TORONTO - A Canadian-developed Internet software program is putting kids' online safety literally at their fingertips by using their one-of-a-kind prints as their personal ID prior to accessing the web.
It's among several safety components featured in Dolphin Secure, which launched Tuesday, aimed at providing children with a secure Internet experience and parents with a little peace of mind.
Rather than run the risk of keying in a user password that could be stolen, altered or simply forgotten, kids enter their username and scan their fingerprint instead which matches up with a unique number inside Dolphin Secure's system.
Each child then has access to a personal, customizable home page, similar to social networking sites like Facebook or MySpace, and can chat with other kids registered with the service.
However, unlike other sites where individuals can be contacted by potential unknowns, parents are allowed to set parameters determining who their children can speak to, as well as control which websites they visit.
"Kids need to be able to use the Internet," said Bill O'Dowd, CEO of Dolphin Digital Media at a media event. "So the only question for us as the adults is how do we try and keep kids safe as they're learning to use the Internet.
"Our approach is (to) try and build a social community for kids on the Internet where we can have a realization that the people on there are the kids."
The company offers two levels of service. Dolphin Basic, which costs around US$3.75 per child per month, allows parents to set guidelines for Internet use, but does not feature the fingerprint option offered in the Dolphin Secure package at US$5 per child per month, where they can build profiles and reach out to friends.
WiredKids.org, a website dedicated to keeping kids' safe online, has been hired to give guidelines and monitor appropriate websites kids can visit. But O'Dowd said it's up to parents to determine if they want more sites added on the list or even removed.
Once a child's inside the system and it's not open to adults to create profiles, kids do have some measure of privacy.
However, in the parent dashboard, which adults access with their own login, they can see where children are going and who their friends are. If parents make a request, the company will disclose what kids have been doing online.
If parents and kids share a computer and adults want to surf freely, they key their username and password into the parent login which disables Dolphin Secure for that session.
There is also a built-in "report abuse" function where, if children see something they deem offensive like a photo or dialogue, they can mouse over it, right-click and a box pops up for them to write in their concerns.
"We're building a community that not only can we be aggressive in monitoring and making it as protective as possible, but our members can," said O'Dowd.
"It allows (us) to keep refreshing, in case there is a website out there that today is safe for kids and tomorrow sells out to a pornography company."
Jane Tallim, co-executive director of Media Awareness Network, a national non-profit centre for media literacy, said there is certainly a role for such Internet protection programs, especially for young children, as a complementary tool to parental supervision and involvement. However, the real challenge for parents is addressing young people and web use as they age.
"Once kids hit adolescence, so age 11 and up, I think you really do have to start realizing that in many cases, much of this filtering software can lend parents a false sense of security," she said.
Tallim said it's important parents engage in ongoing conversations with their children about Internet use from an early age.
"In the case of young children, I think as parents you want to ensure they don't encounter things that might be frightening or age-inappropriate that they're not actively looking for. But our research indicates that kids are curious, and kids are going to be going online looking for things," she said.
"If you (install) filtering software, at the end of the day, your child can go to anyone else's computer if they really want to access materials, so it's really more important that we develop critical thinking skills for young people so that they can contextualize, understand and assess what they encounter when they're online."
