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VTW FAQ on parental control

``` Date: Thu, 10 Aug 1995 08:41:42 -0400 From: "Shabbir J. Safdar"

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INTERNET PARENTAL CONTROL FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ) provided by the Voters Telecommunications Watch (VTW) PERMISSION TO REDISTRIBUTE THIS DOCUMENT GIVEN AS LONG AS THIS BANNER REMAINS INTACT AND ATTACHED REPRODUCE THIS FAQ ONLY IN RELEVANT FORUMS

To get a copy of this document, please send mail to vtw@vtw.org with a subject line of "send ipcfaq" or check URL:http://www.panix.com/vtw/exon/index.html or via gopher at gopher -p 1/vtw/exon gopher.panix.com

Feedback and questions about reuse of this FAQ should be sent to the author at: Shabbir J. Safdar

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction Current methods Parental guidance Government restrictions Author ratings systems Proof of age/shielding systems Proprietary environments Third party ratings systems Appendices - What's available Governmental restrictions on content Author ratings systems Proof of age/shielding systems Proprietary environments Third party ratings systems Credits

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INTRODUCTION

Within the last few years the Internet has gained in popularity. With that growth came a whole host of mainstream issues, such as the growing presence of children and minors on the Internet. In order to assist parents, legislators, educators, and the public in learning what is available to you today we have put together this document.

In the solutions mentioned below, it is important to note not just what is desirable to parents, but to free speech advocates as well. A solution agreeable to both parties will successfully flourish, while a solution highly unpopular with one or the other will never catch fire in the industry due to legal challenges or customer unhappiness.

The solutions below have been judged purely on their workability.

Changes/additions/corrections should be sent to vtw@vtw.org.

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CURRENT METHODS

PARENTAL GUIDANCE As will always be true, the most effective method of getting comfortable with your child's Internet access is to guide them as a parent. No other human being except you knows best what is and isn't appropriate for them. By learning to use the Internet with your child (either one of you can teach the other) you can instill in them the values that you want them to use when selecting material in the Internet, or on television, radio, or in print media. The respect built between you and your child will function when no one is around, and will survive software upgrades, eternally- changing international law, and other unpredictable events.

This solution is supported as the best one by most reasonable parents and free speech advocates.

GOVERNMENTAL RESTRICTIONS Some members of Congress have introduced legislation to criminalize certain types of speech throughout the medium in order to shield minors from objectionable material. Although this plays well at the polls, it is not effective at addressing the issue of children's access to such material. As long as the Internet continues to be a global network, there will always be some one or more countries in which one can provide material that is out of the reach of US law and flies afoul of US expression standards.

In addition it is very difficult to write constitutional restrictions on speech, as we have learned from almost ten years of court testing of the Dial-A-Porn statutes. Governmental restrictions are not the answer to those serious about addressing the issue.

AUTHOR RATINGS SYSTEMS On the technical side, several people have proposed "tagging" all items on the Internet with a rating similar to the American motion picture ratings. This scheme is also not a workable one, since even well-intentioned content authors will have difficulty rating their material in a manner that agree with your values as a parent. In addition, malicious authors are under no pressure to rate their content correctly if at all. Although the next logical step would seem to be to make rating of content a statutory requirement, this quickly enmeshes one in all the problems described above in "Governmental Restrictions".

PROOF OF AGE/SHIELDING SYSTEMS Recently there has been a growth in the number of systems that require proof of age before providing access to their content. This system still requires a judgement call on the part of those providing the content. This judgement call is by someone who has probably nothing in common with your ideals as a parent.

In addition, because they are a content provider they have a disincentive to make that judgement call impartially, since every user that cannot see their content reduces their audience (and potential revenues) by one person.

Similarly, many have suggested "encrypting" all traffic that might be objectionable to minors. Ignoring the lack of ubiquity and general exportability of encryption, this begs the question. Who decides what should be encrypted? If they assume everything, you still need to decide who is allowed to receive the keys to decrypt the traffic.

PROPRIETARY ENVIRONMENTS Several online systems have proprietary environments where content is screened as being available for the lowest common denominator of children. You, the parent, request that your child's account be placed into this environment. Because you the parent are paying the service provider for the child's account, they have an incentive to do it correctly as opposed to the ratings systems previously presented.

The major systems are treating this option as a customer-driven feature, fueled by requests from paying parent customers. It is a growing market and not likely to fade in the near future.

THIRD PARTY RATINGS SYSTEMS This is an extremely popular method of controlling children's access to content that has both the support of the market and free speech advocates. In all the previous ratings systems (the proprietary system notwithstanding) you have only two parties, the content producer (ie author of a Web page or a Usenet posting) and the content consumer (the child). In the third party ratings system the third party is an entity trusted by the parent of the consumer (the child) who goes out on the Internet and rates pages.

The parent has specially tinkered versions of Internet access software that understands and enforces the ratings system. Raters could be either the authors of the software themselves, or yet different third parties that are chosen by the parent. Indeed, the third party ratings system possesses the unique quality of allowing you to choose a ratings body that is closely principled with what you believe as a parent.

