Safety World Wide Web Foundation

Due to the results of various research activities, Gestweb Spa patented its first version of “ChildKey” technology in 1998. ChildKey was developed for the protection of minors who have access to and surf the Internet online, it acts as a mechanism that is able to supervise the data flow that the minor may have access to by the use of a password mechanism that in essence “ identifies” the user. The filter action occurs by Age Identification that also acts as a notification of their presence on the “ Network”, and thereby controls the contents allowed/disallowed by the parents in their surfing privileges.

The development of this type of technology (access of public “ Tagged Age” online) has created the need for non-safe sites to be notified when visited by a minor. Thereby making the parameters of behavior damaging to the minor’s rights legally prosecutable.

To achieve such an objective and to promote the ChildKey technology, as association was born in April 2000, Brescia, Italy: The Onlus Safely World Wide Web Foundation. The ultimate aim of the foundation is to have implemented, Internet safeguard mechanisms for the protection of the minors who surf it and to sensitize all the site owners/creators (e.g. Content-Providers, Conncection-Providers, Search engines, Webmasters and so forth) to make them responsible by the criteria of responsibilities according to the new information document of “ the presence of minors” with which the ChildKey Technology stands by, and in no way interferes with the liberty of expression.

The Onlus Safety World Wide Web Foundation, together with the Dominique Lapierre Foundation, the International Coordination of Association for Minors Protection, the Center for the Study and Research on Family and the Gestweb Spa. of Brescia (which developed the technical design) promotes and publicizes the ChildKey Technology throughout the world, to be the sole efficient technical instrument for the protection of minors during Internet surfing.

Freedom of expression and protection of minors
Internet and the World Wide Web in general represent a priceless value of evolution in the spreading of information and the many possibilities of free communication on a global scale. Any form of censorship or limitation for the exchanging of information can be considered to be damaging, anti-liberal and counterproductive to the development of this technology.
Considering the above, it has become unfortunately obvious, that the custom and technological revolution introduced by the Web, has created risks that cannot be ignored or underestimated either, such as the diffusion of violent or pornographic contents. Such risks are especially of concern to parents or those persons who are directly or indirectly responsible for the protection of minors such as schools, youth centers, churches, and various other organizations.

All technological system of protection currently
With the aim: “ solving the problem at the source”, the placing of surveillance at the end of the transmission of information, occurs at the moment in which the data arrives at the user. This entails, in many cases, installation of the technology on the home computer, so that the programs dedicated to analyzing the incoming contents, filter the data directly with the use of specific dictionaries included in the software.

There are systems that don’t require the installation of software or hardware by the user available, and their concept of use is generally the same: to make use of the filter, the surfer must first pass through a specialized site. On first inspection this performs the same operations as executed by home installed systems. However, the weak points and major difference of these systems are that they cannot identify minors.
The Foundation has offered to search and develop a solution itself, while guaranteeing the freedom of expression online (in according with the opinion of Supreme Court of United States n° 03-218 dated June 29, 2004) but more importantly keeping in mind the protection of minors. ChildKey Technology believes that not only it is capable of this but also strives to set the full responsibilities of the Web and its site providers in the protection of minors.