Go To GetNetWise.Org
July 29, 1999
The biggest names in the internet are joining forces to offer parents more control over what their children find in cyberspace.
It's just the latest effort to shield young users from the uncensored material on the world wide web.
It's the largest group of internet users. There are twice as many children online as
adults.
There's so much for kids to learn in cyberspace, and so much of it is unacceptable to
parents.
Parents know they need to make choices, but they don't
yet know how.
Now, an unprecedented coalition of internet titans--from Microsoft to America
Online to Yahoo, offers parents a guide to the net's dangers.
The website Getnetwise lists online safety tips so kids can surf
clear of potentially dangerous chatrooms, for example.
It also teaches parents how to automatically limit how long kids spend on the
internet, and what they see and read online.
So, for example, if parents want to block out all pornographic and
hate websites on the world wide web, Getnetwise points them to a list of
services.
This.com is a new internet service provider, allowing parents to block out
unwanted and dangerous content.
Judy Lederman says it's the kind of thing she learned she needed only after a
bomb squad visited her house, and showed her part of the bomb built by her son. He apparently learned how to build it on the internet.
The companies involved in Getnetwise also hope their cooperative
effort will buffer them from the possibility of government regulation of the
internet.
The website is linked to nearly all entry sites to the world wide
web, or parents can access it directly at www.getnetwise.org.
