PARENTAL CONTROL SOFTWAREThe use of software to block pornography and undesirable material from children is a controversial subject. There is plenty of material on the Internet that presents nudity and sexual activity, both in text and pictures, although the media has tended to overstress its presence. Some of this material is clearly obscene by United States legal definitions, such as pedophilia. Some of it is clearly protected by the law, although perhaps unsuitable for children to view. Since the Internet knows no national boundaries, material that is illegal in the US can be retrieved from other countries where it may be legal. There is little that US legislation can do to prevent the accessibility of such materials. The issue of censorship is a highly controversial one. Under the US Constitution and court interpretations, freedom of speech protects a lot of material that some find objectionable, particularly for children. The courts have ruled repeatedly that the goal of protecting children cannot be used to enact means that will also block materials from adults. Since it is difficult to impossible to block obscene materials from appearing on the Internet, and since it is impossible to get agreement on what should be blocked, action is left to individuals and families to find their own solutions. Schools and libraries with Internet access also have to deal with these issues in legal ways. There are a number of approaches using software that can be used by parents and schools and libraries to restrict undesirable materials. Some are based on maintaining a list of sites that should be blocked on the basis of their content. Since such sites come and go very rapidly, this approach requires frequent updates to the software to be effective. Other software uses an on-the-spot evaluation of site content by analyzing vocabulary to determine what should be blocked. Some software uses a combination of these techniques. The criteria used to block sites varies widely from one software package to another. Some packages are very restrictive, and have fallen under criticism for blocking too much. Others are designed to give the parent or administrator maximum control of what is blocked. Do you want to block sexual material only, or do you want to block out sites dealing with drugs, violence, and hatred, too? Do you want to restrict language usage in both directions? Do you want to control newsgroups, FTP sites, chat rooms, and message bases? Do you want a record of what sites your children visit? The table that follows lists the major software packages available for access control, the platforms they run on, and links to their web sites. If you feel a need for such software, examine each of them, and select what best meets your needs. Reviews of most of these packages can be found at ZDNet.
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