ISP-based filtering services have met with a mixed response in Australia. AOL provides parental controls so that family members can be provided with filtered Internet access according to their age gro
ISP-based filtering services have met with a mixed response in Australia. AOL provides parental controls so that family members can be provided with filtered Internet access according to their age group. One of the first things it does is to prevent younger children accessing chat channels. However, young teens often find it too restrictive, particularly when they are searching the Internet for information to help them with homework.
AOL does attempt to assist by providing a filtered search engine that does an excellent job in preventing accidental access to pornography sites, in particular. KAHooTZ (www.kahootz.com.au) and Kidz.net (www.kidz.net.au) are both protected Australian childrens sites that are subscriber based and require special software or special conditions to access.
KAHooTZ, which is backed by Hewlett-Packard and the Australian Childrens Television Foundation and is designed to provide a safe haven on the Internet for young net users, provides access to a list of cached, pre-approved sites but blocks access to the wider Internet. A monitored chat service is provided but it is restricted to KAHooTZ members.
Kidz.net is restricted to Telstras Big Pond Home subscribers who use a Windows 95 or 98 based PC. Children require a separate login and password to those used to access the Big Pond service, and unless they have their parents main Big Pond access details they cannot surf the wider Internet. Instead they are restricted to a collection of thousands of pre-selected safe sites. Nor are they able to access email or chat programs, which the administrators consider impossible to monitor.
Despite the restrictions there is plenty to do and see on both Kidz.net and KAHooTZ. Both are examples of what are classified as safe zones and when used in conjunction with a filter that allows you to restrict access anything but these sites, they provide the most effective form of online protection for young children.
The ABA recommends three filter programs - Cyber Patrol, Cyber Sentinel and Net Nanny. The latter has become one of the commonly used filters in Australia thanks to some clever marketing by its distributor Manaccom, which has landed deals with both Telstra and Optus to make it available to their subscribers.
Net Nanny not only monitors Internet activity, it keeps an eye on all of the files on your PC and can be configured to prevent children accessing confidential data that is stored on your hard drive. It uses a combination of filtering methods ranging from a relatively small pre-set lists of blocked sites, to specific words and phrases that can be masked to prevent them appearing on screen. Free updates to the blocked sites list can be downloaded from the Internet.
Rather than just blocking undesirable sites, children can be blocked from everything but approved sites or files and by default Net Nanny will monitor word processing, browser and Internet Relay Chat programs. Its main selling point is that it is easily configurable and parents can set their own parameters.
However, its effectiveness at blocking Web sites is dependent on how much effort a parent or system administrator puts in. Its small list, of just a few thousand sites, is fully editable and can be added to or deleted from. Unlike its competitors, Net Nanny does not encrypt its list and puts a greater onus on parents to decide what sites should be blocked.
However, it still uses a keyword list to block additional sites and this too is editable. The major advantage is that Net Nanny blocks fewer good sites, however, on the down side it requires a lot more work.
It also has a conflict with the latest version of ICQ and must be disabled to allow ICQ to work, even if it has been configured to allow access to the program. All chat room activity can be logged so you can go back and check on online conversations the kids are having. It does a reasonable job of filtering most undesirable content and can be set to block both incoming and outgoing data such as credit card numbers, email addresses and other personal information.
Cybersitter has a much larger list of blocked sites - more than 10,000 - and is constantly updating them. Because the list is encrypted you cannot edit it, but you do have the option of overriding blocked sites or adding your own. The user can configure it to block a variety of types of site content ranging from information on alternative sexualities to Pokemon sites. Sites containing adult/sexually-oriented material, information on illegal activities, drugs, guns and violence; hate and intolerance or which come under the PICS rating system of adult and violent sites, are automatically blocked.
It uses a word search to block additional sites and this is where it has a problem blocking a lot of sites that would otherwise be considered acceptable. However, in other cases it lets through adult content or blocks parts of sites. When first installed it will scan your PC to see if anybody has already been accessing undesirable material, however, it proved over zealous by highlighting Windows Media, RealMedia and PhotoShop help files, and various news subscription sites as undesirable.
Cybersitter can be configured to block all ftp sites and IRC chat rooms as well as preventing the distribution of personal data.Cyber Patrol operates very similarly to Cybersitter but has the disadvantage of being easily disabled by resetting the system settings in Windows ME. Its blocked list is overseen by a review committee, which includes a minister, school officials and child psychologists, and representatives from a Womens group, a Gay and Lesbian group, a gun lobby group, and a conservative media watchdog group. Both offer regular updates to their lists.
Symantec is a relative newcomer to the filter market but the family edition of its Norton Internet Security 2001 compares favourably with the competition.
It is a suite of applications including a full-scale firewall, Norton AntiVirus selection of configurable parental controls that can be used to block access to a variety of types of sites such as IRC, ftp and newsgroups.
The package can also be used to block ads, various scripts and Java and Active X applets, and although it requires a little time to set up, it can be done by anyone with basic computing knowledge. The blocked site list is encrypted but blocked sites can be overridden and the list appears to be more comprehensive than Cybersitter, preventing access to several sex sites that Cybersitter allowed at least partial access to. It has the best update facilities of all of the packages, with AntiVirus automatically updating itself as soon as it detects new virus definitions are available. Regular updates are also available for the block list and the firewall. There are filters on the market that claim to be able to block pornographic images and to determine when an image contains undesirable content. However, none of them are effective.