Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Monday, Mar 31, 2008
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Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Monday, Mar 31, 2008 ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version |
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Interview Info-Tech - Security Share the secret
Minding your step in cyberspace. Paromita Pain There was a time was when parents could heave a sigh of relief if they knew who their teenagers went out with and spoke to on the phone. Today, the Internet has changed dramatically the way young people reach out and connect globally. Project Watchdog, Symantec’s code name for its parental control technology, may offer help to keep a safe eye open. A chat with Basant Rajan, Chief Technology Officer, Symantec India, on teen online habits, lurking dangers, and, of course, Project Watchdog.
Basant Rajan An international study commissioned by Symantec indicates that four out of 10 teenagers say they have experienced some form of cyber bullying. Another 37 per cent report that their parents have no idea what they’re doing online. According to the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), India has 243 million urban Internet users of whom 14 per cent are children aged between 12 and 17, whereas 23 per cent of users are college students aged between 18 and 23. Some older children and adolescents actively seek out sexually explicit material and strangers with a particular interest in them; and sex offenders who target children will exploit these tendencies. Young teens may also be attracted to and lured by online offenders who are close to their age. Further, given the stickiness of a Web site, there is bound to be excessive exposure to advertising and product-related information. One of the major risks to teenagers while online is cyber bullying. It is horrifying for victims who are harassed by e-mail, text message, online chat or even by defamatory Web sites. What kind of research did you do to understand teenage behaviour online? In designing this solution we focused on creating a safe means for children to communicate, socialise and connect online, versus restricting Internet activities. In order to develop this technology, we commissioned a US-specific study to understand teenagers’ online behaviour. We also made children key stakeholders, based on feedback from domain experts and various town hall meetings conducted with children through Symantec’s Family Safety Initiative.
How exactly does your project make a difference? Project Watchdog is an innovative approach to child protection as it narrows the gap between parents and their cyber-savvy kids, to foster open communication about safe online practices. The technology focuses on building a product for the whole family, not just ‘spyware’ that polices children and records logs of online activity for parental review via the Web. The sites monitored consist of user-generated content in the form of videos, music, pictures, contact details, messages, profiles and much more. R&D project: Records logs of online activity for parental review via the Web — Targets social networking sites, IM, and email. It prevents children from exposing personal identifying information such as their phone number or address. It enables time-based computer usage-policies: e.g. ‘Block my child from playing more than five hours/week’ of a particular online game. We’ve built a framework for education and a softer type of enforcement. ‘Strict enforcement’ might block use, while ‘soft enforcement’ might send an alert or let children ask for an extension’. Parents get a report showing all the friends in the IM friends list and how much time was spent chatting, so if a child spends many hours in the week chatting with one person, parents can find out whether that person is a known friend or someone mysterious. At no point does the child/teenager not know this is happening. There’s an icon at the bottom of the screen which is seen running and they can click on it to read the rules, so they know what features are on. Ultimately, online safety is a collaboration between the family and the teen and there is no need to keep it a secret. More Stories on : Interview | Security
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