Don Wildmon
AFA/AFR founder
May 1999 – Many years ago I read a statement by J. Wallace Hamilton in which he stated that, with all the new discoveries being made, perhaps we needed to stop “progressing” until we let our morals catch up with our minds.
It seems that with each new development, we humans find ways to use it for harm. Never has this been more true than with the Internet. What could be a great tool for good, is being used for the opposite. Pornography floods the Internet – nearly 1,500,000 porn sites and thousands more being added each day.
God has opened a window of opportunity with the Internet. AFA has established American Family Online (AFO) as an Internet Service Provider (ISP). An ISP is the service one uses to get onto the Internet. The unique option which AFO offers is that it blocks out the porn sites at AFO’s server and has no password overrides. Most companies offer filters which can be turned off and on at the user’s computer. In reality, that is little protection. The user can, with a few keystrokes, turn the filter off and access the pornography. AFO does not allow such a password override.
AFO currently blocks out those 1.5 million pornographic sites and the thousands of new sites which are being added daily. Your children will not be able to use a password override to reach them. In addition to blocking out the pornography, AFO is working to make some of the best family sites easily available.
As you are probably aware, America Online blocks AFA’s site from their service. AOL uses a group called CyberPatrol to operate their filter. CyberPatrol excludes AFA’s website because of AFA’s position on homosexuality. With AFO as a strong alternative, we can assure that those who don’t agree with our message will not be able to block us.
It will take approximately $1 million to make AFO an effective player as an ISP. We are currently trying to raise those funds to allow AFO to expand. Compared to what other ISP’s are spending, this is peanuts. However, once AFO is established it will not only pay its way but also provide funding for your AFA. The funds we are trying to raise are needed now for equipment and promotion.
In the future you will be able to use the Internet to receive TV-like broadcasts over the Internet. AFO wants to be in the middle of this “netcasting” to provide entertainment and news to families anywhere in the world.
How can you help? AFO currently has local dial-up service in nearly 400 of the largest cities. To find out if your city is one of these, check the ad on page 17. If available, sign up. Go to www.afo.net and follow the instructions. Help us by using AFO as your ISP. Your church can use AFO. You can recommend AFO to your family and friends.
In areas where AFO currently does not have local dial-up service, you can still use the AFO filter. You can download it from your computer. Simply go to the AFO homepage at www.afo.net and follow the instructions. The cost is only $3 per month. As far as I know, AFO’s filter is the only one available which can be downloaded and which has no password override.
We want to make AFO an effective tool for the family. With your help, we will accomplish that goal. 
