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Child Browsers . There is a great deal of very useful, educational, entertaining and compelling information available via the Internet today. Unfortunately, there is also a great deal of undesirable material on the Internet. It is therefore vital that children or minors are protected from web sites containing such things. This includes sexual content, racism, violence, offensive language and/or imagery, narcotics abuse, or any other materials that contravenes the Public Decency Act, or is liable to cause offence or injury.

Whilst there are a considerable number of technologies available that offer protection from internet content of this type, they are often incomplete in that they rely only on "black-list" technology in order to prevent access to undesirable Web content. The filtering methods used by these technologies also rarely consider the context of the activity on the PC used on the Internet.

For example, many of these technologies cannot make the distinction between a minor searching for information via the Internet on the subject of "Breast Cancer", compared to simply performing a search for information using the single word "Breast".

The Surf Monkey Browser is a child's browser that can be used instead of traditional Browsers like Netscape. With the Surf Monkey Browser, children and minors can visit only those sites on the Web that pass the safety check points, visit monitored chat rooms, and send and receive email only to people on their Friends List.

Browsing the Web Surf Monkey was designed for children from the outset, with parental control and other safety mechanisms built into the heart of the browser:

Surf Monkey Starsites Directory - Children are encouraged to visit these hand-selected Children's sites
Blocking of Inappropriate Sites - Before downloading any web page, the browser makes sure that it's appropriate for Children by checking the URL against a list of blocked sites provided by SurfWatch®. This list is updated on a daily basis. If the site is suitable for Children the browser navigates directly there. If it's on the blocked list then access is blocked. This whole process happens in the blink of an eye and does not affect the performance of the browser.
Blocking of newsgroups - Some Web pages contain links to newsgroups where people can anonymously post messages, images, and other content. The Surf Monkey browser disables the links to these newsgroups in each page that is viewed.
Blocking .exe file downloads - The Surf Monkey browser blocks the download of executable files that may enable children to access inappropriate Internet content or bypass the Surf Monkey parental controls.

Email
Surf Monkey has various safety features implemented in its Children's email program, keeping strangers out and giving parents the ability to screen all incoming and outgoing messages:

Friends List - Your child can freely exchange email messages with people on their "My Friends" list. All other incoming and outgoing messages to 'strangers' are locked until approved by a parent or teacher and adds them to the child's "My Friends" list. Friends lists are controlled through parental passwords. This is a simple and effective way of preventing the child from receiving email from strangers and blocking unwanted junk mail.
Locked mail control panel - Messages can be unblocked on an individual basis or the parent / teacher can access all locked mail from the control panel. Once the message has been read, it can be unlocked, the sender can be added to the Friends list, or it can be deleted.
Email profanity filter - Obvious profanity is blocked out of all incoming messages on the fly.
Web-based email sites - Some Web sites offer free email that is unfiltered and offers no parental control whatsoever. These sites are added to the SurfWatch® list of blocked sites and blocked by Surf Monkey.
Block email entirely - The option of blocking email altogether exists with Surf Monkey.