AOL doesn't want you to see this!
AOL offers parents the option of blocking sites for users under eighteen years of age. Apparently, this website as well as my eleven-year-old brother's site (http://MICrazy.Indrelunas.com/) are being blocked for children, and "young teens," ages 13-15. (I do not know if "mature teens," ages 16-17, can access our sites.) According to AOL, Parental Controls enable kids and teens to have a "safe, fun and enriching experience online."
I believe my and Michael's websites, as well as all of Indrelunas.com, are definitely safe, usually fun, and somewhat enriching. Basically, I think our sites are appropriate for all ages, so I do not think they need to be "web restricted" for users of AOL or any online service.
I'd also like to add that while AOL blocks sites such as this one, they do not restrict access to some blatently pornographic material, as was demonstrated to me by an AOL user who is a "young teen" on AOL's Parental Control system. (Young teens, according to AOL, are 13 to 15 years old.)
I wrote the following message to AOL on their feedback form at http://www.aol.com/info/feedback.html and I ask that, unless you think this site is inappropriate, obscene, or otherwise subject to restriction, you please complain to AOL as well.
Thanks,
I have some friends who subscribe to your internet service, and their parents have enacted your "Parental Controls" to keep them off of inappropriate web sites. However, your web restriction system is totally inadequate!
My friends are unable to visit my website (http://Brian.Indrelunas.com/) because of your restrictions. I understand that this may be because I had a link entitled "Kitty Porn" on my site a while back but the site that linked to was a completely appropriate site (http://www.crosswinds.net/~scourfish/kittie/kitty.html) that makes fun of porn sites. It depicts cats standing next to each other and occasionally lying next to each other, sarcastically calling it "Kitty Porn."
But even if you still feel that is justification for my page's restriction, that link has been phased out. (It was part of a weblog from Blogger.com.)
Other than that, I feel that my site is completely appropriate for all ages. I do not use obscene language, make suggestive comments or jokes, or link to adult sites. The only off-site links I have on my page are to Blogger.com (in accordance with their ToS), Indrelunas.com (my family's site), and Air 1, the Christian music station I listen to.
In addition, you also restrict my eleven-year-old brother's website (http://MICrazy.Indrelunas.com) which I am convinced has NO OBSCENE, SUGGESTIVE, OR INAPPROPRIATE CONTENT WHATSOEVER. The worst word used on his is when someone said "poop" in his guestbook!
However, it cannot be said that your restrictions of even somewhat questionable sites enable you to successfuly block all inappropriate material. Not even close! While at a friend's house where they subscribe to AOL and the teenager is restricted by your Parental Controls, this friend showed me how searching for mundane, appropriate words ON AOL'S OWN SEARCH SERVICE can yield pornographic or otherwise inappropriate search results which your service FAILS to restrict and can be viewed/visited.
I am deeply offended that you seem to think that my brother's and my personal websites inappropriate for viewing by your teenage subscribers, but that some blatently pornographic and inapropriate sites are not. and I ask you to please remove your restrictions on my site and my little brother's.
Regards,
Brian Indrelunas