THE information highway can present problems for parents. For instance, their children may discover the electronic turn-offs and slip roads to violent, pornographic or unsuitable adult material. Net Nanny is there to steer children to safety.
Net Nanny is a piece of software sold here by Internet service provider Indigo. It enables adults to stop children accessing inappropriate material. When installed, it lists a range of sites that are blocked out. The parent may add others. The software may even watch for key words or phrases, so sites containing those words are off limits. Adults may by-pass Net Nanny to see the excluded bits by using a personal code to override the software.
The product can also stop the children using parents' credit card numbers to go shopping on the net and can stop them exchanging personal information such as names and addresses.
Parents, according to Indigo's chief executive, Mr Shay Moran, will be able to control Internet access and the way children use computers. They can be prevented from using certain CDs and parents will be able to track their Internet activity. The software can even close down a system when children have been on-line too long.
About 30,000 families and almost 100,000 children use the Internet in Ireland, Indigo says. Mr Moran was aware that the Internet could be abused and said the company was anxious to support any effort to combat such abuse.
Net Nanny has one facility that even those not in charge of children might appreciate. Given the amount of rubbish a browser must trawl through to find a gem, Net Nanny lets anyone blot out anything, not just pornography and violence, so sites that persistently appear during a particular search can also be shut off.
Net Nanny is available in computer shops and other outlets and costs £39.95. The Mac version is not on sale yet.