1994 - Net Nanny Software International Inc. (NNSII), of Vancouver, B.C., and Bellevue, WA, originated Internet access control filtering in 1994.
This particular software product was created when NNSII's CEO saw a need "to provide parents, teachers, librarians, office administrators and society in general the ability to implement Internet use policies for their end users. These policies are determined and set by the administrators, and the Net Nanny software is used to put the policies into action."
Since 1994, Net Nanny has introduced four versions of its Internet filtering software, emphasizing the security of children through it's ability to block inappropriate sites and safeguarding the information that could be sent from a machine during normal usage or tampering. NNSII introduced Net Nanny 4.0 in January 2001.
Since Net Nanny, Internet filtering and regulation has expanded to protect children from certain commerical groups by creating a group called "Cyberangels." The group helps enforce the Child Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), "which regulates how commercial sites can interact with young surfers." The Child Online Privacy Protection Act was conceived, in part, by such Internet filtering software. Cyberangels take a "systematic look at sites that collect information about children and blowing the whistle on those that do not comply" with FCC regulations (http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/06/16/cyberangels.idg/index.html).
Regulations like the Child Online Privacy Protection Act, which was established in 1998, have begun creating difficulties for school districts who are forced to install web filtering programs such as Net Nanny at the risk of losing grant money. A September 2002 CNN.com article stated that a student reseraching race tracks was blocked from accessing any information because the sites were deemed as "gambling sites" and off limits to students. Some educators, while concerned about Internet safety for children, are now concerned about allowing children access to the sites they do need for projects and papers. Freedom of information has become and issue since the onslaught of such software.
News Links:
http://www.cnn.com/2002/EDUCATION/09/17/school.web.filters.ap/index.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1894561.stm
http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/computing/01/08/net.nanny.idg/index.html
Net Nanny:
http://www.netnanny.com