© Filtering and rating systems

Filtering  systems
Advice to parents
Recent tests show that many filters are not effective

No filtering software can remove the need for parents to keep an eye on what their children see on-line, and it is difficult to find protection against violent sites especially. However, recent testing by Test Achats, partners in the CISA project, co-financed by the EU Internet Action Plan, shows good filters are probably the best way to block at least most 'adult' sites. Here are some facts about filtering systems and how they work and some advice on how to get the best out of what is on offer.

Filtering  systems work in a number of ways

“No” lists: A “No” list of sites that should be avoided is drawn up (containing rude, violent or racist material for example) and if your child clicks on one of these sites, his or her access is blocked. Some programs also work on lists of banned words. Once these words have been found in an address or in the site itself, access to the site is blocked. The problem with “No” lists is that they need to be updated very often.

Real-time filtering: the filter checks words and/or pictures as they are called up and stops a page with any unwanted text or picture from being shown. The problem is that a page can be partially seen before the filter finds the offending word or picture. Also the system can slow down your access to websites.

Site labelling/rating: Owners of sites voluntarily give their web pages a label which shows whether their site contains certain material (eg violence, nudity, gambling, 'adult', etc). The label and categories have been created by the Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA). The filter reads these labels and decides whether to allow access, depending on what parents have chosen to allow their children to see.  The problem with this system is that it depends on owners of web sites voluntarily rating their own sites and so far not many sites are rated.

Walled gardens: Lists of web sites that are suitable for young children are drawn up and then access is only allowed to a site which is on the list. This is the safest way to protect small children.

Advice to parents

1. Make sure that, first of all, you talk to your children about how to use the net safely and explain to them the basics for safe surfing (see advice to parents on this website in all EU languages).
2. Before you buy or download filtering software, decide what you want it to do. Parents have different views on how they want to protect their children and you need to consider exactly what you want the filter to do. For example, do you want it to block or restrict access to chat rooms or newsgroups, do you want to control the sending and receiving of e-mails to a restricted list of people, do you want to control the amount of time the computer is used or the times of the day or week that it is used, do you want to block information being sent, eg credit card details, address?
3. A lot of filters can be used free of charge for a short period. Bear this in mind when you are looking for a filter and try a few out before you decide on one.
4. Walled gardens are best for young children. Access is only allowed to sites which are suitable for young children. They only see the scaled-down version of the Internet and in general they would not even suspect that the majority of it is kept well hidden.
5. Bear in mind that many of the filtering products are American. This means that the criteria for filtering can be very much influenced by American values, for example very strict about nudity, but not so strict about weapons or violence. This also means that many of the filtering products work mainly in English
6. There can be a big difference in price between filtering products and the more expensive ones are not necessarily better.

Recent tests show that many filters are not effective

Recently consumer organisations in Belgium, Spain, Italy and Portugal carried out tests into 18 filtering software packages currently on the market.

Test-Achats, (Test-Aankoop), the Belgian consumer organisation which led the project, has said in its magazine nr. 452, March 2002, p.18-22, 'In general, pornographic sites are rather well filtered. At the same time, the programs do not generally filter out inoffensive sites, including those where the name could have caused confusion. On the other hand, weapons sites, violence, hate, racism, drugs or sects passed fairly easily through the filters.'

Test Achats also concluded, 'Of the 18 tested, only three offer an effective filter: McAfee Internet Guard Dog Version 3.13 (2), N2H2 Inc N2H2 for Home (UKE) A 1.0, and WE-WEBCORP.COM We-Blocker 2.0.1 Build 82. Since we know that We-WebCorp.com is free, one can easily guess that it becomes our best buy. This filter can be downloaded from the editor's site.'

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