I’ve never been a big fan of the way that most security services, particularly web filtering software operate. I hate the way they don’t really employ any intelligence about the content that is being viewed, and they either block a complete site or don’t, with no middle ground.

I don’t have any kids so my PC at home is as open as they come, but I have to deal with draconian corporate firewalls everyday.  I think the worst experience was a few years ago when I was putting together a presentation for Sony, and I couldn’t download a Playstation logo to put in my block because ‘Playstation’ was a blocked word.  If only I knew about pimpmyip.com back then.
Well, finally a few smart security services are starting to appear.  PicBlock Image Blocker is one such service.  The free software runs as a try icon and notifies you whenever an objectionable image is encountered while surfing the web or reading an e-mail. The questionable images will be replaced by blurred pixels as you see in the screenshot above. PicBlock blocks porn images by detecting the amount of flesh tones in images. Since the software is not based on offensive keywords list or known URLs, PicBlock may not be a substitute for your content filtering software.

I hope that somebody comes up with a similarly smart service for applications.  Most Security Suites are dumb and only allow parents to allow or block access to these apps, rather than controlling the usage e.g. not allowing kids to send images or phone numbers etc.

Thanks to Digital Inspiration for the details

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