Health Program: Health Resources

The Health Program lists here some additional resources, including media coverage and links to organizations and related publications covering online policy issues and health-related communities. For alerts, media coverage, and publications related to incidents of online bias, discrimination, or defamation based on HIV, AIDS, cancer, or other health condition, see the Health SWAT Team page. More general information about online policy issues is available from the Issues bar across the top of most pages on this site.

Media Coverage

	Appeals Court: Vermont Law Can't Stop Internet Sites That Discuss Sexuality
	Citing the First Amendment, a federal appeals court ruled that a Vermont law cannot stop a nonprofit organization and the American Civil Liberties Union from publishing information about sexuality on the Internet, Associated Press via KCBS (August 28, 2003)

	Internet Filters Block Valuable Data, Too
	A 17-year-old girl thinking about having sex for the first time logs onto her school's computer for the latest facts about sexually transmitted diseases, USA Today (August 12, 2003)

	Rise of Internet Fuels Fears of AIDS Resurgence
	A growing number of gay and bisexual men in the United States are engaging in risky sex with partners they meet on the Internet, raising fears that the AIDS virus could be poised for a major comeback in the group hardest hit by the epidemic, Reuters (July 29, 2003)

	Studies Probe Web Link to HIV Surge
	Will Doherty, executive director of QueerNet/Online Policy Group, a nonprofit focused on providing wider Internet access, noted that online dates, or hookups, don't of themselves cause STD infection, Gay.com / PlanetOut.com Network (July 29, 2003)

	Filtering Software May Block Access to Health Information, Study Finds
	Software meant to protect young people from the seamier side of the Internet may also be blocking them from important health information on issues ranging from diabetes and sexually transmitted diseases to depression and suicide, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation study released this afternoon, Washington Post (December 10, 2002)

Recent Coverage

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Organizations and Related Publications

OPG Co-Hosts Bridging the Digital Divides Event Join us the week of August 25-29 as we discuss "Bridging the Digital Divides, Equal Access to the Internet" on Techsoup's Digital Divide Forum, including topics such as class-based disparity in available technology, the role race, ethnicity, and religion play in the digital divide, women and technology, the impact of Internet blocking software on the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community, and access to technology for people with disabilities, Online Policy Group (August 25, 2003)

Sex and the Internet OPG Executive Director Will Doherty presented a program entitled "Sex and the Internet" to the annual conference of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality in San Jose, CA, Online Policy Group (April 12, 2003)

See No Evil: How Internet Filters Affect the Search for Online Health Information

With a case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court challenging mandatory filters in libraries, the Foundation conducted a comprehensive study that indicates Internet filters most frequently used by schools and libraries can effectively block pornography without significantly impeding access to online health information - but only if they aren’t set at their most restrictive levels, Kaiser Family Foundation (December 10, 2002)

Harmful to Minors Review

Judith Levine's "Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children from Sex" is a must-read for those who seek to understand American attitudes toward sex education and childhood sexuality and for those interested in how to use the Internet to reach out to young people who are exploring their sexuality and seeking sexual health information, despite Internet filtering, University of Minnesota Press (October 17, 2002)

	DemocracyGroups
	A project to create an online directory of U.S. based electronic mail discussions and e-newsletters related to social change and democratic participation, democracygroups.org (July 20, 2002)

Recent Publications

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