Cybersitter 11 download software#
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Ultimately, though, even the best filters are a limited and temporary solution. It also makes it possible for parents to block outgoing information, to prevent kids from revealing their last names, phone numbers, addresses, and passwords in an online chat. It allows separate settings for separate users, important for families with older children or children of different ages. Parents who are willing to devote the time to setting their own parameters will be better off with Cyber Patrol.

It errs on the side of exclusion, and was especially thorough at preventing even the results of Web searches that included inappropriate URLs. Parents who are less adept than their kids at using the Internet will probably prefer CYBERsitter. That decision will be based more on your technical facility than on your notions of what material you want your kids to see, because the programs vary much more in their dependence on parental tweaking than on their approaches to excluding material.

Cybersitter 11 download software#

Meanwhile, you can download trial versions of filter software to find the one you like best. And so they can breathe easier, knowing that their children will only be able to see pages certified as suitable by their own operators. Parents will be able to set their browsers to deny access to pages without ratings. Ultimately, the W3C plan, developed by the international World Wide Web Consortium, will provide standard ratings, to be assigned to each page by its developer. Parents will be able to select from filters endorsed by anyone from the Christian Coalition to the National Education Association.

Cybersitter 11 download free#

He retaliated by using a free AOL account to send 5,000 copies of an obscene e-mail to everyone who had ever participated in the Prodigy discussion, including my son.Д¬oming soon are filters based on criteria developed by particular groups. The group was exceptionally kind and protective, except for one participant, who was cut off by the discussion leader for general obnoxiousness. My son, then 11, participated in a sports discussion group on Prodigy. It was sent as a joke by an older boy he knew. One of the boys in my Cub Scout troop received, via AOL e-mail, a photograph of two men having sex. The bigger problem is on the вЂњpushвЂќ side, and there the filters are helpless. Filters may prevent access to certain sites, but blocked sites can show up when kids use search engines, and there is nothing to prevent kids from reading the raunchy descriptions of the sites or writing down the Web addresses and going off to a friendвЂ™s houseвЂ“or to the local public library, which, in keeping with cherished anti-censorship policies, probably doesnвЂ™t use filter software.ДЇilters can protect kids from accidentally (or intentionally) visiting a Web site that includes material deemed inappropriate by their parents, but they are limited to what we might term the вЂњpullвЂќ side. In testing each of the filters I was able to pull up X-rated material without much effort. As a spokesperson told me in an e-mail, вЂњWe do not automatically block, as that would be infringing on your rights.вЂќ Think Mary Poppins in a Lilith Fair T-shirt.Д«ut over-inclusiveness is less troubling to parents than under-inclusiveness.

The software keeps a log of the sites the child has attempted to access, вЂњincluding attempts to access blocked material.вЂќ Net NannyвЂ™s more liberal approach is indicated by its two-pronged motto: вЂњThe Best Way To Protect Your Children And Free Speech On The Net.вЂќ It provides parents with a suggested list of sites to exclude, but nothing is excluded without being specifically designated by the parents. Despite its cozy name, CYBERsitter is in one way the strictest of the programs: ItвЂ™s a tattletale.

Other filters evoke Mary Poppins, with names like CYBERsitter and Net Nanny. This category includes SurfWatch as well as Cyber Patrol (motto: вЂњTo Surf and ProtectвЂќ), which operates from a screen that looks like the command center of Rescue 911. Software companies have two different approaches to marketing the filter programs.