites visited by the user to a designated "accountability partner." The idea is to make browsing behavior not just visible but discussable. Whatever you think of their mission, it's an interesting exercise in trust and surveillance that has interesting social consequences for the culture of filters:

"Filters don't work," Mr. Gross said, speaking of programs that block Internet pornography. "Kids are smarter than that. Filters don't bring up conversation. A filter avoids the topic. Accountability forces you and another person to talk about what you're looking at. That's hard. We would have more downloads if it was a filter."

{NYT}