From: angels@wavenet.com (Colin Gabriel Hatcher) Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk,alt.censorship Subject: Re: Batman on the Internet??? CyberAngels info Date: 28 May 1996 05:02:25 GMT Organization: CyberAngels Lines: 188 Message-ID: References: <4ndnhe$bqv@hecate.umd.edu> <4oc11b$8tt@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- http://www.safesurf.com/ SafeSurf (Frequently Asked Questions) JUST THE FAQS PLEASE! SafeSurf: The Basics [Image] The SafeSurf Rating Standard [Image] Government Censorship --------------------------------------------------------------------------- SafeSurf: The Basics Who started SafeSurf and why? SafeSurf was founded by Wendy Simpson and Ray Soular out of concern for children accessing adult material and the potential trauma associated with early exposure to pornography. Governmental censorship as a response to the issue was also a major concern. What are SafeSurf's basic principles? We believe that standards must be implemented in cyberspace. Children should be protected on the Internet, however parents should have the choice to raise children as they see fit and define the word "indecent" for themselves. The online community is made up of many diverse cultures from around the world. Obviously, opinions will differ on levels of acceptable material. Parental choice is really the only answer to this problem. The only way we will be able to achieve freedom of choice by parents is to implement an Internet-wide rating standard. Does SafeSurf have software? We do not have a software product. Instead, SafeSurf offers its assistance to help all of the filtering software companies produce better products and encourages them to support the SafeSurf Rating Standard. Products that are of truly exceptional quality earn the right to carry the SafeSurf Seal of Excellence on their box. Many companies may try to imply that they have the SafeSurf Seal of Excellence, but if you don't see it on the box, they do not. What are SafeSurf's Main Goals? Our main goals are to employ the SafeSurf Rating Standard on the Internet for the future, while assisting and supporting parents right now. What exactly are those characters in the computer monitor of your logo? One closeup picture is worth a thousand words. They're the SafeSurfing Esses! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- SafeSurf Rating Standard Have you discussed the technical side of your rating standard with Internet providers and if they would be willing to participate? We have discussed the options with a few Internet providers and they have informed us that issuing a separate password for purposes of keeping track of use may require additional time and effort, but if their competition does it, then it becomes a necessary part of being competitive. That is why we believe if 10% of the Internet community actively adopts this system, the remaining 90% will be voluntarily compelled to adopt it, in order to remain competitive in the broad family market. "Severe legal penalties will be reserved for those sites containing adult material which entice children by coding themselves as child safe." - What type of penalties do you envision ? Severe legal penalties currently exist for anyone who sexually abuses children. The same penalties can be applied to anyone who abuses the system to entice children to adult material. The Internet community has long required proper "netiquette" of its members, and has been very effective in enforcing this "netiquette". We believe abusers will be shut down in a nanosecond by this structure. We believe in the power of the 'Net. Our system will demonstrate that cooperative self-regulation is a million times more effective that governmental censorship. If the government should pass specific laws that are aimed directly at criminals who would abuse this system to hurt innocent children, we will support it wholeheartedly. Whilst stopping access to sites that contain pornographic or other adult content by children, wouldn't this system make it easier for adults to perform searches for particular strings in documents and find this material? Our goal is to protect children and the rights of their parents. We exist specifically to defend the innocence of each child. We agree that our system will speed up searches for all material, however, the SafeSurf plan achieves its goal of protecting online children by encouraging information flow controlled by the parent. Is the idea to classify sites as child safe or child oriented ? The goal is to get all sites to participate. The code allows parents to make specific decisions on what kind a material that they want their child to download. The computer will interpret the code of ss~~0001 as "General Information (the first two zeros) with No Adult Themes ( the third "0") with the mildest degree of 1". This is 100% child safe for young children. If the site would contain a occasional mild expletive such as "crap" it would be rated as ss~~0011 which the computer would translate as "General Information with No Adult Themes includes Profanity with a degree of 1. We stress that these codes are designed to be interpreted by the computer as they are encoded. By using the computer to do the translating, we can build a very complex system utilizing the computer that is simple to understand by users. Have you been in contact with any software companies to discuss the possibility of producing the software needed? We have gotten assurances from all of the filtering software products that we work with that they will support a coded Internet. We believe others will follow to create a safe environment for families. In regards to your rating standard categories, making groups "seperate but equal" doesn't really help the matter much. It's still suggesting that homosexuals are somehow different, when in fact they are not. Why not simply have "Adult themed" vs. "non-adult themed" and leave it at that? The point I'm getting at is don't have the distinction in the first place. Unless we begin to classify information precisely, the Internet will become a blob of meaningless confusion. We want the resources and information of all communities easily accessible. We believe that there are people in the world interested in either more or less information on sexual issues, chat rooms, magazines, etc. By enabling one parent who is not interested to filter this information out, we enable another parent to specifically include this type of information. Choice is what it is all about. By grouping everything together, we take the choice away from everyone. We are in no way stating that one group is right or wrong, good or bad, but that they contain different types of resources and information, and should be classified per those differences. What has the response to the rating standard been like? It appears that the Internet was waiting for a voluntarily Rating system that was easy to implement and would protect online children in a way that made sense. We are receiving e-mail from all across the world voicing support for the SafeSurf Rating System. Internet sites have begun to code themselves. Filtering software companies such as Solid Oak Software, Net Nanny, Rated PG, Teachersoft and CyberPatrol have implemented filters using our rating system. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Government Censorship Why do you believe censorship is not a solution? Censorship does not protect children. Instead, it instills in all, a fear of information. It can, has, and will be used as a tool of the government to harass anyone it feels is not cooperating with its master vision. Censorship occurs when a government does not care to listen to reason. It is an uninformed, panicked and over-broad response when a well-reasoned specific solution is needed. Only those messages that the government decides are "indecent" are controlled, while children continue to have full access to sites that individual parents may consider "indecent" or even dangerous. You see, censorship cares nothing for your opinion, only for groups with political clout. Censorship takes all and gives very little in return. What do you think is the best way of getting support from legislators who broadly have no idea of the Internet except that it is a system for exchanging porn. How can we educate them or reassure them? Legislators like many other people are convinced by action instead of talk. Our goal is to get enough sites coded so that a safe cyber-playground for our children is in existence. Proof that the Internet community will implement solutions on its own can convince them of alternative solutions to censorship. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Image]SafeSurf Homepage --------------------------------------------------------------------------- SafeSurf is a trademark of SafeSurf(TM) © 1996 16032 Sherman Way, Suite 58, Van Nuys, CA 91406   E-Mail: SafeSurf@aol.com -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6 iQCVAwUBMajM6Lrnmi5CcKeBAQHQagP/c3laCWZmkUN4Jfm8+NzTzf+tuNIg79rG VGjp/hpwhVgzSUS0fXaXqW+eUcaQQNTdVy8A7tmBfWwMDzzuQl3cQDceXRCSzX82 27dzkIeGeAiKcoUwECqBMvjnTlVN7Q9USalL83fMbil4mj5hdE4uuVjD74N4UBLb 8zKID8oHk3A= =yxWI -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----