Surfwatch Software, Inc., has introduced a program that blocks out sexually explicit material on the Internet. Surfwatch 1.0, which runs on Macintosh and Windows computers, allows parents to limit their children’s access to unwholesome Web pages, Usenet newsgroups, and other sites.
“Think of it as an alternative to legislation of the net as a whole,” said a Surfwatch spokesman.
The program sits on top of the TCP/IP stach and filters information at the protocol level. It checks for objectionable words and sites that the company has flagged as obscene.
One drawback of Surfwatch is the inability to configure it to block new sites (other than by subscribing to an update service for $5.95 per month). Nor is there a way to allow access to sites that SurfWatch blocks, other than by turning off the software and restarting the computer (you must enter a password to do this). For more information, send email to [email protected] or visit http://www.surfwatch.com.