Net regulation

In Singapore, the Singapore Broadcasting Authority ( SBA) is responsible for regulating the Internet. They have come up with many ideas as to what concerned parents could do to protect their children from the dangers on the net.

A subsidiary within the SBA is the Parent’s Advisory Group for the Internet (PAGI). The parent’s advisory group partners the Internet industry and government agencies to promote safe surfing, and educate fellow parents about online safety. It advises and gives feedback to the Internet industry on tools such as the Family Access Networks, recommend safe and fun sites for children, and help parents who may not be familiar with the Internet to supervise their children's use of it. The group also keeps up with developments in protecting children online and educating children on safety on the Internet.

Some of the tools available to help parents are parental control software such as Cyber Patrol, where you can limit the amount of time your kids spend on the Web (or playing certain games) or the time of day they can access it. Other software include SurfWatch, Cybersitter, Net Shepherd, Net Nanny and Net-Rated. Basically, these packages filter or block inappropriate Web content and offer varying levels of customisability. The ISPs in Singapore also offer Family Access Networks, i.e. the scheme that Pacific Net has come up with, as an optional service for subscribers. Such services help empower parents as they guide their children on the use of the Internet by filtering out pornographic sites.

 Foolproof blocking of Web sites based on level of violence, nudity, profanity and other categories can only happen if the sites are rated by someone and tagged electronically so parental control software can read the rating and give a thumbs-up or -down based on the settings parents choose. Many efforts are under way that ask Webmasters to rate their own sites based on a set of criteria outlined by organisations such as RSACi (Recreational Software Advisory Council. 

The RSACi system managed by Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA) provides consumers with information about the level of sex, nudity, violence, offensive language (vulgar or hate-motivated) in Web sites.RSACi is recognised as a leading system in its US home and has been widely adopted outside of the US, particularly in Europe. Independent evaluations by, eg, the Internet Watch Foundation in the UK and by the Bertelsmann Foundation (for the Carl Bertelsmann prize in 1998) have identified it as the best system available.

RSACi is a Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS)-based, content-labelling system which is open, transparent to users and free for both content providers and parents alike. Over 100,000 sites have rated with RSACi world-wide, including a great number of the top 100 sites which account for 80% of the web’s traffic. It has a comprehensive guideline as to its requirements for what is considered as safe for children's consumption.