More Software Aims To Make Web Safer for Kids
The Internet can be a dangerous playground for kids and teens. Unlike the physical world, where it is relatively easy for parents to keep children out of pornography shops and away from hate groups, the Web makes it simple for minors to visit their digital equivalents. So, many parents are looking for ways to bar their kids from inappropriate Web sites, while still allowing them to partake of the Internet's many benefits.
The best, and most complete, parental controls on children's online activities are offered by AOL and MSN, the big Internet service providers. Their customizable filters allow parents to block inappropriate Web pages, and to limit and tailor kids' use of e-mail, instant messaging and chat rooms. But these online services are expensive, and not everyone wants to subscribe to them. For parents who use other services, and who are mainly concerned about porn and hate sites on the Web, a number of add-on filtering products are available.
This week, my assistant Katie Boehret and I tested three such programs: Net Nanny 5 by LookSmart Ltd., CyberPatrol 6.2 by SurfControl PLC and FilterLogix At Home. CyberPatrol and FilterLogix cost $39.95 and $34.95, respectively, for a yearlong subscription. Net Nanny's program costs $39.95 for a lifetime license. In our tests, CyberPatrol and FilterLogix did the best job of weeding out bad sites, though we preferred FilterLogix, because it required the least tweaking. Net Nanny failed to block some blatantly inappropriate Web pages, so we can't recommend it.
To test each product, Katie and I set up the programs on three different computers and tried to call up as many revolting Web sites as possible. Net Nanny and CyberPatrol, which live on your PC, must be downloaded and installed to work. By contrast, FilterLogix is Internet-based, and requires only that you download a small, so-called "Lockdown Utility." This locks the settings on your PC so all requests for Web pages pass through the FilterLogix servers, and your child can't turn it off.
All three programs hide administrative, or parental, settings behind a password, so that no one other than you can adjust those settings -- unless you are dumb enough to give your kids the password, or to make it easy to guess.
FOR MORE INFO:
? FilterLogix At Home:
www.filterlogixathome.com? CyberPatrol 6.2 by SurfControl:
www.cyberpatrol.com? Net Nanny 5 by LookSmart:
www.netnanny.comEach program uses a different method for filtering Web material. FilterLogix At Home uses what it calls artificial intelligence to differentiate between good and bad sites. This system relies on a formula that was created by scanning thousands of Web sites to determine what constitutes inappropriate content. Whenever a site is typed in, it is instantly scanned for content and, if deemed inappropriate, a FilterLogix message appears where the Web page normally would. The company claims this is better than struggling to maintain lists of good and bad sites, which must be constantly updated.
FilterLogix breaks online content into 16 categories including some that seemed innocuous, such as Higher Education, Government and Military. When we asked FilterLogix to explain, it said that when the first corporate-oriented version of the product was launched, companies wanted to restrict employees from visiting those Web sites, so the At Home version includes them, too. FilterLogix divides pornography into six levels of sensitivity, ranging from explicit pornography to implied sexual references. For each category, parents are asked to pick one of three simple options: restrict, allow or monitor.
Instead of using artificial intelligence and categories, Net Nanny uses URL and keyword lists for filtering. Some sites and keywords are pre-entered when you purchase Net Nanny, but you can add to both of those lists. The company says its URL and keyword lists can be automatically updated as often as every day, but this still means that only certain sites and words are off-limits.
CyberPatrol uses a combination of these methods. It mostly filters sites by using lists of URLs, key words and categories, but also offers automated Web-page analysis, which CyberPatrol claims is similar to the artificial-intelligence monitoring used by FilterLogix. And its categories are specific -- the Adult/Sexually Explicit category is separate from Sex Education.
CyberPatrol seems to offer the greatest variety of filtering choices. If you're interested in manually adding specific lists of keywords or URLs, you can. However, you can also turn on the program's automatic Web-monitoring system, which should -- and in our tests, did -- catch most of the unsuitable material.
All three products blocked most of the obvious porn and hate sites we tried, including things like whitehouse.com (a porn site that's not to be confused with the real White House Web site, whitehouse.gov,) bunnyteens.com, and the Ku Klux Klan Web site.
Some sites slipped through the cracks; none of the filter programs stopped us when we visited Cosmopolitan Magazine's site, which includes various explicit articles about sex. Wonkette.com, a Washington, D.C., political gossip Web log, or blog, whose site almost always contains curse words and crude material, was only stopped by FilterLogix.
Net Nanny also allowed us to call up a sexually oriented blog called FleshBot, and a number of other sites the others blocked, including the homepage of a group called Aryan Nations, which offers computer wallpaper declaring, "Hail the Fourth Reich."
But Net Nanny's most blatant failure came when we tried a porn-finding technique that's very common in cyberspace: looking up pictures in the Images section of Google. We were able to turn off Google's own modesty filter, and then type in a common, crude, four-letter word for "breasts" known to every 12-year-old boy. Google then displayed pages of thumbnail porn pictures, and Net Nanny allowed us to click on many, though not all, of these to call up Web sites with many more porn photos in all their glory, plus links to other porn sites. Both CyberPatrol and FilterLogix blocked this whole process.
All three filters did a decent job of allowing us to get to most serious, non-pornographic sites that discussed sexuality, such as those related to breast cancer, breast exams and circumcision. But even some appropriate sites were blocked -- Apple Computer's Web site was blocked on FilterLogix, which didn't make any sense. And to our amusement, CyberPatrol.com was blocked by both Net Nanny and FilterLogix, perhaps in an attempt to keep patrons away from the competing program.
These filters aren't perfect, and it may take some work to tweak them so they reflect the mix of Web material you want your kids to see. But, if you don't use AOL or MSN, they can be a big help.
