Viewing entries tagged with 'internet filter'
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Tue
May 10, '11
1
YouTube loves Net Nanny
It's true. YouTube loves Net Nanny and hates all the other Internet filters. Here's why... most Internet filters on the market use a pre-determined list of sites that are either safe or not safe for kids. The good sites go on to a "white list" and the bad ones go on to a "blacklist." Imagine, having to categorize every new website as good or bad. That's how the majority of Internet filters still work.
Now imagine if there was a site that had both good stuff and bad stuff on it. Then you'd have to categorize on a page by page level (vs just blocking/allowing the full website). Such is the case with YouTube. There's tons of great stuff. But there's also a bunch of trash you wouldn't wish upon your worst enemy. A lot of the Internet filters out there realize this is an impossible task, and so they just give you the option to block or allow all of YouTube. There's a couple brave Internet filters out there that attempt to categorize all pages, but they fail miserably.
And here goes YouTube, introducing their latest and greatest feature that returns a whole slew of new "exploration" results when you search for a video. It's a great feature. I'd explain it but it'd triple the of this already expanding blog post - so you can just read about it HERE.
YouTube and every other respected website is constantly changing their features and web pages. Keeping up with the changes is tough. Thus, we've built Net Nanny to intelligently look at the content of the webpage and block or allow pages dynamically, based upon the content, and not their url. Pretty smart huh? It works too - just take a look at the Net Nanny reviews.
Net Nanny. Loved by YouTube, loved by you too. -
Tue
May 3, '11
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Pornography in Libraries
Earlier this week, the City Council of Los Angeles voted against filtering out pornography on its library computers. And, the Brooklyn Public Library publicly defended patrons' right to watch any content of their choosing at the library. What?!
This is a bad decision and sad indicator of where we are heading as a society. We push to protect First Amendment rights of porn-purveyors but forget that children, teens, librarians, and you and I will be potentially exposed to stuff we don't want to see. How much exposure to pornography is acceptable for a child? Zero tolerance is a good policy when you consider protecting the innocent. What about the child's right not to be exposed?
The public library isn't a place I have had to worry about being exposed to hard core images. Now, we are giving a green light to porn addicts to get their fix at the library -- at the expense of the tax payer. The porn industry's gotta be laughing all the way to the bank!
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Mon
Apr 25, '11
1
10 Statistics That Made Me Think Twice
As a Marketing Manager for ContentWatch I never fail to be surprised by interesting statistics about the internet, and this most recent batch is no exception. I came across these stats while reading an article entitled, "Kids give their parents the runround online." Take a look and see if this makes you as uncomfortable as it did me.
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Thu
Mar 10, '11
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Product Review - Free Parental Control Bar
Net Nanny is made by ContentWatch, my employers. The company is a for profit institution, and employs a good number of individuals that it pays well and that pay helps feed their families. We can't give Net Nanny away for free, or we'd all die. No money = no food = death. However, there are some companies out there that giveaway software because they don't need the money (or because they've monetized their free product in other ways). We salute those organizations. One such organization, the Website Rating and Advisory Council, has created a free web filter toolbar that you can add to Internet Explorer to enable safer searching. While our company does not make it a point to prop up competitors, we do see value in free tools, even ones that may compete with our own software. So, here's my review of the WRAAC's ParentalControlBar Internet Filter.
Installation:
Quick and easy. Your computer will continue to tell you that the program does not come from a trusted source. However, this is common with most software you try to install on a Microsoft Windows system - since we're telling you you can trust them, you can. Just click “run whenever you see that as an option. You'll be asked to enter a password and your email address. Very easy installation and I had the toolbar running in under 5 minutes.
First test:
So, I'm not a big pornographer myself. As such, my first test simply included me typing “playboy.com into the browser. Voila - blocked. It's nice that the block comes up with an override option, in case you feel the site is okay for yourself but not for the little ones. It also has an option to add the site to a white list, which would always let the site through in the future.
More extensive testing:
Tricky children may try to go through Google to get to their sites, instead of just typing the web address into the browser. So, my next test was to go to Google and search for “playboy. Blocked. No, not the search. The actual site “google.com was blocked. Hmm, guess it's because Google hasn't been living up to their “Do No Evil slogan as of late. Trying to navigate to bing.com - nope, they're blocked too. The reason for blocking is because these sites are “unlabeled. C'mon guys - two of the biggest sites on the web and you haven't categorized them?
Ultimately, however, the youngest of kids might not need access to search engines - they just need a couple fun, very child friendly sites, right? So, I'll test several Net Nanny suggested kid friendly sites see if they make it through:- Nick.com - Blocked.
- BiologyInMotion.com - Blocked. Granted, this site does talk about bile, urine, and thyroid glands - maybe it should've been blocked. Really though, it made the Net Nanny safe sites list because it's full of fun and great tools to teach kids about biology.
- PBSKids.org - Blocked. Of any of the sites out there this should be classified as one of the most safe sites out there.
