IIA 'Family Friendly' internet filter list updated

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 21 October 2009 05:54

Your IT - Home IT

The latest IIA Family Friendly Internet Filter list has been published. Is your chosen product included?

The Internet Industry Association (IIA) publishes a list of tested and approved internet filtering software for parents and others concerned about content that can be accessed from an individual computer.

The testing is performed by Enex TestLab, a spinoff from Melbourne's RMIT University. The accuracy and effectiveness of detecting and blocking inappropriate content is considered, along with age-appropriate management.

Other criteria include ease of use, support, and speed of updates in response to changes to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) blacklist.

Approved products are retested each year to ensure continuing compliance.

"Only filters that meet the strict Enex criteria are recognised by the IIA and the Australian Government. They are then included on an official list of IIA Family Friendly Internet Filters on IIA's website." said John Hilvert, communications director for the IIA.

"This puts a safer internet experience within the grasp of every Australian family and it is a solution to the problem posed by internet pornography that is simple, safe, effective and available right now."

The current list of approved filters is:

Safe Eyes, v 4.3 for PC
Safe Eyes, v 4.3 for Mac
F-secure Protection Service for Consumers v 6.15
Optus Internet Security Suite (enabled by F-Secure)
Puresight PC v 6.1.88
Trend Micro PC-Cillin Internet Security

Four other filters are still being tested:

Symantec Online Family Norton v 4.0
ContentKeeper Web v.123
Optenet PC filter v 9.4.1
My Child My Values Filterpak v 7.7

The only trouble with these lists is that there's no way of telling whether other products failed to meet the criteria, or if they were never submitted for testing.