For example, the Metropolitan Community Church might wish to shield young people from any images of sexual images involving food, but explicitly allow pages about gay and lesbian teenage support groups. The Christian Coalition, on the other hand, may wish to place both types of information on their "not for children" list.

A crucial element to this is how you as a parent would want the software configured. Would you rather have every part of the Internet be unavailable unless deemed "appropriate for children" by your ratings groups? Or would you rather have every part of the Internet deemed "appropriate for children" unless a ratings body (that you trust to consistently net-surf) deems it "inappropriate for children"?

Most software packages allow you to do both. And that's the best part: unlike other communications technologies, consumer demand has driven entrepreneurs to produce third party ratings products far ahead of government calls for regulation, attempting to head off the problem before Congress feels the need to legislate a solution. You can obtain these products now, and in some cases, your child's school can obtain them free of charge.

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APPENDICES - WHAT IS AVAILABLE RIGHT NOW

PARENTAL CONTROL Parental control (ie you giving your child guidance on what is appropriate) has been available for hundreds of years and continues to be the best approach to the issue of monitoring your child's use of the Internet.

GOVERNMENTAL RESTRICTIONS ON CONTENT Federal level June, '95: The Senate has passed the Communications Decency Act which addresses the issue from a governmental restriction approach. It does not avoid any of the pitfalls described in the above section. July, '95: The House has passed the Internet Freedom and Family Empowerment Act (420-4) which encourages industry solutions and third party solutions over censorship. Both bills (and other Title 18 amendments snuck in at the last minute) will have to be worked out in conference.

State level The following states have passed laws restricting content online: Connecticut (6/95), Georgia (3/95), Maryland (4/95), Montana (3/95), Oklahoma (4/95), Virginia (5/95)

AUTHOR RATINGS SYSTEMS Several proposals for author self-rating of files on the Internet have been floated. There is no widely accepted system of author-labelling available right now. Here is the list of proposals we are aware of:

"Voluntary Internet Self Rating" by Alex Stewart (riche@crl.com) http://www.crl.com/~riche/IVSR/proposal.html

"KidCode" by Nathaniel Borenstein and Darren New is an Internet draft available at ds.internic.net in the /internet-drafts directory.

KidCode: Naming Conventions for Protecting Children on the World Wide Web and Elsewhere on the Internet Without Censorship", D. New, N. Borenstein, 06/05/1995,

PROOF OF AGE/SHIELDING SYSTEMS Many content providers are now requiring you to have a registration on file that proves you are over 18 before accessing their content. Some are using a credit card or an Internet FirstVirtual account number as proof of age. However the same original problem applies: what incentive does the content provider have to keep objectionable material out of the hands of minors? (None; more restrictions diminish their advertising audience.)

PROPRIETARY ENVIRONMENTS

AMERICA ONLINE (AOL) offers a parental blocking feature in their proprietary interface that allows you the parent to block your child's access to chat rooms that may contain objectionable material. In addition, the system allows you to restrict access to discussion groups that are named with keywords you might wish to keep from your child. For example, you could choose to restrict your child's AOL account from seeing any newsgroup that contained the word "violence". AOL provides telephone help, detailed instructions and advice for parents. There is no additional cost for this service, and, like the other parental control features on AOL, the feature cannot be turned off without a password known only to the parent. AOL's parental blocking service is free.

PRODIGY subscribers are restricted from posting messages either in public forums or in chat rooms that are deemed inappropriate for children. This includes George Carlin's famous "Seven Dirty Words". Internet access from Prodigy is not allowed except with authorization from the parent account holder (using a credit card). In addition, Prodigy keeps a log of which sites the child has visited for parental review. Prodigy's parental control service is free.

COMPUSERVE does not yet have parental control features available, but have announced two projects called KidNet and Internet In A Box For Kids. KidNet is planned to be "child-safe" online service that will contain closely monitored interactive games, shopping, messaging, and chatting areas. Internet In A Box For Kids will contain a program called Crossing Guard, which will allow parents to control their children's access to the by blocking access to sites that may contain inappropriate materials. Crossing Guard will also allow parents to monitor their children's online activities and set timers to control when and how long their children can surf the net. Both products will not available until Fall of 1995. The cost is not yet known.

THIRD PARTY RATINGS SYSTEMS

CYBERPATROL allows parents to restrict access to certain times of day, limit the total time spent on-line per day and per week, block access to specific Internet resources and sites by content (using Cyberpartrol's objectionable sites list), block or allow specific Internet resources and sites according to your own preferences, and control access to major on-line services and other local applications such as games and personal financial managers. You can contact the makers of CYBERPATROL at: Microsystems Software, Inc. 600 Worcester Rd. Framingham, MA 01701 URL:http://www.microsystems.com/ Email: info@microsys.com Phone: (800) 489-2001 or (508) 879-9000 Fax: (508) 626-8515

CYBERPATROL is generally available for $49.95 which includes a 6-month subscription to their blocked site list. Subsequent 6-month subscriptions are $19.95; 12-months, $29.95.