- All sites blocked - couldn't find one that wasn't.
It looks like their software doesn't come ready “out of the box. A quick check of their own website, ParentalControlBar.com, shows that even their own site is not getting through because it has a little social networking tool embedded which isn't on their categorized list. The settings are definitely going to need some tweaking.
Changing the control settings:
They've done a good job with the user interface. It's clean and not cluttered with too many options. There are three tabs in the settings window: allowed site list, blocked site list, basic site filters. For now, I don't want to put any sites into the allowed/blocked tabs. Going straight for the filter settings, of which there were just a few (thank goodness - free tools should be super simple because there isn't much buy in to actually learn the software). You can block or allow the following categories: unlabeled content, explicit sexual material, nudity/sexual material, violence, strong language, chat rooms & message boards, potentially harmful activities. The last four categories are all set to “allow out of the box. I'll check those real quick to see if there are any “violent sites that are being categorized:- 666Gamer.com - found this site by searching Google (on a non-protected computer) for “best violent websites and then tried it on the protected computer - blocked as “unlabeled.
- umm - I don't follow the violence industry so I'm at a loss for more sites to try. I tested several that came back in Google search results and all were blocked as “unlabeled.
It looks like their “unlabeled category is blocking everything. Now I'll set the “unlabled to allow and try these same sites again. Okay, now that I've allowed the “unlabeled category everything is getting through. I've still got the sex/nudity filters turned on, but the toolbar didn't block playboy.com. Thus, I've come to the conclusion that their preset filter is garbage.
Broken Filter, What is it Good For?
It seems like this filter will still work well for the youngest of kiddies, when you just want to allow a few sites that you've previewed and added to the white list. For this you're going to have to manually type in a few sites you'd like to be available. My tests show that this feature works well.
You can also set up a black list - though this isn't recommended. Imagine trying to view the few hundred million sites out there to determine whether they were bad or not. There are millions of pornographic websites. You could try and download a black list that someone else has already compilied. Download the blacklist here. But when I go into the settings and look at the blacklist page, I'm let down once again. There is no way to import a list. There isn't even a way to copy/paste the list in. There is no way I'm manually typing in a few million domain names manually. Looks like a real blacklist is out. To the makers of the ParentalControlBar I'd suggest an “import blacklist feature as a first priority for development.
Circumventability
Even if you are a computer wiz and know how to lock down your user account so it won't allow for a new browser to be installed (which would kill this tool which doesn't work in Firefox or Chrome) you still can't lock down the “uninstall feature built into Internet Explorer. I'm not going to say how to uninstall this tool through IE, but it isn't tough - I imagine any kid could figure it out in about 12 seconds.
Conclusion
Super easy setup and nice user interface got my hopes up, only to be later shattered by the fact that this tool does not work as advertised. But heck, it's free. The only situation I would use this tool is if I was putting it on my family computer for my 5 year old to be able to surf one or two sites that I've pre-determined and loaded into the white list. For that kind of scenario I think this would work fine. Either way, mad props to the maker of this toolbar... if they keep developing it and tightening it up then it may be something I'll someday use.
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Thu
Mar 10, '11
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Where to get a good Internet blacklist?
With Net Nanny and it's already exceptional dynamic contextual analysis (yes, that's a blatant plug) why would you ever want to create your own Internet blacklist? Maybe you want to add an extra level of blocking to Net Nanny by adding a blacklist to it's custom blacklist feature (we promise it's not needed though). Or maybe you just like the monotony of viewing millions of websites and typing up lists of those sites which contained offensive content. Or, heaven forbid, you want to use a free Net Nanny alternative (yes, there are alternatives, some of which are free) that requires a black list.
Whatever the case, I'd like to help. I've done the footwork and scoured the web - there are a lot of blacklist resources out there, but most of them were blacklists that hadn't been updated since the early days of the Internet. The industry leader of Internet blacklists, Dan's Guardian, used to provide a free list that was well maintained. Now they only have paid solutions. The best free solution I could find, and it does appear to be pretty good, is provided by a French university, Université Toulouse 1 Capitole. You can download the "adult sites" blacklist here.
If you end up using this blacklist I'd love to hear how it goes for you - please leave a comment! -
Mon
Mar 2, '09
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Australian ISP Filtering Faces Failure
Last month I blogged about how the Australian government's decision to drop the educational NetAlert program and move forward with mandatory ISP filtering would do little to help protect families down under from the dangers on the Internet.
To the surprise of many, including myself, it appears that the plan "has effectively been scuttled" according the the Sydney Morning Herald. The fallout appears to come from independent Senator Nick Xenophon's decision to join the Greens and Opposition in blocking any legislation required to get the scheme started.
