Online surfing made safer for kids by new Edmonton-based software company

A group of technical staff from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology and a former corporate trainer have teamed up to distribute new software and services designed to protect children online. Edmonton-based Kidzmatter.com is giving away a new browser that child-proofs the web for parents concerned about pornography, hate and violence in cyberspace. While the software is free, company founder and CEO Karen Kelly says an innovative approach to corporate advertising suitable for children should develop into a promising revenue stream. Founded this year in January, the privately funded company has grown to 45 employees developing a new online portal, search engine and browser which use human reviewers to vet web sites suitable for an audience aged one to 12 years old. The software is free, and limits children to a database of approved sites. Kidzmatter’s CTO, Bruce Specht, says the job of reviewing web content has been done partly by volunteers, and partly by an undisclosed company under contract. Other services on the web site include reference tools, online contests, sports information, educational tutorials and streaming media on the Windows Media Player platform. Specht says the choice of streaming technology was deliberate. Other platforms such as Real and QuickTime might involve downloading plug-ins from outside the kids’ site. The object, he adds, is to avoid putting kids at risk of spam and identification by going off-site and providing their email address for additional software. Filtering software currently on the market is also designed to protect kids, but Specht points out that there’s no guarantee it will catch every site containing inappropriate content. As examples, Specht cites Barbie.com and Whitehouse.com – infamous examples of innocuous sounding names for pornography sites. "No filter in the world was going to catch that," he says. "If the meta tags aren’t there, then bang, your child’s been exposed…. A filter blocks what it can, but it’s only a mechanical reproduction. We have eyes that look at it." Recently, several high-profile kids’ sites, including Disney Corp, have pulled the plug on several similar sites and chat rooms, citing concern over new legislation that severely restricts the amount of information that can be collected or divulged regarding children’s identities. The U.S. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) passed this summer has prompted several companies to re-consider providing services for children online. That doesn’t appear to be a problem with the Kidzmatter site. Even chat rooms are designed to prevent the identification of children by limiting the use of nicknames to a choice of constantly changing handles. The system architecture also prevents reverse lookups. As well, Kelly says the company will work as closely as possible with COPPA officials. "As soon as we noticed what they were doing, we jumped on it…. We want to make sure that we’re in line with all the standards they put forward – if not exceed those." The site won’t commission original content in the near term, but hopes to eventually convince children’s artists to submit videos and other material, as they would for adult and teen networks such as MuchMusic. The company is collecting content from around the world, trying to avoid any geographic focus or bias. It plans to concentrate in North America first, eventually expanding to Europe, Asia, the South Pacific and South America. The site’s main revenue stream is banner ads, but unlike those featured on other web sites, Kelly says they’re working with corporations to change how they advertise to children. Rather than click-to-buy ads, Kidzmatter is selling space under a program called Building Blocks which displays positive messages such as "Read a Book", "Be a Good Sport" and "Stay in School." Smaller print identifies the corporate sponsor. "It doesn’t eliminate anyone from getting involved in sending out a positive message to kids."

Online surfing made safer for kids by new Edmonton-based software company

News | 10/18/2000 4:00 am EDT

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