Inside Internet Filtering

Google Provides A Lock For Safe Search

Published by Aaron Kenny on November 12, 2009 under General

Yesterday Google announced a new locking feature for Safe Search. Here is a video on how it works:

This is a good step forward from Google. Due to the implementation, I expect that this will work better for young kids than it will for teens.

The most robust way to control what content your kids can access online is through a parental control software like Safe Eyes. Safe Eyes allows you to control content by category, so even if the search result pops up in Google, your child still won’t be able to get to the site.

InternetSafety.com CEO to Testify at Federal Hearing on Online Child Safety

Published by Aaron Kenny on November 3, 2009 under General

Forrest Collier, CEO of InternetSafety.com, will be participating in a federal hearing in Washington, D.C. today as part of an all-day meeting by the Online Safety and Technology Working Group established under the auspices of the Federal Trade Commission to promote a safe Internet for children. The topic of the meeting is “Parental Controls, Child Protection Technologies and Content Rating Methods.”

Full Press Release:
http://www.internetsafety.com/press-ceo-speaks-at-federal-hearing.php

Safe Eyes is Window 7 and 64-bit Compatible

Published by Aaron Kenny on November 3, 2009 under Filtering Companies, Filtering Products, General

Safe Eyes is among the first parental control products to earn the “Compatible with Windows 7” Logo from Microsoft Corp. The certification ensures that the software is able to block access to objectionable websites for upgraded or new Windows 7 computers utilizing both 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows Internet Explorer. Most content filters will not filter the 64-bit edition of Microsoft’s browser even if they are successfully installed on a Windows 7 machine, leaving children vulnerable to pornography and other inappropriate content.

The Microsoft “Compatible with Windows 7” logo indicates that a product has passed Microsoft-designed tests for compatibility and reliability with its newest operating system.

64-bit computing is entering the mainstream, and many parents may be buying 64-bit computers without realizing it. Unfortunately, most parental control software is still only 32-bit compatible, so it doesn’t work with the 64-bit version of Internet Explorer. Parents need to choose filtering software that carries the ‘Compatible with Windows 7’ logo to be sure that their filter does the website blocking it’s supposed to do.
—InternetSafety.com CTO Aaron Kenny

If your filtering software does not have the Windows 7 logo and you want to be sure your kids are protected on all browsers, just visit internetsafety.com/switch to take advantage of a special offer.

China Halts Green Dam Filtering Software

Published by Aaron Kenny on June 30, 2009 under Filtering Products, Government

The Washinton Post is reporting that China has backed down from its July 1 mandated distribution of the Green Dam Internet filtering software. The Chinese government didn’t give a new date when the program might launch, leading some to believe it will never launch.

Source:
China backs away from Internet filter

Filtering Industry Adapts to Social Networking with Monitoring

Internet Filtering Responds to Social Networking

Published by Aaron Kenny on June 16, 2009 under General

David Burt of filteringfacts.org posted a good roundup of the trend over the last few years by filtering software to address social networking. You can read the full article here:

Did Green Dam Steal CyberSitter Code?

Published by Aaron Kenny on June 15, 2009 under Filtering Products, Government

The Internet was buzzing over the weekend that the new Green Dam Internet filter mandated by the Chinese government contains stolen CyberSitter code. There is a PCMag article that goes over some of the technical details about Green Dam and CyberSitter. It seem as though they didn’t only steal the filtering DLL’s, but they also seem to be updating via CyberSitter’s servers.

CyberSitter indicated that they are exploring their legal options to keep the software from being distributed.

Green Dam Youth Escort Review

Published by Aaron Kenny on June 9, 2009 under Filtering Products, Government

China has been known for its stringent, politically motivated Internet filtering policies. But this week information surfaced that China will be requiring all new PC’s sold in China to include a new PC-based Internet filter called Green Dam Youth Escort by July 1, 2009. While the government claims they are doing this for the good of the children, their motivations are being called into question based on past experience.

This new filter was developed by Chinese company Jinhui Computer System Engineering. Many different stories have been circulating around the Internet about Green Dam, so I thought I would download the software and manual and check them out for myself. The entire software is in Chinese, so much of what I gained was through the use of Google translate. If anyone would like the translated manual, please contact me directly.

What I found out is that on the surface (I haven’t gotten any deeper than the surface) this software seems to be a rather typical parental control suite with features such as:

Web Blocking (there seems to be categories, image recognition, whitelist/blacklist and keyword filtering)
Logging (both sites visited and screen captures)
Time Control (seems to only support schedules you can use the Internet)

The software is customizable by the end user in terms of how sensitive different filters are and the ability to allow or deny sites as the end user chooses. The software also comes with an uninstaller.

The software seems to be very old feeling. For instance the interface of the software feels very 1990’s and very technical to use. This software lacks the usability polish that you see on mainstream parental control packages. It also installs most of its files directly into the Windows system folders, which also seems pretty old school.

Green Dam isn’t very clear about blocking. With most parental control utilities if you try to visit a banned site you will be told with a message of some kind. With Green Dam, basically the browser just never navigates and no message is ever displayed.

From the website it seems that this is currently only supported on the Windows platform (I used XP for my tests) so I wonder what plan the government has for Mac and Linux systems.

I wasn’t really impressed with this product. If I lived in China and this software came free with my PC I think I would just uninstall it and get a mainstream product like Safe Eyes instead (assuming I spoke english). Green Dam just feels clunky and it really only covers web browsing, which in today’s environment just isn’t enough coverage.

McAfee Launches Family Protection

Published by Aaron Kenny on June 3, 2009 under Filtering Products

About a month after Symantec entered the parental control space with OnlineFamily.Norton, McAfee is today announcing a parental control product called McAfee Family Protection.

McAfee Family Protection includes features such as web blocking, program blocking, instant messaging controls, time limits, usage reports, instants alerts, and more.

McAfee has set their pricing at $39.99/year direct from the McAfee website. McAfee Family protection is available for the PC only, but they have announced support for the iPhone later this year.

McAfee Family Protection was built through a partnership with InternetSafety.com and combines InternetSafety.com’s award winning parental control technology with McAfee’s TrustedSource database for web filtering.

Internet Filter Targets Online Gambling

Published by Aaron Kenny on May 29, 2009 under Filtering Products, Government

The Nova Scotia Gaming Corporation (NSGC) today announed a new prevention program to limit a child’s access to online gambling. Research has shown that young people in Nova Scotia are gambling online three times more often that adults.

The fact is, youth are gambling online in increasing numbers, a reality that should not be ignored. That’s why we proactively developed this effective prevention tool. This world-first is another example of NSGC’s commitment to social responsibility. These are unregulated gambling sites where there are no guarantees of safeguards or controls to prevent access by kids. As the steward of the industry in our Province, we couldn’t sit by and let this continue,

- Marie Mullally, President and CEO of NSGC

The new software is called BetStopper and was developed through a partnership with InternetSafety.com. Technology from our award-winning Safe Eyes product was adapted to target online gambling.

The software is available for free to residents of Nova Scotia at http://www.betstopper.ca