roundtable: Net Parental Filtering Announcement

roundtable: Net Parental Filtering Announcement

Net Parental Filtering Announcement

John Schwartz (schwartz@usa.net)
Tue, 13 Jun 1995 14:09:29 -0600 

Message-Id: <199506132015.OAA04365@earth.usa.net>
Date: Tue, 13 Jun 1995 14:09:29 -0600
To: roundtable@cni.org
From: schwartz@usa.net (John Schwartz)
Subject: Net Parental Filtering Announcement


I thought this press release would be of interest to subscribers 
of this list.  

                          John

______________________________________________________________

John B. Schwartz                           schwartz@usa.net
P.O. Box 6060                              voice 303-442-2707
Boulder, CO  80306                         FAX   303-442-6472
_______________________________________________________________



For Immediate Release

Leading Internet Software Companies Announce Plan to Enable Parents to 
"Lock out" Access to Materials Inappropriate to Children

Three leading Internet software companies announced plans today to lead 
an industry-wide effort to create and implement standards that will 
enable parents, educators, and other adults to "lock out" access to 
inappropriate materials.   The companies are: Microsoft Corporation; 
Netscape Communications, makers of the popular Netscape Navigator 
software; and Progressive Networks, makers of the RealAudio audio-on-
demand system for the Internet.

     The joint effort, called the Information Highway Parental Empowerment
Group, is focused on implementing an effective and easy-to-use system
designed to meet the following goals:

1.  The system would enable parents to ensure that their children do not
unwittingly gain access to materials that the parent would deem 
inappropriate;

2.  The system would make it easy for both content providers and third 
party rating services to characterize Internet content using whatever 
criteria they deemed appropriate;

3.  The system could be implemented efficiently and would be designed 
in such a way that maximizes the likelihood that it will quickly become 
a standard part of Internet access systems
	
     "Clearly, as the Internet has grown, it's become increasingly 
important to give parents and educators the ability to control what 
children under their supervision can see and hear on the Net," said 
Mike Homer, Vice President of Marketing for Netscape Communications.  
"Fortunately, advances in software technology will soon make it possible 
for us to design easy-to-use parental filtering capabilities directly 
into Netscape software.  We look forward to working with the industry 
to ensure that these capabilities become pervasive."

     "Microsoft thinks it's very important to help parents make the 
Internet a safe place for their children," said John Ludwig, general 
manager, Personal Systems Division, at Microsoft.  "We intend to play 
a leading role in ensuring that this happens.  Moreover, we remain 
committed to enabling parents to use the Microsoft Network, from the 
day it ships, in a way that is family-friendly."

     The three founding members of the Information Highway Parental 
Empowerment Group invite other industry companies to join their effort. 
People requesting more information should contact IHPEG@prognet.com.  
The Group has agreed to issue a report by December 31st, 1995 which 
will analyze the myriad issues associated with integrating parental 
lock-out capabilities into Internet access software and provide concrete 
recommendations.  The members of the study group anticipate being able 
to incorporate the recommendations into their software products during 
1996.

     "As the Internet becomes a multimedia place, the social issues 
associated with access to Internet programming become more important 
and more complicated," said Rob Glaser, President and CEO of Progressive 
Networks and chair of the study group.  "We hope to move as quickly as 
possible to make our way through the issues so that we can come up with 
a stable and reliable technical solution to the legitimate issues that 
have been raised."

-----------
Rob Glaser
Progressive Networks Inc -- Home of RealAudio:  http://www.realaudio.com
Board Member: Electronic Frontier Foundation, Foundation for National
Progress, & TVW 
(206)447-0567 x210

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