EMAIL SOFTWARE CENSOR CUTS OUT THE CRAP

EMAIL SOFTWARE CENSOR CUTS OUT THE CRAP

WREXHAM, England (Wireless Flash) -- If there are any students at Yale College in Wrexham, England, with the first name of "Fanny," chances are they won't be getting any e-mail this year. "Fanny" is just one of the words that triggers a red flag in a computer program which examines all incoming and outgoing email messages at Yale. Any messages that contain the verboten words are automatically deleted and the sender is warned that the material contains "...banned or potentially offensive text." The software even banned a recent news story about the origins of the dice game "craps" because the word "crap" was in the message. A spokesperson for the college says at least nine naughty words have been banned -- including old favorites like "wanker," "bollocks" and "bugger." Yale computer manager David Neal says the decency-checking software is proving to be more of a problem than a solution partly because students have figured out ways to trick the system.

CONTACT: David Neal, ****; Wrexham, U.K.; 011-44-1978-316-444