保护儿童远离不良网站的几种新软件
互联网可能给孩子们带来极大危害。在现实世界中，父母亲要使孩子们远离色情商店或极端组织都相对容易一些。但在互联网上就难了。所以，很多父母都在寻求各种办法，在不影响孩子们享受互联网种种便利的同时，让他们远离那些不适合的网站。
由美国在线(AOL)和MSN这两大互联网服务供应商提供的儿童网络活动父母监控项目可谓是最完备且上佳的服务了。父母亲可以通过定制过滤器阻止孩子们访问某些网页，限制或者定制孩子们对电子邮件、即时消息以及聊天室的使用。但这些网络服务项目价格昂贵，并非每一对父母都想注册使用。对那些已经注册了其他网站或服务项目的父母，以及主要想防止儿童接触不良网站的父母来说，还有一些附加过滤产品可供选择。
我和我的助手卡蒂?博莱特(Katie Boehret)本周测试了三种软件：LookSmart Ltd.的Net Nanny 5、SurfControl PLC的CyberPatrol 6.2、以及FilterLogix At Home。后两者的一年注册使用费用分别是39.95美元和34.95美元，Net Nanny的终生使用费是39.95美元。
在我们的测试中，CyberPatrol和FilterLogix在排除不良网站方面表现最好，但我们更看好后者，因为FilterLogix使用方便。Net Nanny未能排除一些内容明显不良的网页，所以不予推荐。
测试过程如下：博莱特和我在3台电脑上分别安装了上述3种产品，然后尽可能多地访问各种不良网站。Net Nanny和CyberPatrol必须下载安装到电脑后才能使用，而FilterLogix基于互联网。只需下载一个小小的名为Lockdown Utility的程序，它能够锁定你这台电脑的设置，所有访问网页的请求首先通过FilterLogix伺服器的过滤，孩子们无法撤销锁定。
这3种产品都提供密码保护功能，所以除了用户本人，没人能更改设置。除非你不小心让孩子知道了你的密码，或者你的密码设计得太简单，一猜就中。
每个产品过滤网页的方法都不相同。FilterLogix At Home用人工智能来鉴别不良网站，该人工智能系统主要通过一种能扫描数以千计的网站，并甄别不良内容的软件来运行的。在网址栏里输入的任何一个网站信息都会被立即扫描鉴定，如果被系统确认为不良内容，那么通常显示网页内容的地方就会跳出FilterLogix的信息。公司称，与不断更新不良网站名单相比，这种做法更好。
FilterLogix将所有网页根据内容分成16大类，其中有高等教育、政府，和军事等看来都是无害的内容。我们向FilterLogix问起这个问题，公司解释说最初的企业版本是这样分类的，因为有些公司不愿意让员工在工作时间访问这类网站。推出家用版本时也沿袭了这个分类方法。对于色情网站，FilterLogix根据敏感程度将其分为6个等级，从明显色情到暗含色情意味不等。针对每个等级，父母亲都可以从限制、允许和监控三种设置当中选定一种。
Net Nanny没有利用人工智能和分类方法，它选择的是网址和关键字名单筛选法。你购买Net Nanny的时候，就可以输入要限制访问的网址和关键字，以后也可以不断添加。公司称这个名单可以每天自动更新。但这仍然意味著只有某些网址和内容是受限的。
CyberPatrol融合了二者之长。用网址、关键字名单和分类法筛选大部分网络内容，但也提供自动网页分析服务。CyberPatrol称这种自动分析功能与FilterLogix的人工智能监控功能类似。另外，CyberPatrol的分类更精确，例如成人/明显色情这个类目与性教育是两个大类。
CyberPatrol的产品似乎能提供最广泛的过滤选择。喜欢手动添加特定的网址或关键字的用户可以选用，嫌麻烦的用户也可以直接点击启用自动网页监控功能，应该──而且我们的测试也证明它的确──能屏蔽掉大多数不良内容。
我们测试的这3种产品都能过滤我们输入的大部分明显的色情网站和极端组织的网站。
当然也有漏网之鱼。它们都没有阻止我们访问《Cosmopolitan Magazine》杂志的网站，那里却有多种涉及性主题的文章；我们访问哥伦比亚特区小道政治消息网站Wonkette.com时，只有FilterLogix挡住了我们。种种恶毒的咒骂，残忍的内容在这个网站上屡见不鲜。
Net Nanny还允许我们访问FleshBot这个偏重色情意味的网站，还有一些被另外两个产品屏蔽的网站，包括一个名为“雅利安民族”(Aryan Nations)的组织的主页，这里里还提供“向第四帝国致敬”(Hail the Fourth Reich)等为名的电脑桌面设计。
Net Nanny最大的缺点是在我们测试色情内容查找技术时发现的。这是一种很常用的网络技术：在Google的图片分类中查找照片。我们关闭了Google的过滤功能，然后输入一个众所周知的污秽字眼。Google显示出拇指大小的色情图片，Net Nanny则允许我们点击图片，虽然不是全部，但大多数的图片点击都能连接到色情网站上，浏览更多这类图片，还可以从这里连接到其他类似网站。CyberPatrol和FilterLogix则从头到尾彻底阻止了这一系列操作。
我们试著访问那些内容严肃的非色情性主题网站时，这三种产品都表现得不错。例如，我们可以顺利访问大多数讨论乳癌、乳房检查和包皮手术的网站。但也有一些网站被不幸屏蔽：FilterLogix屏蔽了苹果电脑公司(Apple Computer)的网站，这毫无道理。更有趣的是，CyberPatrol.com这个网站被Net Nanny和FilterLogix双双屏蔽，也许是不想让客户得知竞争对手的消息。
这些产品都不算完美，用起来也多多少少有些麻烦。但如果你没有注册AOL和MSN服务，这些产品也许对你大有帮助。
