Victoria Laney
Contributing Editor
The Focus on Children Summit in Washington D.C. this week highlighted the need for parents to police internet usage. WebChaperone defines a new and unique generation of parental control software, according to Adrian Vandemore, of WebCo which showed the product at Comdex.
'Unlike previous alternatives, WebChaperone does not depend merely on rating systems or lists of inappropriate sites. Instead, WebChaperone uses proprietary technology to evaluate and, if necessary, block pages as they are loaded. 'This means that sites too new to be rated or be in a list of unacceptable sites are still blocked from children,' she said.
There are many problems with list based systems used by other Web-blocking software. They are almost always out of date. There is a new Web domain registered every 22 seconds. In order to keep up with the changes on the Web, list-based site-blocking services may charge maintenance fees to subscribers, she said.
'In contrast WebChaperone uses intelligent Content Recognition Technology (iCRT) which understands words and phrases in context. It understands the difference between pornography and a site with information about Breast Cancer. Parents can add words, phrases or sites to be filtered for individual children' she said.
'We no longer need relay on the judgments of others as list-based, site blocking applications do, but can determine what is appropriate for each of our children on an individual basis, and change our approach as our children grow,' said Adrian Russel-Falla, president of WebCo.
When a page must be blocked, the child will get a message that says something age-appropriate, and be offered a choice of going back to where they were, or looking at cool sites for their age group, she said. A small child's message may say, 'Just boring grown-up stuff in there.' A teenager's message might say, 'This page will take 2 - 6 years to load.'
WebChaperone has an integrated search engine and intelligent bookmarking. This helps children find sites that are appropriate for their ages, and 'return to sites they enjoyed days, weeks, or even months ago,' she said.
Parents can track children's Web usage using monitoring features of the software. The security and Web features cannot be disabled by messages from Web sites. 'WebChaperone is designed to support parents whose children may be more technologically 'savvy' than they are,' she said.
The product, which was announced in October, received a Ziff-Davis five star review, and a 'Family Site of the Day,' award.
'We are excited to see our newer technology and more positive tone hit such a resonant chord with consumers,' Russel-Falla said.
Customers can try WebChaperone for free for 15 days before purchasing by downloading a fully-functional trial copy from http://www.webchaperone.com.
It comes with a money back guarantee. It can be purchased from the Web site, or by phone at 800-387-8373. Suggested list pricing is $49.00. Previous users of other blocking software may switch to WebChaperone for $29.95.
The software is available now for Windows 95 and NT compatible computers. A Macintosh version will be available soon. It requires at least an Intel 486 based computer, 16MB of memory, and 4 MB of disk space.