John Carosella On K9 Web Protection And Other Resources
Last week I started my three-part series with my interview of John Carosella of Blue Coat Systems. This third and final installment revolves around K9 Web Protection, the parental control service that helps protect families and especially their children while on the Web. Also included are some resources John recommends.
FWW: As you know, I’ve written a review of K9 Web Protection here before. In fact, since its posting last September, it continues to receive comments from readers. Tell us how that product has evolved and where it’s headed.
John: I have to say, I’ve never been associated with a product like K9 before. We get love letters. We get messages from adults who tell us we’ve saved their marriages, their lives (even their souls!). It’s very gratifying. And we get our share of hate-mail from kids (which we take as a sign that we’re doing our job…)
In the beginning of this whole process, we decided to create K9 as solution for the home because we saw how powerful our commercial solution was, and, as parents, we’re all sitting around the table saying things like, “Geez, I want that for MY house…!”
There are a variety of reasons we’ve decided to make K9 free for families — good ones. But one unfortunate reason is that there really isn’t a strong enough market to create, maintain, and sell a high-quality filtering solution for the home. It simply can’t pay for itself.
So, we continue to invest in making K9 better and more available as a community service – but because it doesn’t pay for itself, there are limits on what we can spend in development. And of course we continue to invest in the back-end filtering functionality of K9 (known as Blue Coat Web Filter). The Internet is constantly evolving and we have to hustle to keep up.
Our most recent release of K9 was primarily to achieve compatibility with Windows Vista. Our next release will be to deliver K9 for the Mac. OS.X Leopard is arriving at roughly the same time. We want to be ready. Anybody out there who is technically savvy, and is looking for K9 on the Mac, Blue Coat needs YOU to join our Beta program! We’re also moving ahead working away on the key technologies for Chat and Peer-to-Peer controls within the year so stay tuned.
FWW: As a complement to using a web filter such as K9, what other strategies would you recommend to individuals and families to protect themselves online?
John: For now, I suggest folks find a high-quality Chat/IM control product and a good anti-spam solution as additional tools.
Take a look at some of the back-issues of TheInternetParent blog for some different perspectives on how the Internet is impacting our ability to parent.
And engage your kids by LISTENING to them. What is it that they get out of their “crazy” Internet-driven lifestyle? If you don’t understand what they’re experiencing, you can’t expect them to follow your advice.
FWW: What are some online resources that you look to for Web safety news and tips. Why?
John: For parents of younger kids, I like IKeepSafe.org. For those with older kids, I like Netsmartz and iSAFE. These sites have useful materials for parents, and helpful tools to engage kids. In particular, I encourage your readers to check out the cyberbullying videos at NetSmartz, under their Real-Life Stories.
I also like Children’s Way, of course, for the reasons I’ve identified earlier.
I do have one frustration, though – and I’m sure your readers do too. There are SO MANY organizations out there trying to help us get educated, that I’m often not sure where to turn. I wish we could collect all the efforts and energies of all those passionate people into one coordinated push. I feel like as a community, we could do more if we worked together. 
This is a COMMUNITY issue, and it requires community action. Emphasis on the real, deep, and honest meaning of the word community.
This concludes my interview with John Carosella. I want to thank him for his time, his effort into making the Web a safer place, and his great feedback.
[tags]web safety,parenting,family[/tags]
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[...] Web. Also included are some resources John recommends. FWW: As you know, I’ve written [...]John Carosella On K9 Web Protection And Other Resources2007-09-03 07:07:42Last week I started my three-part series with my interview of John Carosella of [...]