His Peacefire.org site offers free downloads and details methods for circumventing filtering software that critics say also inevitably blocks out a range of useful, even beneficial, Internet content.

While Haselton's crusade, launched six years ago while he was a college student, has made him a hero among some Web-savvy minors, he's something of a supervillain to filtering advocates.

"He's being totally irresponsible," said Marc Kanter, marketing director for Santa Barbara, California-based Solid Oak Software, which makes the CYBERsitter program.

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