CYBERSITTER allows parents to monitor and optionally prevent children from downloading images, sound files and videos. It can also be configured to restrict access to local files (files, CD-ROMS, & floppy disks). CYBERSITTER keeps a log of all computer activity for later parental review. You can contact the makers of CYBERSITTER at: Solid Oak Software, Inc. Post Office Box 6826 Santa Barbara, CA 93160 Sales 1-800-388-2761 Fax 805-967-1614 EMail:info@solidoak.com URL:http://www.rain.org/~solidoak/

CYBERSITTER is generally available for $29.95.

INTERNET FILTER is a parental control tool that can be configured to block or log all data transfers including World Wide Web pages, newsgroups, types of messages within any newsgroup, Internet hosts known to have material objectionable to children, and Internet Relay Chat (IRC) sessions.

You can contact the makers of INTERNET FILTER at: Turner Investigations, Research and Communication Box 151, 3456 Dunbar St. Vancouver, BC, Canada V6S-2C2 Phone/Fax: (604) 733-5095 internet : bturner@direct.ca URL:http://www.xmission.com/~seer/jdksoftware/

INTERNET FILTER 1.0 is generally available and costs $49.95 (Canadian funds). INTERNET FILTER Version 0 blocks a preset collection of sites (without logging) and is available for FREE.

NET NANNY is a parental control tool that allows screening of World Wide Web sites, newsgroups, and text messages. It is specifically parent configurable and screens material not only coming from the Internet but information your child sends back out to the Internet as well. It can also be configured to block access to files on the PC's hard drive, floppy drive and CD-ROM, to prevent a child from accessing and altering the parent's financial records, work related files, and programs and files intended only for adults. NET NANNY contains a log of all the child's activities for later parental review. You can contact the makers of NET NANNY at: Trove Investment Corporation Main Floor - 525 Seymour Street Vancouver, B.C. Canada, V6B 3H7 EMail:netnanny@netnanny.com URL:http://giant.mindlink.net/netnanny/

NET NANNY is generally available for less than $50.

SURFWATCH is a parental control tool that blocks access to web, gopher, and ftp sites that SurfWatch's team of net-surfers have deemed objectionable. SurfWatch's list of "not-for-children" sites is a subscription service updated through their site on the Internet. Updates are done automatically; frequency of updates is configurable by the parent. SurfWatch has announced a partnership with AOL and will be incorporated into AOL's proprietary interface. You can contact the makers of SurfWatch at: SurfWatch Software 105 Fremont Avenue, Suite F Los Altos, California 94022 Phone 415-948-9500 Fax 415-948-9577 EMail:press@surfwatch.com or info@surfwatch.com URL:http://www.surfwatch.com

SurfWatch is generally available for less than $50.

NETSCAPE Communications sells a proxy server which can be configured to restrict access to the gopher, the World Wide Web, ftp, and telnet on the Internet. Users are prevented from accessing sites which have been explicitly been disallowed. No pre-screened list of sites is provided with the product, as the product is aimed at institutions. You can contact the makers of the NETSCAPE proxy server at: Netscape Communications EMail:info@netscape.com 415/528-2555 URL:http://www.netscape.com/

The cost of the Netscape proxy server is unknown.

WEBTRACK is designed to allow institutions to provide their employees with restricted Internet access. Sites on the Internet are classified into 15 categories of World Wide Web, Gopher, and ftp sites (including sexually explicit material, games, gambling, job search information, drugs, online merchandising, sports, humor, and others). Institutional administrators then choose which categories they wish to restrict (if any). Logs of Internet access are also kept for later review. You can contact the makers of WEBTRACK at: Webster Networks Strategies 1100 5th Avenue South, Suite 308 Naples, FL 33940 E-mail info@webster.com (800) WNS-0066 or (813) 261-5503 Fax (813) 261-6549 URL:http://www.webster.com/

WEBTRACK is generally available for about $7,500. Updates of the site list are available on a subscription basis for $1,500 per year. WEBTRACK is FREE TO ALL K-12 SCHOOLS (kindergarten through 12th grade).

AUTOMATED COLLABORATIVE FILTERING (ACF) is a proposal for linking up different users with common tastes (and distastes) and helping them share their collective Web page ratings. The proposal is of extremely interesting to fans of filtering technology, but offers no immediate assistance to parents wishing to control their childrens' access to the net. The proposal can be found at URL:http://wex.www.media.mit.edu/people/wex/rate-proposal.html

SAFESURF is a proposed rating system and software development effort. The software is not available yet. You can learn more about it at URL:http://www.safesurf.com/wave/

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CREDITS

Almost all of the original product research for parental control tools was done by the Center for Democracy and Technology (info@cdt.org). Carl Kadie (kadie@eff.org), Jonah Seiger of CDT (jseiger@cdt.org), Ann Beeson of the American Civil Liberties Union (beeson@aclu.org) and Steven Cherry of the Voters Telecommunications Watch did heavy editing and proofing. Contributions were made by many people, including Alan Wexelblat and Andy Oram (andyo@ora.com).

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