IMSafer Provides Powerful Tool for Parents to Protect Kids From Threats Over IM and Chat.Mix of Technology and Parent Involvement Adds up to More Protection for Kids HOUSTON -- IMSafer (www.imsafer.com) of Houston, Texas “Houston” redirects here. For other uses, see Houston (disambiguation). Houston (pronounced /'hjuːstən/) is the largest city in the state of Texas and the , today announced the availability of its flagship product A primary product of a company, which is typically why the company was founded and/or what made it well known. For example, MS-DOS, Windows and the Microsoft Office suite have been flagship products of Microsoft. CorelDRAW is a flagship product of Corel Corporation. aimed at providing an additional level of protection to children and teens who chat online via instant messenger AOL's instant messaging service. See AIM and instant messaging. services. "We built IMSafer to protect kids from bad people online," said Brandon Watson Brandon Eric Watson (born September 30, 1981 in Los Angeles, California) is an American center fielder who plays for the Washington Nationals. Although he bats left-handed, Watson throws with his right hand. , CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. and founder of IMSafer. "Technology by itself isn't the key, but it can make a big difference. We need to help parents get engaged, and engagement plus cutting-edge technology helps us stay ahead of the predators." How does IMSafer work? IMSafer uses lexical analysis (programming) lexical analysis - (Or "linear analysis", "scanning") The first stage of processing a language. The stream of characters making up the source program or other input is read one at a time and grouped into lexemes (or "tokens") - word-like pieces such as keywords, , based on a growing set of rules, which have been shown by law enforcement to indicate inappropriate online relationships with children. It's a proactive tool for parents, and they don't have to do anything other than install it. The rules set evolves, much like anti-virus signatures or spam-blocker databases, providing lasting protection for parents as language and slang change, and as predators use new tactics to elicit e·lic·it tr.v. e·lic·it·ed, e·lic·it·ing, e·lic·its 1. a. To bring or draw out (something latent); educe. b. To arrive at (a truth, for example) by logic. 2. personal information from children. Parents can feel safe to let their kids use IM and chat on any computer being monitored by IMSafer, whether it's in their home, a friend's home, at school or in a library. Parents get the notifications about potential trouble wherever their child is when engaged in an online chat. The IMSafer service also allows parents to leave feedback on people they believe are having inappropriate conversations with their child. This feedback allows IMSafer to be even more proactive in alerting parents about potentially inappropriate online relationships. As more parents get involved, the stronger our service becomes. If a child receives an IM with content that is flagged by IMSafer, parents receive an email notification within 90 seconds that includes the screen names of the people in the conversation, the community rating of the person to whom their child was speaking, and the category of the flagged content. Parents can log on to the web service to see more detail about the conversation and flagged content. Pricing and Availability: IMSafer is available now as a free download at www.IMSafer.com. To protect multiple IM screen names, there may be a subscription fee in the future. IMSafer makes its products available for free to government agencies, libraries, public and private schools and law enforcement. About IMSafer IMSafer is based in Houston, TX. We started with a simple plan: to rethink re·think tr. & intr.v. re·thought , re·think·ing, re·thinks To reconsider (something) or to involve oneself in reconsideration. re the problem of protecting kids online. "Simple," "easy to use" and "effective" are our guiding principles. The products for protecting children online are overwhelming for parents, hard to use, and require too much work on the part of the parents. We started with a blank sheet, used new technologies, and have created a really great service for parents. Each of us had at least one conversation with a guidance counselor guidance counselor Child psychology A school worker trained to screen, evaluate and advise students on career and academic matters who said, "if only you could use your powers for good." This is our chance. |
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