Frequently Asked Questions About CYBERsitter

Q. Does CYBERsitter support ratings systems?

A. Yes, we support all ratings systems including SafeSurf, RSACi, and all other PICS compliant rating services, as well as several lesser known ratings systems.

Q. If I purchase CYBERsitter, will I have to pay an extra fee to update the bad site list?

A. No, you will never pay an extra fee for filter file updates. They are always free and you can update as often as you wish.

Q. There are so many new web sites added each day. How can CYBERsitter block objectionable material from these new sites?

A. Unlike other products in this category, CYBERsitter uses a state of the art, context sensitive phrase filtering "engine" to identify objectionable web sites. In our tests, we determined that we can block over 90% of objectionable material with out even knowing where it is. While we do block many sites by name, the vast majority are blocked by intelligent pattern recognition.

Q. I heard that CYBERsitter has a hidden political agenda. If it does, what is it?

A. There have been a few articles that criticize CYBERsitter for some of the sites it filters. Naturally, when someone disagrees with your policies, they immediately assume that you have some political agenda. CYBERsitter blocks sites that meet a pre-defined criteria. Every site we block meets this criteria without exception. CYBERsitter has no agenda of any kind, unless you consider protection of children a hidden agenda.

Q. Is Solid Oak Software or CYBERsitter affiliated with any group or organization?

A. Solid Oak Software is a privately held California corporation. All major stockholders are also full time employees. CYBERsitter is a wholly owned product of Solid Oak Software. Aside from professional memberships in organizations such as the Software Publishers Association, Solid Oak Software maintains no affiliation with any group or organization of any kind, and no member of any group or organization sits on any board or advisory group of Solid Oak Software. Decisions on blocking policies are made by employees of Solid Oak Software, Inc.

Q. I heard that blocking programs filter out a lot of good sites. Is that true?

A. A straight answer is yes, sometimes. While we do not intentionally try to filter out good (or unobjectionable) sites, they sometimes trigger filtering mechanisms. This is true with all filtering software. You need to remember that there are literally millions of web pages out there and filtering software cannot read the mind of the user. While it would be technically possible to filter each objectionable page individually, it would take a staff of several hundred people to monitor the vast number of www pages. Additionally, the filter file would be many megabytes in size and it would probably take several minutes to access each page. CYBERsitter, as well as other filtering products, must try to be as effective as possible while not degrading your systems performance. We do our best to fix these problems when we learn of them.

Q. What if I do not agree with some of the sites you block?

A. CYBERsitter 97 now has the ability to define the types of sites you want to block. Filter files are automatically maintained for only those categories you select. If you feel that a site is blocked that shouldn't be, please contact cyblist@solidoak.com and report the problem. We do make mistakes, and as soon as we know about it, we can make corrections.

Q. What about bad objectionable material from other countries?

A. CYBERsitters filter file blocks sites no matter what country they are located in. Additionally, we are the first product that has the ability to integrate additional, language specific phrase definitions into their product. This means we can block phrases in complicated languages such as Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Hebrew, Russian, as well as many others.

Q. What about third party filter files?

A. CYBERsitter 97 is the only product to support third party filter files. Any qualified organization can maintain their own filter files for CYBERsitter. These files can be used as either "add-ins" or total replacements for the default CYBERsitter filter files. As new files become available, current users of CYBERsitter 97 will see their descriptions "appear" in the programs options setup area. The user can simply check the box next to the filter name and it will be maintained for them automatically.

Q. Will filtering products slow down my computer?

A. CYBERsitter won't. We use the smallest filter file of any popular filtering product by a huge factor, plus we are more effective. Each time you request a web page, your filtering product has to check it against a list of what's not allowed. The larger the file, the longer it takes and the more memory you will take away from other important Windows tasks. By use of our next generation content recognition system we can achieve better blocking effectiveness with a filter file that's up to 95% smaller than those from our competitors. Plus there is no speed degradation at all.