Mobile Internet, The: Advanced content filtering system for mobile operators launches

PureSight releases first comprehensive Internet content filtering solution for mobile systems

Responding to burgeoning worldwide growth in Internet access via mobile telephones and wireless devices, software developer PureSight Inc. took the wraps off its new PureSight Internet content filtering system for mobile systems operators. The system allows wireless providers to offer advanced Internet content filtering for handsets, personal data assistants, and other devices accessing the Internet via Wireless Access Protocol (WAP).

According to wireless industry experts, nearly 1 billion people worldwide have access to the Internet via their wireless device, including nearly 70 percent of Europeans between the ages of 15 and 18. The pervasiveness of the Internet and the volume of age-inappropriate content has led governments from Japan to the United Kingdom to issue mandates calling for greater limits on the nature of Internet material available to minors.

"The largest growth segment of Internet use is among teenagers with mobile handsets," said Cleve Adams, President and CEO of PureSight. "New mobile technologies and wireless phones that offer enhanced text, video and other forms of rich media make Internet content more accessible than ever. Unfortunately, it makes inappropriate content more accessible than ever as well."

Adams noted that while Internet content filtering is widely available in standard personal computer and Internet Service Provider environments, it is almost non-existent in mobile devices. It is a situation that has led numerous governments, including Japan, Australia, and the United Kingdom, among others, to launch initiatives designed to prevent under-aged users from gaining access to inappropriate or illegal materials via their wireless handsets.

PureSight's mobile Internet content filtering uses a multi-layered strategy for identifying the nature of Internet content streaming to wireless devices.

The company's Active Content Recognition (ACR) technology reads Internet content on the fly and permits or blocks it according to an established policy. Beyond ACR the PureSight system also passes the requests through additional filters including industry-standard content identification tags and a database of known inappropriate web addresses.

The end result is the delivery of Internet content safely filtered for a wide variety of materials including adult content, gambling, hate, drugs, weapons, and violence, as well as numerous others.

"The system is highly accurate and offers better performance than traditional filtering systems do in a mobile environment," Adams said. "Puresight's ACR technology gives the system a very small footprint within the mobile network; far smaller and less intrusive than traditional systems that require daily maintenance and updates."

The product also provides multilingual filtering capabilities, making it suitable for multinational and international requirements.

For more information, visit www.puresight.com