The Internet is with little doubt one of the greatest inventions of the 20th Century and coupled with powerful search engines can be described as the best educational tool in the world. The Web thus creates amazing opportunities for human development and communication.
There is, however, a flip side to these opportunities – pornography.
11 – that is the average age of an Internet user’s first exposure to pornography. 28 258 – the number of Internet users viewing pornography every second. Of the top 20 search requests on the Internet, 20 are pornography related. The ease with which children can access rated content is startling.
For this reason it is important that ISPs share the responsibility by
offering packages that meet the connectivity needs of the average family while negating some of the content risks.
XDSL has stepped-up to the challenge with their Family ADSL packages, a first in South Africa. They have rated some 2 million adult and malicious websites that are restricted to package users.
Says Danie Fourie, director at XDSL: “Essentially our Family ADSL packages block adult and malicious sites at the ISP level, so you don’t need to. For the first time you can rest assured that it is that much more difficult for your child to access restricted sites unintentionally or otherwise. You can
also submit sites you think should be blocked allowing you to flag sites you identify as a problem. The package will cost R80 per Gigabyte (GB) – a small price to pay for peace of mind.”
