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In this issue:
        
1.      General announcements.
2.      "The long road ahead."

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Other news and guest articles may be submitted for editorial
review to mailto:news@surfsafety.com.
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General announcements
=====================

First announcement is that subscription and unsubscription to this
newsletter has now been fully automated.  In last months' issue we
made mention that we were going to try Majordomo.  That turned out
to be a poor choice but we did find a list manager suited to this
application.  This should put an end to corrupted list databases
and other general mishaps we were running into.

New subscriptions are now handled exclusively via the web at
http://surfsafety.com/frameset_news.html.  Once you subscribe
you will receive a confirmation e-mail to the address you are
subscribing.  Subscriptions are activated when you retrieve this
confirmation and click on a special link in that message.  This is
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A personalized unsubscription link is included at the end of every
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We are committed to your privacy and satisfaction with this news
letter.  If you have any suggestions for improvement, please send
them to mailto:news@surfsafety.com.

Thank you.
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The long road ahead.
====================

Well, summer vacation is upon us once again.  Kids are home from
school, hopefully spending most of that time outside, burning up
energy and staying out of your hair!

Ultimately, though, cabin fever is bound to set in and as part of
that you can expect your children to be spending more time online
than ever.

Because we can't always be right there for every minute of their
online journeys, there are several ways to regulate the usage of
your computer falling into just a few categories.

		Monitoring software (at added cost)
and/or	Time limiting software (also at added cost)
and/or	Filtering software (some at added cost and some free)

If you're like me, FREE IS GOOD!  And, unless you're using a
completely out of date browser, chances are very good you already
have this free filtering tool.  What is it?  It's P.I.C.S. (the
Platform for Internet Content Selection), and it's already built
into Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Communicator. It's
been around for years.

What?  You've never heard of it?  Don't worry.  You're not alone.
But I plan to change all that, IN GRAND STYLE!

First, let's talk about WHY you've never heard of it.  In a nut
shell, it's because it means extra work for web developers.  One
whole extra step.  Good grief!  Who can blame them?  :\

Another concern I have heard from developers is that they fear
possible litigation against them for rating their content in such
a way that it may not be acceptable to all groups at all times in
all places.  Well, Duh!  This is nothing more than a scapegoat goat
excuse for laziness.

I'm not a lawyer but common sense dictates that the solution is
to simply include a disclaimer in the Terms Of Use which explains
that "Rating is voluntary and subjective by nature.  The author
has rated in good conscience but his interpretation of the content,
and the appropriate audience for it, may still not comply with all
value systems of all people at all times.  Because of this the
author accepts no liability for claims of misrepresentation of the
content at the site.  Use of the site indicates acceptance of the
terms.  If you do not accept the terms, go away."

I'm not asking developers to become personally liable for their
content.  All I am asking for is at least a reasonable guess of
what it is they're placing on the web for public viewing so I, as
a parent, can predetermine the content level I want delivered to
my computer desktop using P.I.C.S.

P.I.C.S. is the platform on which content selection can be based
and there are several standards which are built on this platform.
The two most popular standards are SafeSurf and RSACi.  Netscape
comes prebundled with both but MSIE comes with only RSACi.  If
you want to use SafeSurf with MSIE you must add the standard to
the browser.  I highly endorse SafeSurf over RSACi so if you use
MSIE and don't already have it, please get it.  Links to all the
sites you'll need are at the end of this letter.

I'm also going to take you to a web page where you can learn
exactly how to configure P.I.C.S. on your machine to accommodate
the appropriate viewing levels of every member of your family.

P.I.C.S. is very powerful but it does have one flaw.  It can do
only two things with unrated web sites.  Allow all unrated sites
or BLOCK all unrated sites.  If you enable P.I.C.S. on your
browser to filter rated sites but allow it to pass unrated sites,
the purpose is defeated.  If you block unrated sites as I
recommend, you're then faced with the dilemma of having to approve
with your password every page your child visits.  The whole point
of this exercise was to automate that task.

In order for parents to make effective use of P.I.C.S., the web
sites they visit must be rated.  The problem has been convincing
authors to rate and finding those rated sites.

				UNTIL NOW!

Now there IS a search engine where authors can index only their
P.I.C.S. rated sites enabling parents to use P.I.C.S. filtering
without the hassle:  http://surfsafely.com/ and it represents a
quantum leap in responsible web publishing.

Based on the results of a quick poll we are still accepting votes
for at surfsafety.com, users have overwhelmingly indicated they
would use an index like this.

		You asked for it and I delivered!

When I finished deployment, the first thing I did was attempt to
preload it with a good cross section of P.I.C.S. rated sites taken
from my own browser bookmarks.  Boy was THAT a rude awakening!
I'm not sure what the average is but less than 5% of the sites in
my bookmarks were rated.  Of the sites listed as child safe at
SafeSurf.com, less than 25% were P.I.C.S. rated!  Being a rating
authority, I would have to assume that the sites WERE rated at
the time of submission, but this is what can happen over time
when sites are updated.  Authors either overlook or deliberately
omit the hidden tags which rate the pages.  Hence, non-P.I.C.S.
rated sites creep in.
 
Not so at SurfSafely.com.  The entire index will be periodically
refiltered for P.I.C.S. conformance.  All sites no longer rated
will get punted and the web developers notified by email of their
sites nonconformance.

Parents using SurfSafely.com to locate sites for their families
to visit will have far fewer headaches using P.I.C.S. than with
any other search engine on the web.

If enough people follow my program, for web developers the issue
will boil down to simple economics.  Omit rating and lose market
share.  Make that market share big enough and they lose revenue.
Make that lost revenue big enough and they WILL conform.

By using P.I.C.S. on your browser, by encouraging ALL webmasters
to rate REGARDLESS of the content, by indexing P.I.C.S. rated
sites you find at SurfSafely.com and by using the SurfSafely.com
search engine, you will be helping to make the web a safer place
to roam for everyone!

It's a long road ahead of us but the trail has been blazed.  If
enough people walk the trail it becomes a path; Then a dirt road;
Then a paved road; Then a super highway.  A super highway where
only other safe, responsible drivers are permitted, keeping the
accident rate to an absolute minimum.

My sincerest wishes go out to you and your families for a safe
and enjoyable summer.

I'll see you in the Fall.
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Here's the links I promised:

If you have a web site which you would like to rate with P.I.C.S.
in order to include it in the SurfSafely.com index, go to:

	http://surfsafely.com/dev.html

If you are a parent who wants to know how to set up P.I.C.S. on
their browser, I have posted chapters 7 and 8 from my book "Child
Safety-Net: How to protect your children from harm online" to
show you exactly how at:

	http://surfsafely.com/help.html

Guidance and links to add SafeSurf to Microsoft Internet Explorer
are also found there.

And, of course, the index itself:

	http://surfsafely.com/

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Until next time...

Be informed,
Be involved,
Be well.

Sincerely,
Mark Brasche
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