This is a guest post written by Rebecca Kohlhepp, who blogs regularly on She seeks non-fiction.

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It’s Pride Month, so it can only mean one thing: Right-wing Christians label the LGBTQ community a “dangerous sect” and create an online filter to eliminate LGBTQ content in order to prevent children from dying. ‘to be confronted with “indoctrination” via Internet “propaganda”. “

Thursday, as he “cried[ed] the fact that our nation has embraced the sin of pride as a virtue ”, Michael lee mason ad the launch of its new content blocking service Free filtering.

A Christian tech startup has announced the launch of a Internet filtering service designed to protect children from indoctrination into what it says is a “dangerous LGBTQ sect”…

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Christian parents are rightly concerned about how their children are routinely exposed to misconceptions about human sexuality in school. Second, these ideas are all too easily reinforced by unhindered internet access at home. A few clicks can escalate into catastrophic physical and spiritual damage. As parents, we are responsible for educating our children on “the way they should go.”

The site claims to work by blocking “approximately 1.8 million pornographic websites already cataloged in our database,” a number Mason says is constantly increasing… one way or another. The goal is to make the Internet a “safer place for souls ™” – there is this trademark symbol – by preventing access to “Porn”, “LGBTQ +” and “Abortion”.

But these categories are not clear. What counts as dangerous? We already know that Christian filters are not foolproof. (Thank you, Josh duggar.) But besides blocking adult websites, what is considered dangerous?

Wikipedia because it has articles about these subjects ? YouTube to host videos featuring LGBTQ people? This website? the New York Times? Google?

There is a difference between learning about gender and acting above. There is a difference between arguing against gender norms and watching a Trixie Mattel makeup tutorial. Nowhere on the company’s website is there a clear explanation of restricted websites, how new ones are added to the list, and how the filter ensures that the right information is not being listed. not swept away.

The most ironic part? FreeFiltering isn’t even free. The site encourages customers to pay $ 99 for “expert” help with a remote setup, $ 11.99 / month for a premium subscription, or an elusive “$ 30.00 + / month” for a customer subscription. . (Why would anyone need a premium membership if the free filter works? Who knows.)

Knowing all of this, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that FreeFiltering also works as a tiered marketing system which is why they need your social security number when signing up. the FreeFiltering Independent Evangelism Program…

… Allows website users, also known as evangelists, to earn commissions by referring paying customers to FreeFiltering LLC (the Company or FreeFiltering) and for leading an organization of evangelists who also refer paying clients to FreeFiltering.

What happened to trying to protect your children?

Either way, according to the press release, the “first 40 families who agree to participate as beta testers when the business is launched” can get a free remote setup … at this point, I guess. that they can start scouring the internet for porn to see what’s going on.

But let’s be honest: if a parent installs a cheap filter to prevent kids from accessing certain content online, there will always be a way around it and kids will quickly figure it out. There is no reason to believe it is reliable. It’s just another way to take advantage of conservative Christian parents who are gullible enough to think they can keep their kids in a bubble forever.

(Image via Shutterstock)