| BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : AUGUST 16, 1999 ISSUE | ||||||||
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| BUSINESSWEEK LIFESTYLE
Shielding Children from Cyber Perils GetNetWise points parents toward online safeguards 0nline pedophiles. Pornographic Web sites. Unscrupulous marketers. All of them are lurking in cyberspace. So parents who want their kids to take advantage of the Information Age are at the same time leery about letting them loose on the Internet. But on July 29, some of the Internet's best-known companies launched a major Web site that aims to put mom and dad at ease. Called GetNetWise, the site is billed as a place where parents are ''one click away'' from reading tips and downloading tools that can help safeguard their children online. Years in the making, it's backed by the likes of America Online, AT&T, Walt Disney, Microsoft, Excite@Home, Lycos, and Yahoo!. Even Vice-President Al Gore has lent his support. Here's a quick look at this comprehensive Web site, which parents can find at www.getnetwise.org. GetNetWise is organized into four main sections: online safety guide, special browsers and other tools for families, areas where you can report trouble, and Web sites appropriate for children. The first section discusses the risks that children face online, based on age and activities. From ages 2 to 4, for instance, children fall into the ''lapware'' category, meaning parents need to explore the Net with them. Older children want to do more poking around on their own. But parents are still advised to stick nearby. In the family tools area, parents can check off such criteria as ''filters sex'' and ''blocks outgoing info.'' They then click on a button for links to products that accomplish those tasks. You will find programs for limiting the amount of time kids can spend online, kid-oriented search engines that restrict the results of a child's query, and child-friendly browsers. For example, the free Surf Monkey browser, which can be found at www.surfmonkey.com, promises to block sites on drug use and bomb-making. Meanwhile, filtering programs like SurfWatch, Cyber Patrol, and Net Nanny work with your own browser to block out violent, politically incorrect, or X-rated pages. Costs vary, and filtering programs have limitations. Most let parents customize the sites they want blocked, although none of these programs can stop everything. And sometimes they block material you want your child to see. So what happens if, despite your best efforts, your kid runs into trouble? The third area of the new site features links to the police, advocacy groups, and other places where you can report a problem. New York State residents, for instance, can submit an Internet crime report to the authorities. One link (www.missingkids.org/cybertip) takes you to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children Cyber Tipline, which lets you report incidents of online child sexual exploitation. Of course, the Web features many safe neighborhoods, and GetNetWise can help you and your kids find them. You can pore through approved site lists from the American Library Assn. and other groups, such as Net-mom's and the Children's Partnership. The CyberAngels' CyberMoms list of links is subdivided into science and nature, creative activities and fun, and other categories. For all the help GetNetWise can give, the site doesn't offer independent assessments of the programs and organizations it points you to. For that reason, GetNetWise doesn't let parents off the hook. On or off the Web, no one is wiser about protecting your kids than you. By EDWARD C. BAIG _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP |
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