Internet Filters: Finding the best!
Internet Filters
Accountability vs. Protection with Accountability
Covenant Eyes / X3 vs. Net Nanny v. 5.5
Recently I was asked to be an accountability partner for someone who was putting "Covenant Eyes" on their computer. I declined their offer because these types of programs fall significantly short in protecting the client, their wife and their family from being exposed to porn.
The programs I have trouble with are ... "Covenant Eyes" and "X3 Watch" from the XXX Church. The short comings of these programs are that …
1) They fail to protect the client or their family from porn. These programs do not stop porn from being viewed. They only report that porn was viewed. Since the porn industry is determined to push porn into every home we need to install safe guards that will protect ourselves and our family members from these intruders.
2) They provide accountability AFTER the client has medicated and has acted out! By then it is too late ... the client has gotten their ‘fix’ in spite of knowing that there will be consequences.
3) They often the report the sexual behaviors weeks after the event or never at all. In fact, X3 from XXX Church states that they only send out a report once every two weeks! This allows the client to have a two week binge before anyone is ever notified of their sexual behaviors. Under this kind of program the client often feels that they can 'prepare for the worse' by not being immediately held accountable for their actions. This only encourages them to act out and relapse while hoping that the accountability partner will either miss the accountability report or that they will discount it because the event was two weeks old.
4) These programs often send the accountability partner the URL addresses for the questionable sites. This then requires the accountability partner to open up and search through the URL site(s) to see if it contains any questionable material. This is very time consuming and dangerous for the accountability partner because of the possibilities of being exposed to porn.
5) Lastly, it doesn’t take a “rocket scientist” to know that there are numerous ways to bypass these programs so that the accountability partner isn't fully aware of the client's attempts to act out. Often when the program suspects that the client is trying to bypass the system they state that the … "Report was not sent when expected. This may or may not be due to the client's attempt to bypass the system.” Because of this unclear message the client has the potential to fly under the radar while looking for loop holes and/or bypassing the system.
In light of this information, it is my perspective that accountability programs like "Covenant Eyes" and "X3" from XXX Church are not reliable, they give a false sense of security, and do not protect the client, the Bride, the family or the accountability partner from being exposed to porn. It is my belief that if a client wants to protect himself and those he loves from those who would "kill, steal and destroy" then he needs to put in a system that will lock out places when the enemy might enter. This includes the computer! It is essential that client chooses a strong Internet Filter that will protect himself and his family.
Over the years I have suggested clients to use "Content Protect" (which now also owns “Net Nanny 5.5”) as their Internet Filter on their computers. This has been a great choice because Content Protect / Net Nanny 5.5 protects the client with ...
1) A with a broad spectrum filter. This blocks large areas porn content
2) A specific URL site filter. This blocks specific sites and parts of specific sites.
3) A “Contextual Analysis" filter. This reads both the content and the pictures of a site to see if they contain any offensive material. This means it does not solely rely on a list of URL addresses, that are often outdated, for accountability.
4) A reporting system that can be set to daily, weekly or monthly reports. These reports to accountability partners and/or the program administrator reports both attempts to access porn that were blocked but also attempts to bypass the system. In addition the reports will allow the client to petition the administrator to over ride a blocked site so that can access appropriate information from a non porn site that has been flagged
5) An administrator to oversee the use of the program. The use of an outside administrator is crucial since it helps to take the pressure off family members from acting as the accountability partner or the codependent/controlling parent. The role and responsibility of the administrator is very simple, they ...
A) Oversee the program. Setting up accounts for each member of the family. Customizing each account to their specific needs for protection. This is extremely easy - it just requires the checking of boxes within the program.
B) Are the "Keepers of the Passwords" for the program and the individual accounts. The administrator has the master password which allows changes to the over all program and to the individual accounts. Master Passwords should be words not found in a dictionary, should include UPPER and lower case letters, numbers, at least one symbol ...!@#$%^&*+{}<>?~ and is hopefully at least 6 characters long. All Master Passwords need to be kept in a secure place.
C) Maintain the Site. Once the account is set up on each computer and the initial passwords are given to the administrator then the administrator is able to change the master password (so that only they know it) and is able administrate the entire program and it's individual accounts from a remote location - usually their own home.
Recently, however, I became concerned when I discovered some Internet sites that were written to bypass certain Internet filters. The sites are very detailed and describe how hackers try to break through the filters. Although not mentioned in these bypass sites I wrote to Content Protect with my concerns and they wrote back with the following letter....
Dear Ross Gunn III,
I would like to address a couple of your concerns immediately, however. As you may be aware, ContentWatch recently purchased Net Nanny, and we have just released Net Nanny 5.5, which is a completely new technology refresh for the Net Nanny product. As a result, all of the hacks and bypass techniques that are published on the Internet for Net Nanny no longer apply to the Net Nanny product. Anyone who is running Net Nanny 5.5 or later will find the suggestions from the URLs below useless. Those URLs also do not describe successful bypass techniques for Content Watch products. This is because the technology is now based on what used to be called ContentProtect Home. Our filter is built on a Dynamic Contextual Analysis engine, which analyzes the content of each page as it is requested by a browser. This completely defeats the anonymous proxy surfing method which was used to bypass filters like the prior versions of Net Nanny. These anonymous proxies hide the URL, which prior versions of Net Nanny, as well as most of the competing products, use to determine whether to block or allow a page. Since Net Nanny 5.5 no longer relies on knowing the URL, but rather scans the content of the page in real-time, these anonymous proxy sites will still be filtered correctly. For now, please know that the majority of the holes that you mention below are closed already with Net Nanny 5.5. As a result of our acquisition of the Net Nanny brand and product line, we now have two separate product lines: Net Nanny for the home user and ContentProtect for the business/professional user. As you mention below, Net Nanny is a good name for a home product, but not for the business world. If your customers don't like the name Net Nanny, or if they have several computers in the home and want a more business-like application, they may purchase ContentProtect Professional. This is the same underlying technology, and provides the same level of protection, but is built for a business usage model rather than a home consumer. Finally, we are considering a Mac OS X version of Net Nanny ContentProtect. I hope to have some news on that in the near future.
Thank you, and please continue to provide your thoughts and suggestions as we work to improve our product.
Ken Knapton
VP of Engineering | www.ContentWatch.com | KKnapton@ContentWatch.com | 801.977.7772 )
In light of this new information I am now suggesting that ...
Individual clients / homes use Net Nanny version 5.5
Businesses and home with multiple computers use ContentProtect Professional.
If you wish to compare the Top Ten Internet Filters for 2007 go to...
http://internet-filter-review.toptenreviews.com/
Note: This site probably has not been updated since Content Protect purchased Net Nanny. However, since that purchase it should be noted that both Content Protect and Net Nanny 5.5 have updated their software, addressed their past problems with hackers and both currently use a "object analysis filter ".
If you wish to purchase Net Nanny 5.5 go to ... http://www.netnanny.com/account/nn_renew
If you wish to purchase ContentProtect Professional go to ... http://www.contentwatch.com/products/contentprotect_pro.php
I hope that this has been helpful to you.
Ross Gunn III
Skyview Counseling LLC
Office / Cell: (360) 991-7700
National Toll Free: 1(866) 991-7705
Email: Help@SkyviewCounseling.com
Website: http://SkyviewCounseling.com
Blog: http://SkyviewCounseling.blogspot.com
Office: 3204 NE 58th St. Vancouver, WA 98663
