Blue Coat protects families

Secure content and application vendor Blue Coat Systems’ K9 Web Protection product has been accredited as an Internet Industry Association (IIA) Family Friendly Filter, effective for all age ranges.

Accreditation by the IIA enables K9 Web Protection to be listed as one of the recommended filtering solutions available through Australian ISPs. K9 Web Protection enables parents to block and manage unwanted Web content such as pornography, violence, and hate speech.

K9 is offered through the Blue Coat Community Outreach Program (www.k9webprotection.com), which provides materials and resources to educate this first generation of Internet parents about the impact of the Internet on children and on parenting strategies.

John Carosella, vice president of content control for Blue Coat Systems said the certification of K9 Web Protection to the IIA Family Friendly list makes it easier for Blue Coat to help Australian families keep their children safe on the Internet.

“Parents must treat the Internet as a public place where they proactively supervise and protect their children. By becoming involved in their children’s Internet use, parents are protecting them in one of the most effective ways possible.”

Designed for parents, K9 Web Protection implements the same enterprise-class Web filtering technology used by Blue Coat’s enterprise and government customers worldwide, said Carosella.

K9 Web Protection divides the Internet into 60 categories, relying on Blue Coat’s commercial filtering service that processes 80 million Web site rating requests per day. Parents can configure the software to block or allow specific categories such as pornography, spyware, and adult/mature content, and also block access to the web at selected times of day—after bedtime, for example, he said.

The IIA provides policy input to government and advocacy on a range of business and regulatory issues to promote laws and initiatives which enhance access, equity, reliability, and growth of the Internet within Australia.

The IIA identifies three age range classes: Class 1 (15 years and over), Class 2 (10-15 years), and Class 3 (children under 10 years). Test results are based on effectiveness, ease of installation, ease of use, configurability, and availability of local support. The accreditation of IIA Family Friendly Filters is designed to enable Australian ISPs to recommend Internet software filters that comply with IIA standards.