INTERNET `SITTERS' CALLED EFFECTIVE, NOT FOOLPROOF : SCREENING PROGRAMS.Byline: Calvin Woodward Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. Net Nanny See parental control software. can be slow to catch on when Junior takes a raunchy raun·chy adj. raun·chi·er, raun·chi·est Slang 1. a. Obscene, lewd, or vulgar: "[He] tour of the Internet. But once she does, he's caught red-handed and red-faced. When the computer censoring program finally realizes the likes of Deviant Dictionary have been summoned, Net Nanny announces a ``violation,'' shuts down the system and primly records the misdeed for mom and dad to see. Gotcha (jargon, programming) gotcha - A misfeature of a system, especially a programming language or environment, that tends to breed bugs or mistakes because it both enticingly easy to invoke and completely unexpected and/or unreasonable in its outcome. ! There's no stuffing the embarrassing evidence under the mattress, like girlie girl·ie also girl·y adj. Informal Featuring minimally clothed or naked women typically in pornographic contexts: girlie magazines. magazines in simpler days. Net Nanny is one of close to a dozen screening programs being marketed to parents as an alternative or supplement to federal Internet content restrictions overturned by a judicial panel and now under Supreme Court review. How well do they work? Plainly, not well enough to replace other ways of dealing with children, like establishing trust. Also, not well enough to draw anything but a ragged line between pornography on one side and disease prevention, sex education and the arts on the other. But the judges who struck down the federal Internet law last year found such programs preferable to the government controls. Above all, they said the strength of the Internet and liberty is the same: ``chaos and cacophony.'' Hence, Awesome Babes and Bikiniland. Net Nanny did not mind when a grown-up grown-up adj. 1. Of, characteristic of, or intended for adults: grown-up movies; a grown-up discussion. 2. ``Junior'' who went looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. love in all the wrong places peeked at those relatively mild sites. Another screening program, Cyber Patrol (motto: ``To surf and protect''), would not let Junior see material on Anne Sexton Noun 1. Anne Sexton - United States poet (1928-1974) Sexton , the celebrated poet with that three-letter word in her name. It also blocked a search for information on Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (srē läng`kə) [Sinhalese,=resplendent land], formerly Ceylon, ancient Taprobane, officially Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, island republic (2005 est. pop. , an exotic country that Cyber Patrol seemed to consider erotic. The poet and the nation were ``code 5'' violations, not as severe as the code 1 Free Babe Zone but blocked just the same. Even so, the program allowed the Female Appreciation Page, with explicit nudity, to slip through. Apart from sheer mistakes, a foolproof filter ``is impossible to develop because of the subjective nature of what is considered objectionable,'' PC Magazine says. Still, they may help children explore the Web ``in relative safety.'' That's a tall order in a medium connecting some 40 million people using more than 9 million computers to find material that constantly changes. The cyber-censors try to do it with lists of sites and words that will set off a trip wire. Sex, violence and language are among up to a dozen subjects that can be screened out. Even so, censorship programs are hit and miss. Net Nanny allowed an eye-popping exploration of the Hustler magazine home page before it cottoned on to what was happening and stopped it. But it was quick to deny access to a discussion of erotic needlework needlework, work done with a needle, either plain sewing, mending, or ornamental work such as embroidery, quilting, smocking, hemstitching, fagoting, some kinds of lace making (see lace), patchwork, and appliqué. . Junior had to disable Nanny by using the adult password before eavesdropping Secretly gaining unauthorized access to confidential communications. Examples include listening to radio transmissions or using laser interferometers to reconstitute conversations by reflecting laser beams off windows that are vibrating in synchrony to the sound in the room. on mystifying mys·ti·fy tr.v. mys·ti·fied, mys·ti·fy·ing, mys·ti·fies 1. To confuse or puzzle mentally. See Synonyms at puzzle. 2. To make obscure or mysterious. messages: ``Are there male parts to cross-stitch also, like I'd bother to waste my time!'' ``Where exactly would you hang this in your house once you stitched it???'' A summary of screening-program reviews appears in PC Magazine's April 8 edition, the 1997 Utility Guide. Some programs can be downloaded for free trials. Cyber Patrol 3.1: Rated as ``the most powerful package.'' Complex to set up. One option keeps personal information such as names and credit card numbers from being sent on line. $29.95 to register plus $29.95 for year's subscription. Web address: www.cyberpatrol.com Cybersitter 2.1: A ``powerful tool'' with free daily updates of restricted sites. Easy to set up. $39.95. www.solidoak.com Cyber Snoop 2.0: Tracks all activity by the user. Does not come with its own blocking program but allows parents to create one. $29.95. www.pearlsw.com Net Nanny 3.1: Flexible and easy to use but ``not as robust in its filtering capabilities'' as some others. Can log all activity. $39.95. www.netnanny.com Rated-PG: Sophisticated controls of children's computer time. Comes with more than 2,500 Internet addresses that have been rated for content. Setup is difficult, use is easy. $54.95, with updated lists of restricted sites and words available by subscription. www.ratedpg.com SurfWatch 1.6: ``Effective filtering tool'' that does not allow parents to edit restrictive lists. Simple setup. Monthly maintenance plan available by subscription. Version 2.0 to allow more customizing. $19.95. www.surfwatch.com X-Stop 2.0: ``Straightforward and simple to use'' with free daily updates. $29.95. www.xstop.com SOURCE: Associated Press CAPTION(S): Box BOX: SCREENING PROGRAMS (see text) |
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