"The Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, has consistently ignored advice from a host of technical experts saying the filters would slow the internet, block legitimate sites, be easily bypassed and fall short of capturing all of the nasty content available online," the Morning Herald stated. On the heels of this, Senator Conroy still plans on moving ahead with the trial and even expanding it's scope outside of blocking illegal web site content. Senator Conroy recently said there was "a very strong case for blocking" other legal content that has been "refused classification." According to the classification code, this includes sites depicting drug use, crime, sex, cruelty, violence or "revolting and abhorrent phenomena" that "offend against the standards of morality".
Besides facing opposition from online consumers, lobby groups, ISPs, network administrators, some children's welfare groups, the Opposition, the Greens, NSW Young Labor and even the conservative Liberal senator Cory Bernardi, who famously tried to censor the chef Gordon Ramsay's swearing on television, Senator Conroy faces the toughest battle against the families he believes he is protecting. A poll from 2 weeks ago found that only 5 per cent of Australians want ISPs to be responsible for protecting children online and only 4 per cent want Government to have this responsibility. Parents actuallly want to take responsibility for what content their children consume.
Parental control?
Imagine that.
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Thu
Feb 19, '09
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Towards a Safer Use of the Internet for Children in the EU
A very enlightening analytical report has come out of the European Union, conducted by the Gallup Organization, upon the request of Directorate General Information Society and Media. You can read the full report here.
This survey was designed to study parents views about their children's use of the Internet, to determine parents strategies to supervise their child's Internet usage and their own awareness of safety measures.
Some results of note:- Half of the parents who did not use the Internet themselves said that their child had online access. Nine out of 10 children — who were Internet users — accessed it from home.
- The biggest risk in parents eyes (65%) was that their child might see sexually or violently explicit images on the Internet: 45% were very worried.
- Parents in all countries mentioned that they have various rules and restrictions when their child used the Internet. For example, approximately eight out of 10 parents listed online shopping, talking to people that their child did not know in real life and spending a lot of time online as activities that were not allowed for their child.
- Almost three out of 10 Dutch parents (28%) and a quarter of the parents in the UK (24%) said that, when their child asked for their help, this was because they had been contacted by a stranger, were bullied or harassed online or saw violently or sexually explicit images online.
- Half of the parents participating in this survey answered that they had installed filtering software on the computer that their child used at home. Monitoring software was not as popular, but was still used by almost four out of 10 parents (37%).
- There was considerable variation across countries in the use of monitoring and filtering software: more than half of the British parents used such software compared to only 5% of the parents in Romania and Bulgaria.
Reasons for not using monitoring and filtering software- More than six out of 10 parents — who did not use filtering or monitoring software — simply saw no need for such software since they trusted their child on the Internet. Fourteen percent of the parents who did not use filtering or monitoring software did not know how to obtain or use it. Only a minority (3%) did not use such software because they did not believe in its efficiency.
There are many observations that come from reading this detailed look across the countries that make up the EU about cultural differences and parental perspectives. One that sticks out to me is how many parents trust their kids on the Internet, without using the Internet themselves. This is a generation gap that must be crossed. As a parent, I find this issue to be particularly troubling. I trust my kids, and I know what TV shows, movies, games and books my kids read or view, I know what friends they are talking to on the phone or whose house they are at...why wouldn't I want to know what they are doing online? -
Wed
Feb 4, '09
1
Australian Government Exposes Kids to Online Dangers
Over the last couple weeks the Australian government has decided to end the NetAlert program, which was set-up 18 months ago to promote and distribute parental controls and Internet filters to every Australian family for free. That's right, the Australian government initially got it spot on by advocating responsible parenting and a holistic approach to Internet safety that included outreach, education and flexible empowerment tools.
A spokesman for Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said there were only 26,000 copies of the software still being used as of November 2008. "Only about 2 per cent of households with dependent age children and an internet connection (were) using the filter," he said. This low number is a result of a poor marketing and awareness campaign, bad distribution planning, as well as the lack of known brand name parental controls being part of the program.
With the cancellation of the NetAlert program, the current political party has decided instead to introduce mandatory filtering at the ISP level. This has caused great controversy and outcries from down under that include censorship issues from Internet users, degradation of speeds that impact ISP customers, as well as forcing ISPs to become gatekeepers. This isn't sitting well with Telstra BigPond and the other service providers.
The most troubling aspect of the proposed ISP filtering mandate is the false sense of security that parents and educators will get from this. In today's evolving Web 2.0 world, the issues that effect and impact kids go beyond exposure to inappropriate adult or illegal material. Cyberbullying, harassment, sexual predators, phishing, phriending, illegal downloading, gambling and gaming addiction are just a few of the other challenges parents face when attempting to protect and monitor their child's Internet use. The NetAlert program tackled many of these complex issues by providing flexible and customizable desktop filtering clients which assist today's busy parents by filtering and blocking inappropriate content, as well as monitoring and reporting on inappropriate conduct and contacts.
Now, instead of promoting Internet safety and getting schools, parents, and businesses involved in what kids are doing online, the Australian government has instead gone down the path of the "federal firewall" by enacting heavy handed mandates that may stop some already illegal content from being accessed by it's citizens, but at what cost?
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