Conventional Web Filtering Tools For Schools Miss The Fastest-Growing Source Of Adult Content, Says PureSight

Published 19th October 2006

19 October, 2006 – Conventional Internet filtering tools for schools still leave pupils and students dangerously exposed to a range of adult content, according to filtering specialist PureSight.

The company says that conventional tools, which use large databases of web addresses for websites containing pornography and other inappropriate material, simply cannot keep pace with the unprecedented growth in adult content. The prolific growth in sites of a pornographic nature means they constantly appear on the Internet far faster than they can be found, classified and added to the databases of filtering tools.

Data from website InternetFilterReview* states that there are nearly 400 million pornographic web pages, but this does not account for the rapid rise in amateur pornography and adult content on peer-to-peer sites, file hosting services or on non-commercial sites which may only be online for a short time. It is estimated that up to 20,000 such non-commercial sites may appear on the Internet every day.

Most Internet filtering tools have databases with up to 15 million web addresses in total, and may not be updated regularly enough to filter rapidly- emerging content.

Furthermore, more Internet-savvy children can also get around conventional, database-driven filtering solutions by using Internet proxies, which act as intermediaries in requesting inappropriate sites and content. Web sites like www.freeproxy.ru enable users to download free applications that allow them to work around filtering solutions.

The company says that active content recognition, which does not rely on databases of web addresses, is the only effective way to manage access to fast-changing content.

PureSight’s Active Content Recognition (ACR) technology gives real time, dynamic web filtering which does not rely on a large static URL database in order to detect prolific categories such as pornography, gambling and dating, ensuring a fast response to rapidly changing mobile content.

ACR reads Internet content on the fly, analysing many aspects of the content to establish its type according to preset parameters, and permits or blocks access to the site according to established policies.

Additional benefits include industry-standard content identification tagging -such as ICRA and SafeSurf – for enhanced filtering, and the solution’s multilingual filtering capabilities, which make it suitable for multi-national and international requirements.

US-based Galax City Public Schools deployed PureSight’s Internet content filtering solution to ensure a safe Internet experience for students, and to comply with state and federal regulations on filtering.

The Galax board evaluated a number of leading filtering solutions and found the database approach to be inadequate, opting instead for PureSight’s dynamic and intelligent technology as a means of ensuring safe and secure Internet access within the education sector.

Ouri Azoulay, PureSight General Manager said, “Filtering tools that rely only on databases cannot keep pace with the growth or rate of change of adult sites – which leaves both the children and schools dangerously exposed. Real-time filtering enables web pages containing pornography, gambling or dating to be analysed, assessed and blocked according to the school’s policies, irrespective of the web address.

“This approach is the only way for schools to be absolutely certain that they are safeguarding pupils against inappropriate Web content, helping them to fulfil their duty of care, whilst also ensuring pupils are still able to make the most of the Internet as a valuable educational tool.”