ConnectSafely.org Co-director Larry Magid's presentation about filtering and monitoring for Russia's Safer Internet day -- February, 2012

1. Parental controls: An overview
Larry Magid
Co-Director
ConnectSafely.org
Safer Internet Day
Moscow, February 2012

2. Filtering technologies
Device
None DNS Level
ISP Mandatory
Router
ISP Optional

3. What parental controls can do
• Block undesirable content such as sites containing
sexual images or advocate violence or use of drugs or
alcohol
• Block websites that parents or authorities are
concerned about such as social networking
(Facebook, Google+, Twitter)
• Limit how a child uses a device by total amount of
time per day, time of day or day of week
• Block or limit features on device such as
texting, games, web access or any specific program or
app
• Monitor & report on use of device or service

4. Technical Issues around filtering
• Overblocking
• Underblocking
• Levels of control
• Granularity gives greater control but more
confusing
• Parental white listing tools
• Parental black listing tools
• Filtering vs. monitoring
• Issues of “too much information”
• Children’s privacy (trust factor)
• Stealth vs. open

5. What filters can’t do very well
• Prevent bullying and peer harassment
• Prevent posting inappropriate content
– reputation damage
• Prevent inappropriate or unwanted contact*
• Tech self-control and critical thinking*
*Monitoring technologies can be used for these purposes

6. Monitoring
• Can run on device or on network
• Should it report report all activity or just
suspicious activity?
• Should it report on private conversations or
just public postings or what people are
saying about child?
• Safetyweb vs. Spectorsoft
• Can run in stealth mode or require child to
know it’s running

7. Social Issues around parental controls
• Openness of what is being filtered and by what
criteria
• Part of a conversation or stealth mode?
• How and when do you wean children away from
filtering?
• Values that go into filtering are not necessarily
universally accepted
• Free speech issues
• Especially with social networking
• Privacy and trust
• Failure to teach critical thinking

8. Illegal content
• We need to separate the question of “child
pornography” from Internet safety.
• Child pornography (child abuse images) is a legal
issue.
• Internet safety is a social issue
• Most NGOs and government officials in the U.S. are
very careful not to mix child abuse images with other
concerns such as adult pornography, drug abuse,
extremism and intellectual property protection
• There is some concern that controlling any content
could lead to banning more content, including
political speech