A Scottish firm has developed a home software package, which alerts parents to the presence of convicted paedophiles in their area.
Safekeeper has been produced by Glasgow-based technology firm Netintelligence, with New York based Third Gear.
It was awarded best business-to-consumer (B2C) product at the British Computing Society’s Information Management Awards, beating competition from candidates including Royal Bank of Scotland, Nationwide Building Society, and T-Mobile UK.
Safekeeper is only available in the US, where Megan’s Law permits convicted child sex offenders to be publicly identified. A ‘Predator Alert’ feature in its software allows parents to see pictures, records and addresses of offenders within a specified zip code.
Additionally, the desktop-based package allows parents to set detailed parameters for their child’s internet use, including restricting access to harmful websites, monitoring instant messaging, and can even shut down a computer after a given period of time to ensure youngsters don’t spend all day surfing the net. Netintelligence also has a constantly-updated database of 30m-plus files marked as pornographic or inappropriate, with which Safekeeper software constantly communicates to offer maximum protection from internet threats.
What they say
Phil Worms, director of products and marketing at Netintelligence, said: "As children and young people become more adept at making use of the information available on the internet, it’s important that parents are able to actively control what their children are accessing online.
"The Home Secretary John Reid has been reported as calling upon Europe to unite in its battle to confront online threats – we’re serious about contributing towards these efforts, and the technology contained in Safekeeper could allow us to do just that. This award is a valuable recognition of Safekeeper’s innovative approach to child internet safety, and we’re thrilled to have been chosen as winners over such impressive competition."
