Microsoft launches child-friendly Internet Explorer 8 for Safer Internet Day
Anyone with children can’t help but be concerned by what their little cherubs are being exposed to on the Internet. Thankfully, there are organizations eager to help prevent kids being harmed on the Web and dealing with the fallout if it does happen. And Microsoft is doing its bit.
Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Web browser has had a tough time of late. Although still the most popular of the many Web browsers available, it’s regarded in most quarters as the least secure and the most likely to lead to malware. What Microsoft needs is some positive publicity, and what better way to get it than by endeavoring to protect children online.
Microsoft is doing its bit by releasing a customized version of Internet Explorer in partnership with the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP).
The customized IE8 includes a toolbar which allows kids to report instances of cyberbullying, sexual approaches, and inappropriate content. The CEOP site can also be searched for online safety advice, and selected sites with information on how to stay safe online are added to the list of Favorites.
Matthew Bishop, a business and marketing officer at Microsoft, told The Telegraph:
It allows people to get information on a whole range of issues. It is a one-stop shop for a family’s online safety needs, and parents do need that reassurance and support.
The child-friendly ‘Click Clever, Click Safe’ Internet Explorer 8 is also available by adding a Web Slice to an existing version of the browser. The effort is part of a wider campaign to ensure kids are safe to use the Web, which is centered by the annual Safer Internet Day. Which in 2010 is today, and the reason for the timing of this release.
CEOP has obviously targeted the most popular browser for this campaign, but with Internet Explorer’s hold on the browser market being squeezed by the likes of Firefox and Chrome, surely a multi-browser approach would have been more sensible. Not that Microsoft is complaining, as this can only help the reputation of IE8.
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February 10th, 2010
It sounds good, but in America, “protecting children” is the new “Communist!” rally cry for oppression.
It works very well, after all, because if you oppose intrusive moves by the government, you must be exploiting children!!
February 26th, 2010
We can’t personally watch our kids everytime they go to the internet, that’s why we need a software to watch over them. There is a software at TUKI (The Ultimate Kids’ Internet) that is free to download and totally fun and safe for kids.