Brisbane start-up takes online filtering to Conroy’s door

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – 18 May 2010 – How do you effectively block ‘bad stuff’ on the Internet, protect your children and simultaneously provide a flexible, parent-controlled environment that can’t be circumvented?  This is the conundrum that parents face every day with today’s existing ‘child safe’ Internet filters failing to meet the challenge.

Brisbane-based company The Cyber Guardian has come up with a solution:  create a pre-screened universe of websites that have been effectively and thoroughly vetted by the company and use this as the basis for creating a safe online environment for children.  The safe websites are constantly updated and they are the only ones accessible by children – unless a parent adds an exception. 

Other software tries to filter sites and blacklist them dynamically, but provide less than reliable results because Internet nasties pop-up quicker than traditional filters can find them, which leaves huge gaps in their effectiveness as protection for children.

“Filters are just not effective,” said Max Thomas, founder, father and chief executive officer, The Cyber Guardian. “Most have been around since the early days of the Internet and just can’t keep up with the thousands of ‘bad’ sites that are added to the web every day.  And the Government’s plan to introduce mandatory filtering is a bandaid approach that just won’t work.  I actually agree wholeheartedly with Telstra’s Greg Wynn, who recently said trying to filter the Internet is like trying to ‘boil the ocean’.”

Security for children on the Internet is a growing global problem and one of the most topical issues for governments worldwide.  According to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), 1 in 5 children is targeted by a predator or paedophile each year, whilst 30% of teenage girls say they have been sexually harassed in an online chat room, but only 7% tell their parents for fear of having their online access limited. The Cyber Guardian will not allow online chat or social networking as part of the overall site bank, but parents have the option to add these sites if they decide they are appropriate to the individual child’s account.

“What we’re doing is giving control back to the parents and providing them a safety net at the same time,” added Thomas. “One of the major problems parents have today is their children are often much more tech savvy than them. Children, especially young teenagers, know how to get around filters and they tell others how to do it. It’s just impossible for parents to keep up.” 

Key features of The Cyber Guardian

Automatic, always-on protection: The software automatically configures the Windows account on the computer and sets up separate accounts for the parent and each child.  Once the child logs in, he or she can only use The Cyber Guardian search engine to surf the ‘safe’ sites plus any other sites the parent has approved.

Parental controls mean that children cannot access any other applications, browser or download programs without parental consent.  By default, The Cyber Guardian ensures file sharing sites cannot be accessed. This helps to prevent malicious files or viruses from infecting the PC whilst keeping Internet bills in check. If the family shares a computer, parents’ individual password protected logins allows them to override The Cyber Guardian, giving them open access to the computer and other browsers. After a short period of inactivity the computer automatically defaults back to the Windows user login – a further safety measure aimed to protect children.

Time and application control:The Cyber Guardian also helps parents control how much time each child spends on the Internet, or even on individual websites. Through the Parent Dashboard, mums and dads can set specific times and days that each child can have online access.  It could be one hour per day on weekdays at a specified time, or three hours each day at the weekend.  This will also stop children fighting over whose turn it is whilst making sure they use the computer for the right reasons, at the right time. 

The Cyber Guardian can be downloaded for an annual fee of $99 AUD. A special $77 AUD (Inc. GST) offer is available until 31 May 2010 from www.thecyberguardian.com. This includes four user accounts (one parent and up to three children). Users can be added on individual computers or on one family computer, and a parent can access the Parents’ Dashboard remotely from any computer.