Internet, as we know it today, has become an indispensable and very valuable source of information. Millions of people make use of the Internet for work, education and/or personal reasons. However, beside all this usefulness, the Internet is also full of questionable and reprehensible material. Caylix, with its filtering and protection services, focuses on those users who wish to use the Internet in a responsible manner and those who do not wish to be confronted by these questionable and reprehensible sites.
Caylix distances itself from all the other filters in the market by means of its unique filtering service. This service is setup as a three-part system. The three components are the Whitelist (Caylix Safe), the Blacklist (Denied Sites) and thirdly, the Content Filter. Subscribers to Caylix can choose the level of filtering they desire. Caylix also provides each user with a completely secure fire-walled connection and blocks out chat lines/programs.
Note: The following is a translation of the Dutch version with some minor changes.
The Whitelist consists of a list of sites that are inclusive, meaning that only the sites on this list will be accessible by the subscriber to this service. This list is generated by user requests and then each request is handled and approved by our filtering partner, Kliksafe. The criterion that is used to evaluate new inclusions is based on the Ten Commandments and the current lifestyle standards dictated by the Reformed denominations to which this filter mainly caters to. The screening of sites and web pages is done by a group of Kliksafe (Caylix) users which continually support this endeavour.
Following is a summarized list of the overriding criteria used to screen the Whitelist sites.
Sites that are not permitted
- Sites that have a "recruiting" agenda for non-Christian religions
- Sites that contain objective information about other religions will be allowed through
- Sites that have images or portrayals of God
- Sites with profanity, misuse of God's name and idolatry
- Sites that objectively promote the defiling of the Lord's Day (Sunday)
- Sites that have an online store or other such information available on Sunday will be allowed through
- Sites that promote the undermining of authority in relation to parents and others who may be in authority
- Sites that allow and/or promote hate, discrimination, racism, violence, suicide, euthanasia and other unsafe habits such as smoking, alcohol and drug use
- Sites that contain objective information about the above topics will be permitted
- Sites with erotic oriented material
- Sites that promote un-Biblical unions and alternative lifestyles
- Sites that teach and/or promote robbery, fraud and tax evasion
- Sites with mockery, swearing, vulgar and rough language
- Sites that promote greed, lotteries and gambling
In relation to lifestyle issues the following criteria applies:
- Radio/TV
- Sites from public channels and commercial senders are not permitted.
- Video/Film
- Sites where DVD's, video's and films or information regarding them are not permitted.
- Music
- Majority of sites are blocked, but sites that promote classical music are permitted
- News and Media
- With exception of the Reformed-based media/news sites, newspapers and journals are not permitted. However, some local newspapers and trade journals with a good reputation are allowed.
- Sport
- Sites that are based on top-class sports (Professional) or sites that nurture this type of culture are not permitted. Sites with objective information about sports and other activities are permitted.
- Forums/Chat Lines/Weblogs/Guestbooks
- These are not permitted strictly because of the inability to control the content that is in these types of sites. Exceptions to this rule are forums that are moderated by a person from a Reformed background such as the Chat Program from Refoweb.
The Blacklist is the opposite of the Whitelist. With Blacklisting all the sites on the Internet are accessible except for those sites that have been placed in this Blacklist. This is also called exclusion filtering. The blocked sites are blocked by category. The following categories are blocked by Caylix/Kliksafe:
- Adult/Tasteless (18+)
- Aggression/Violence
- Alternative Lifestyles
- Audio/Video
- Chat
- Dating
- Diallers/Spyware
- Drugs
- Entertainment
- Games
- Gambling
- Hacking/Cracking/Illegal Software/Warez
- Open Proxies/Redirectors
- Pornography (18+)
- Radio/TV
- Sport
- Virus Infected Domains
When compiling this Blacklist, which for the most part is done completely automatic, the same criteria that is used for the Whitelist applies. Caylix/Kliksafe strives to block everything that does not coincided with the criteria set forth in the Whitelist. Due to the magnitude of the sites and the number of sites that are added to the Internet each day, it is impossible to compile a completely perfect Blacklist. Caylix/Kliksafe attempts to block unwarranted material to a 95% accuracy scale. The priority then of course lies in the blocking of erotic and pornographic material, which tends to have a much more visible, penetrating and lasting impact than the majority of the other categories.
Complimenting the Blacklist, Caylix also employs its Content Filter. The instant that a Caylix subscriber requests a website, the content filter begins scanning the material on the requested site and using words and word phrases the context of the site is evaluated. The word "sex", for example, has a very different meaning on a health information site as opposed to a pornographic site. Words therefore get a numerical value attached to them. The overall sum of all the word values are added up and it is then compared to the predefined limit. If the limit is exceed the site is blocked and if it is not exceeded the site is permitted. Due the dynamic nature of some sites it can happen that a site gets blocked that should not be blocked or even that a certain site is blocked on some days and not on others. If such a situation occurs and the site has a good reputation, Caylix/Kliksafe can set this site to be always permitted.
Caylix, by means of the Blacklist and Content Filter, focuses on blocking unwarranted sites and attempts to provide a safe and secure Internet connection. In line with this there are various decisions that need to be made.
Therefore it is unfeasible to block all sports sites. Furthermore, it is also unfeasible and sometimes unwarranted to block all video streams/channels. Video streams of news sites for example are not outside of the Caylix criteria. Here then falls the rule that the subscriber must decide how he/she wants to deal with these types of Internet material. A subscription to Caylix does not lessen the responsibility of the Internet user in any way.
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