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Please note: The reports in this section are not product reviews or tests; they're meant to spotlight options for you to consider, as well as milestones in children's online-safety technology development. Comments from readers on their own experiences with these products and services are most welcome - and, with your permission, we publish them. Do email us your own product reviews anytime!
Fresh online-safety info out on the Web - with commentary (Jan. 21, '00)
We think it's important to give you an update every now and then on the latest online-safety information for home and classroom. Here are several great resources that have arrived on the Web of late, plus a bit of editorializing from Net Family News editor Anne Collier:
"Meet the Safe Net Keeper," a profile of SafeKids's Larry Magid, leads an information-packed Safety section in FamilyPC. Larry's online-safety tips have appeared in many places on and off the Web - and they're here, too - but a profile is a nice change because it helps people understand where his expertise comes from. It wasn't just concern for his own children that got him started down this road, but he'll be the first to tell you that he continues to learn a lot about how to deal with kids on the Internet from the people in his own house. And that's an important model to highlight. Our children are usually our best teachers as we learn the online part of parenting, because:
- The simple fact that they know as much as, often more than, we know about the Net, and they usually have more time to keep up with all the changes on it. (And learning shoulder-to-shoulder - within reason and when time allows - is a wonderful opportunity for parent-child communication, not to mention a child's confidence-building and mutual respect.)
- Our parents and grandparents couldn't pass down to us any wisdom about the online part of parenting - though what we did get from them certainly helps, as our Subscriber Survey shows.
- There are still few experts in online-parenting "out there." So we're learning as we go and can increasingly benefit from each other's expertise.
But back to the FamilyPC resource. There's a lot of good material pulled together here. [One caveat: None of it is dated, except for the day's date at the top of each page, which changes each day automatically, so we can't tell exactly how current some of it is.]
One of the articles is "Tech Tips for Safe Surfing" - conveniently presented on a scale of low- to high-tech. There are also useful reviews of seven client-based filtering tools (those that are installed on one's own PC). Keep in mind, though, that these are only client-based tools.
Watching developments in this area, we're seeing the beginnings of a trend: Hybrid filtering tools (client- and server-based software) and filtered ISPs (which are server-based only) are overtaking client-based-only as the most effective way to keep up with the lightning-speed growth of the Web. Hybrid and ISP filtering is constantly updated at the server level, eliminating the need for users to keep having to order or download software upgrades. Examples of hybrids are ClickChoice's myFilter (see our review), BrowseSafe's PlanetGood, and Surf Monkey. We also like server-based DotSafe (reviewed with Surf Monkey) because its filtering criteria are agnostic - matched to the values of public media outlets in the US (TV, radio, magazines, newspapers). We think this freedom from political and religious agendas makes the service more useful to schools and libraries than the many filtered ISPs that do have such affiliations.
Another valuable resource for parents is a study recently published by the Center for Media Education. The appendices of "Youth Access to Alcohol and Tobacco Web Marketing: The Filtering and Rating Debate" include a Filtering Technology Inventory (p. 56 of the PDF version, which can be downloaded with the free Acrobat Reader). There are also evaluations, on p. 76, of some client-based software tools - Cyber Patrol, Cyber Sentinel, CYBERsitter, Net Nanny, Surf Watch, and X-Stop (for any comparisons you'd like to make, FamilyPC tested all but X-Stop).
Lists of client-based tools and server-based services (filtered ISPs) can be found at SafeKids.com, and a searchable database of such tools and services lives at GetNetWise.org. Both have tool descriptions, those in GetNetWise provided by the toolmakers themselves. Neither site endorses any product.
The best endorsement is yours! If your family, classroom, or school has arrived at what you feel is a great online-safety solution, please tell us what it is and why you like it.
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