Greetings from SurfSafely.com! If you enjoy reading this newsletter as much as I do writing it, please pass it on to all your friends and family. As always, this newsletter is opt-in only. If you feel you've received it in error, reliable removal instructions are at the bottom.

News Bytes:

Last month I mentioned that I would be reviewing a computer monitoring product called PC-Bloodhound. I did try out the version 1.0 product and provided my findings to the software developers. It worked pretty well but had some major flaws that prevents me from recommending it to my readers at this time. Fortunately, version 2.0 is due out very soon that the developers tell me addresses all of the issues I reported to them and more. If that's true, I can't wait to see it. It will be a great product at a very affordable price.

Last month I was invited to participate in a one and a half hour long televised town meeting produced by Westchester New York's News Channel 12 at Manhattanville College in Purchase New York. Among those sharing the panel with me was New York State Attorney Janine Pirro who is credited for the development of a proactive online predator apprehension program that, in the first one and a half years of operation, has rounded up almost 90 dangerous pedophiles and sexual online predators. I am delighted to report that News 12 has given me permission to stream the entire program online for the benefit of my subscribers and online users of SurfSafely.com. Set aside some time and watch this program the same way you might set aside time to watch a favorite television program. This will be time well spent. The direct link will be posted at SurfSafely.com the moment I finish streaming it to a Real Media file and upload it to the web server. I'll send you an update email with the link in it as well.

Also last month, many of you saw what happens when I spit out a quick news letter addendum and forget to correctly format it in html. The only clickable link many of you tried was the one to unsubscribe rather than the url I wanted you to see. You also saw first hand just how easy it is to unsubscribe and the measures I take to prevent unwanted subscriptions when you resubscribed which is why, despite the enormous size of my subscriber base, I enjoy a ZERO return rate! My sincerest apologies for that mistake. I'll try not to act in haste that way again.

Back to top.

"Eating some crow"

Last month I reported on Trend Micro Internet Security and made the statement that their firewall was something less than a full fledged firewall. In my haste to review the product a firewall configuration option escaped my notice that does allow the user to pick and choose on the fly which applications are given permission to communicate with the outside world. In firewall profiles one need just double click the profile in use, select the Security Level tab and move the slider from Medium security (default) to High. Just fantastic!

My apologies to Trend Micro for reporting that their firewall product was in some way lacking. This firewall product lacks nothing. Great stuff. My overall rating of 4.5 out of 5 just soared to a perfect score of 5 out of 5.

I would like to caution my readers though. Firewalls and anti-virus can be tricky business if you're not careful. Make absolutely certain you run only one brand at a time. One of my Safe-PC clients found this out the hard way when after trying Trend Micro on my recommendation he decided he was still more comfortable with Norton. On his own he tried to reinstall Norton without removing Trend Micro. What he got was a computer that would not connect to the Internet at all and a service call bill from me to come and fix it. Once the files had become intertwined and unusable, uninstalling either product through normal means was impossible. I had to manually edit the registry file (very dangerous for inexperienced users) in order to remove both programs then reinstall his Norton for him from scratch.

A word to the wise: When changing firewalls or anti-virus programs, uninstall the old one first!

Back to top.

Comment on Supreme Court Internet porn ruling

By now I'm sure most of you know of the US Supreme Court decision to block the law preventing commercial web sites from posting adult content on their web sites citing first amendment concerns. One might think that, as an online safety advocate, I would be in disagreement with their decision. In fact, I am not in disagreement with it one bit. It was a good decision but I would have preferred to see it more unanimous than it was. I know through experience that freedom of expression and freedom of choice are not mutually exclusive. SurfSafely.com stands as the perfect example of this concept in practice.

I came across a New York Times article today centered around the whole issue. It's amusing to read of others who think they have "discovered" a new way promote online safety through responsible content publishing. The latest initiative is called Accountable Net, taking responsibility for their content through voluntary labeling. The very notion of being made "accountable" and calling it such is in itself enough to drive most web developers away from the concept. Because of this I would be very surprised to see this initiative take any root at all. Quoted directly from the NYT article:

'If we treat the entry to our computers the way we treat our own front doors and decide who to let in ourselves, we'll have a better online experience,'said Susan Crawford, an assistant professor at Cardozo Law School in New York, and a participant in the project.

Truly profound! How long have I been saying this? The next profound revelation from the same article:

"David Johnson, a Washington lawyer and another partner in the Accountable Net, said achieving such a goal would involve the cooperation of certain Web sites, which would voluntarily label themselves to make filtering them out more feasible. 'My impression is that what they are trying to do is reach paying customers as accurately as possible,'Mr. Johnson said, 'like everyone else in business.' Labeling, he said, could help attract the right customers and avoid inadvertently reaching the wrong ones."

These are our top attorneys and law scholars telling us of the great new ways they have devised to help us stay safe online. Where in the world have these people been? Have they never heard of the PICS (Platform for Internet Content Selection) labeling standard, filters for which are already part of Internet Explorer completely free of charge, and as a free add on filter for other browsers from ICRA? Closer to the truth would be to say that they are attempting to reinvent the wheel in order to draw attention to themselves. Better would be for them to seek out and promote proven working models for what they claim to have devised on their own.

This September SurfSafely.com will be 5 years old and stands as the only model for responsible content publishing that actually works. It has withstood the test of time, resurrecting from the ashes the concept of voluntary self regulation through PICS content labeling that the Web development community can actually see tangible benefits from and embrace without reservation. Some of the greatest support we receive is from the online porn industry who recognizes the need to partner with parents to regulate consumption of their content by children.

I have said it before and will say it again. Recognizing the power of PICS, I firmly believe that adult content can coexist along side general content from the same source and still be considered family friendly as long as it is labeled and as long as parents, rather than being content to have everything in life spoon fed to them on a silver platter, fulfill their obligation as parent and participate in their children's online activities, the same way they should participate in any of their other social activities (a social commentary unto itself which I have neither the room, nor the desire to delve into here).

With your support and that of Web developers worldwide we will continue to set the example for others to follow, blazing new trails others never dreamed possible.


Back to top.

Be informed,
Be involved,
Be well.

Sincerely,
Mark Brasche
Founder and CEO,
SurfSafely.com

Come visit our growing family of web sites and services
=======================================================
http://surfsafely.com/ Our web directory/portal
http://Safe-PC.net/ Our in-home computer services
http://surfsafety.com/ Our online safety community site
=======================================================