Child safety online
Guides and advice
Child Safety on the Information Highway Booklet
written by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
with the Interactive Services Association
Child
Safety on the Internet
written by Pam Weaver, Published in @Internet magazine
Family
Friendly Internet
White House policy initiative for making the Internet a safe
and friendly environment for children.
Links for parents
A Parents Guide to the Internet
by Parry Aftab
Resources for Parents & Kids
from the American Library Association
Supreme Court ruling on the Communications Decency Act, 1997
Rating the Net
by Jonathan Weinberg, An excellent primer on the current state
of filtering and rating technology, and the controversy
surrounding them.
Filtering Content on the Web
Please note that Vineyard.NET does not engage in any deliberate filtering or blocking of material on the Internet outside of existing laws.
Software designed to block and/or rate websites have become increasingly common on the Internet in the last few years. They were designed to address legitimate concerns expressed by both individuals and communities about material published on-line, and the ease with which children may or may not access it.
Many persons oppose filtering the web on the grounds of free speech. Others object to it because they of the manner in which a given site may be blocked.
As of this writing there are two basic types of filtering software, each with their own shortcomings.
Rules-based Filtering
Rules-based filtering involves devising a list of objectionable sites, terms, or phrases that are looked for every time a browser accesses a new page. The inherent flaw in this approach is that it does not take any sort of context into account, and is often blind to nuance.
By now, many people have heard stories of filtering software that blocks perfectly legitimate and often useful sites because it finds a word on it's forbidden list embedded inside the contents of another harmless word.
For sheer wackiness, nothing can match a CYBERSitter feature that causes Web browsers to white out selected words but display the rest of the page (so that the sentence "President Clinton opposes homosexual marriage" would be rendered "President Clinton opposes marriage').Rating the Net, by Jonathan Weinberg
Standards-based Filtering
Standards-based filtering assumes not only that there exists a collective standard to which we all adhere, but also that this standard applies consistently to all subject matter. Efforts to define such a standard have generated volumes of debate. AOL made an error when they added breast to their list of proscribed words. To AOL's credit they promptly removed the word when folks attempting to discuss breast cancer complained of the restriction.
A standards-based rating systems that allows publishers to self-rate, even using a pre-defined set of guidelines, offers little assurance of consistency.
The fewer persons left to rate, by necessity, implies that the scope of what they see, and meter against, is limited. As more people are brought on board to help in the effort, however, the assurance that judgement will be applied consistently across so many different individuals decreases.
Neither of these two filtering standards really consider unrated websites. Even if filtering software was used universally in the United States, there is little to ensure any sort of compliance in the rest of the world.
Some have voiced concern that publishers who choose not to rate themselves (or are simply ignorant of which rating system has become significant on any given week) will, in effect, be giving themselves the equivalent of an X rating. Microsoft has hinted that it may design their Internet Explorer to automatically block any site which has not rated itself.
Software
There are upwards of a dozen private companies marketing blocking software. The organization NetParents maintains an up-to -date list of what is available.
Vineyard.NET only offers these links as a resources to it's users, but we can not endorse any of these products specifically.
Content-rating systems for the web
Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS)
Please note that Vineyard.NET does not engage in any deliberate filtering or blocking of material on the Internet outside of existing laws.
PICS are the specifications for individuals and organizations to develop special meta-tags designed to allows publishers and third-parties to rate web-sites. PICS itself does not set any standards or criteria by which ratings are determined. It is just a technical specification which allows ratings from any source to work with any filtering software.
In their Statement of Principles the PICS group writes: PICS will devise a set of standards that facilitate the following:
Self-rating: enable content providers to voluntarily label the content they create and distribute.
Third-party rating: enable multiple, independent labeling services to associate additional labels with content created and distributed by others. Services may devise their own labeling systems, and the same content may receive different labels from different services.
Ease-of-use: enable parents and teachers to use ratings and labels from a diversity of sources to control the information that children under their supervision receive.
Every rating or filtering service develops it's own standards for judging what is and is not considered objectionable.
If you choose you use filtering software, PICS-compliant or not, you should make sure that you understand and agree with the rating system they have chosen.
Microsoft Internet Explorer Content Advisor
Microsoft Internet Explorer now ships with a control panel called the Content Advisor which takes advantage of third-party PICS-compliant ratings services. You can access it from the menu bar of the browser:
-
Tools -> Internet Options -> Content -> Enable
Currently, Microsoft distributes it's browser with the ratings standards developed by the Recreational Software Advocacy Council (RSAC). By default, the service is disabled.
RSAC has developed a set of ratings for the following subjects, and each is measured on a scale of 0 ("none") to 4 ("wanton and explicit').
-
nudity
sex
language
violence
Sites have been rated by or for RSAC that fall outside of the boundaries you set in the Content Advisor will be blocked.
We mention RSAC, specifically, only because it comes built in with Internet Explorer. You can add or remove other rating services as they become available. Microsoft maintains a page detailing the use and functionality of the Content Advisor.
Other ratings services currently available for use are
Please, remember to take the time to be sure that you understand and agree with the criteria used and decisions made to arrive at a given set of ratings standards.
Vineyard.NET's Position Amidst the Discord
No one contests that parents and guardians of the immature ought to be able limit the exposure of their charges. Vineyard.NET will adopt any mechanism for controlling Internet access as soon as we are either aware of a viable mechanism or forced to adopt one by the laws of the town of Tisbury, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, or the United States of America.
The owners of VNI and folks on our staff have kids, and we are as concerned as most parents. We are eager to discuss these issues with any parents. We would also urge parents, grandparents, and any other interested parties to recognize that until you can carry on an intelligent conversation with your computer, it is utterly unrealistic to expect that same machine to make useful decisions as to which bits of data on the Internet are savory (ne unsavory).