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Date: Wed, 14 Jun 1995 01:01:26 +0900
From: •••@••.••• (Dave Farber)
Subject: Net Parental Filtering Announcement
To: •••@••.••• (interesting-people mailing list)
For Further Information Contact:
Progressive Networks:
Laurie Burrier/Katie Cotton at Killer App Communications
818-509-3700
Microsoft:
Anne Marshall at Waggener Edstrom
206-637-9097
Netscape:
Rosanne Siino
415-528-2619
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 •••@••.•••. 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
--
<A HREF="http://www.eff.org/~mech/"> Stanton McCandlish
</A><HR><A HREF="mailto:•••@••.•••"> •••@••.•••
</A><P><A HREF="http://www.eff.org/"> Electronic Frontier Foundation
</A><P><A HREF="http://www.eff.org/1.html"> Online Services Mgr. </A>
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Posted by -- Richard K. Moore -- •••@••.••• -- Wexford, Ireland.
Moderator: CYBERJOURNAL (@CPSR.ORG)
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