Word: surfwatch
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Though they are no substitute for parental supervision, blocking programs--NET NANNY, SURFWATCH and CYBERSITTER--can help keep your kids away from the raunchiest sites. But be warned: these programs can wreak havoc with your system software and may pass judgments you don't agree with (e.g., barring info on contraception). Another option is CYBER SNOOP, which creates a tamper-proof list of the sites your kids surf...
...mention unconstitutional, interference. In June the Supreme Court slapped down the Communications Decency Act (CDA), which prohibited the posting of "indecent" material over the Net. This decision in turn has created a hot market for products that derisive Net-heads call "censorware"--such software filters as CyberPatrol, NetNanny and SurfWatch ($29.95 to $39.95) that offer to help nervous parents keep inappropriate material from prying but underage eyes...
...primitive method is to search for key words in the pages' titles, a system with all the subtlety of a Gatling gun. America Online, for instance, once banned the word breast from some areas of its service, which outraged breast-cancer sufferers locked out of their bulletin boards. And SurfWatch legendarily banned sites featuring the word couples, only to discover that that word appears on the White House's official site...
...conservative filtering program, is infamous for blocking access to the National Organization for Women's Website as well as entire Internet providers like Echo, New York City's oldest online community. Gay-themed sites--big surprise--suffer mightily. CyberPatrol blocks the Queer Resources Directory; CyberSitter bans the alt.politics.homosexual newsgroup; SurfWatch blocks ClariNet's AP and Reuters articles about AIDS...
...like the wave--or at least one very big wave--of the future. Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser already includes a ratings program called RSACi. It has emerged as the leading Net-rating system that allows Web proprietors to rate their own sites instead of letting NetNanny and SurfWatch employees pass judgment for them. And rival Netscape, bowing to pressure from the White House at last month's censorware summit (Bill Clinton, predictably, loves ostensibly family-friendly software filters), has agreed to use rating systems in the next version of its browser. Even news organizations, whose free-speech obsession...