New Net Technology Helps Make Safe Surfing Safe Again
A Review of WebChaperone
Rich Cunningham
Surfing the Internet has risen in popularity over the past few years. What was once a tool for the exchange of highly technical information, both civilian and military, has grown far beyond anything its designers could have ever imagined. (Insert bumper sticker here)"If You Can Read This, Then You Are Surfing the Net"(peel off bumper sticker). The variety of information available grows daily, the number of web sites grows hourly, and there is probably no way to calculate the number of users, both new and returning.
The Internet is, on the whole, an unregulated entity. I have often heard it described as a perfect example of socialism, and also of anarchy. Thomas Jefferson (you know, Ronald Reagan's friend) would most likely have considered the Internet as close to his concept of self-government as is humanly possible ("Government governs best that governs least"). Consider this: short of consumer fraud, where can one turn to find redress of wrongs that have been suffered in cyber space? There is no place to turn to. Even collecting damages from fraud can be very costly, and sometimes not worth the effort.
So where does this leave us? Call for a regulatory agency to monitor the net? Have cyber cops around every URL, waiting to bust the first violator? I don't think so. This unregulated atmosphere is what makes the Internet so attractive. A person can say and do almost anything they want, within the limits of good taste (and some don't even bother with good taste). Any attempt to regulate or change the way it operates now could cause the entire structure to collapse, again changing the way it is used.
So I guess that leaves it up to the users to take whatever means possible to ensure that the browsing that we do, or that other family members do, is a safe and enjoyable experience. To me, that means that when my daughter is doing research for a school report, and looking for information about the White House (Bill Clinton's current address), she should not have to worry about finding any smut, false advertising, or pornography during that search. Several months ago, there was a news story about the Mars Pathfinder when it landed on Mars. It seems that thousands of people went to what they thought was the official NASA web site to view the first pictures, and instead were greeted by pictures that were... well, of a different nature. Someone had created a URL similar to NASA's that pointed to an adult oriented site. To say there was confusion is an understatement.
What could have been done to prevent a situation like this? There are several companies that offer software that can prevent a user from receiving unwanted information over the Internet. I have used several of them, trying to prevent any of that sort of material from coming onto my kids' computer. They work, to a certain extent. There are some problems with them however. They usually come with a set of predefined parameters and sites that fit into the criteria that the seller deems appropriate. There is some amount of user input allowed, but the programs I used relied mostly on the manufacturer for updates for new and objectionable sites. There was also a reliance on the URL for identifying the site. From the above scenario with NASA, those programs would not have been able to have blocked that site. But, as hardware technology advances, so does software design. Today, there is a new product utilizing a breakthrough technology that can help prevent such occurrences.
The name of the product is WebChaperone, and is published by WebCo International of Portland, Oregon. It is a program that runs in the background, very silently and efficiently, monitoring any web activity on a computer. It then blocks the objectionable material with a substitute screen, giving the user a chance to go back to the previous page, or look at some substitute links instead. By now you are saying to yourself, "Self, that is what other programs do. What makes this program so different?"
The major difference is what WebCo calls iCRT (TM), or intelligent Content Recognition Technology. This breakthrough state-of-the-art algorithm based technology evaluates the contents of each and every page that a browser loads. It scans the page, analyzes that content, and then, if necessary, blocks access to it. In non-technical terms, it looks, it reads, and it says yes or no. For the more technically inclined, "...the patent pending technology uses a modified heuristics strategy, coupled to extensive, dynamic statistical analysis of a page's content". It then "...employs carefully refined phrase pattern recognition, fuzzy inference mechanisms, and semantic logic to reliably detect selected linguistic hallmarks characteristic of particular content types". The preceding quotes are from the Webco press release, and do a better job of describing the iCRT technology than I could ever begin to. All I can attest to is that it works.
How do I know it works? I tried a very simple test. I know of a site that has an innocent sounding name, and the URL does not allude to it's content. I also know that it contains material of an adult nature. I tried to access this site with WebChaperone installed and was not able to. It blocked any and all attempts to gain access to it. After deinstalling the program, access was not blocked. The current shipping version of WebChaperone utilizes a version of iCRT that is optimized to recognize sites of this type, but can be adapted to other types of content as well. It not only recognizes certain phrases that are common to this material, but it accumulates a record of other phrases as well, and how they relate to each other. In other words, it has the ability to learn from what it reads. Holy artificial intelligence!
I can only attest to how well the program performs its function. It works, pure and simple. I was afraid that this technology would cause the browser to slow down, since it is evaluating as well as displaying. My worries were groundless. The amount of time it takes to scan a page on a 100mhz Pentium-class computer is less the a quarter of a second, according to WebCo. It was very easy to install and set up. There is an administrator's page, then a section for each user, which is password controlled. It is also possible to monitor each user's web usage, as well as organizing that usage, either by site, subject, date, or family member. It is a very simple matter to customize the reject list by adding words, key phrases, and topics, along with specific sites. For example, if you find your daughter spending too much time on that MTV site, just block it.
If you are hunting for a new, bleeding edge technology-oriented tool to help protect your family from the unknown crevasses in cyberspace, this is the one for you. It is truly the next generation of parental control software for the World Wide Web, and truly lives up to it claims. Feel safe and secure in using it.
Internet Hotel Scorecard
| Product: | WebChaperone |
| Company: | WebCo International |
| Cost: | $49.95 |
System Requirements:
IBM:
Any system running Netscape 3.0/Internet Explorer 3.0 (or higher),
Windows 95/Windows NT 4.0, 16 MB RAM recommended.
Macintosh:
Available first quarter 1998.
Breakdown:
Ease of Use 5
Quality 5
Concept 5
Interface 5
Overall Score:
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