About Powerblock Filtering

What is Internet filtering?
The Internet is a vast sea of information of almost every imaginable flavor and variety. Whether you're looking for the latest stock quotes or the winner of the 1929 World Series, chances are you'll find it on a website somewhere. Unfortunately, if you surf the Web long enough, you'll find many things that you're not looking for. Internet filtering, to put it simply, is technology that keeps the content of these undesirable sites off of your computer screen. Like a sieve, it strains out such things as pornography and violent images, while allowing desired information to flow to you in uninterrupted streams. It makes the Internet more of a family place which you can visit without embarrassment or fear.

(back to top)

Why use filtering?
When you walk into a bookstore, if you're looking for information on avoiding breast cancer, you have no trouble avoiding the adult section and going straight to the books on health and nutrition. On the Internet, things aren't always this simple. Consider what might happen if you don't have filtering. If you use an Internet search engine to examine the millions of websites with the word "breast," you might find a dozen links to sites that have nothing whatsoever to do with preventive medicine. The way that one site is linked to other sites, which in turn are linked to many others, is one of the great powers of Internet and what makes surfing for information so much fun. But it can also be a problem because you don't always know where you're going to wind up. Ideally, the best filtering would keep links to objectionable sites from ever being made - accidentally or otherwise. POWERworx Online's POWERblock filter, for example, blocks out thousands of such sites. So even if your children should go looking for things you don't want them to see, they'll find themselves kept out of objectionable sites. You'll be able to control the content of what they're getting while enjoying a greater peace of mind.

What content is filtered?
POWERworx Online's filter restricts access to the following categories of websites:

Pornography: Sites such those of Playboy, Penthouse and Hustler that contain nudity, vulgarity or sexually explicit material.
Drugs: Sites that promote the use or purchase of illegal drugs. This may include paraphernalia, growing methods, techniques and products for testing drugs.
Anarchy: Sites containing information regarding militias, weapons, anti-government groups, terrorism, etc.
Criminal skills: Sites that promote illegal activity such as pyrotechnics, computer hacking, credit card number generation, password cracking, surveillance and murder.
Cults/Gothic: Sites promoting cult or gothic subject matter, use of mind control, paranoia, fear and other types of psychological control or manipulation.
Obscenity: Sites that involve such things as mutilation, murder, bodily functions, horror, death, executions, violence, etc.
Personals/Dating: Sites that contain personal ads, dating, dating services, relationships and introductions.
Gambling: Sites that encourage gambling such as bookmaker odds, lottery, bingo, dog/horse racing, online sport wagering, online casinos, etc.
Hate/Discrimination: Sites that contain material related to the discrimination of any group of people based on race, religion, gender, nationality, etc.

In the future, POWERworx will also offer filtering of chat rooms, news groups and e-mail. This will include not only objectionable content within individual e-mails - obscenities, slander, hate messages, etc. - but unsolicited or "spam" e-mails as well.

(back to top)

How does filtering work?
There are two basic kinds of filters: word filters and those which directly block the addresses of individual websites. Word filters must check a website's entire content for certain "red-flagged" words or phrases before deciding if the site should be blocked. Therefore, they are relatively slow. And very likely to make errors. A deceptively designed site might contain not a single red-flagged word but be filled hundreds images that you wouldn't want to see yourself, let alone find your child looking at. But they would slip through the filter into your home all the same. Furthermore, information from another site - for instance, one devoted to breast cancer - might very well be kept off your computer. Word filters accidentally block thousands of such sites. With filters using Direct Address Blocking (DAB), on the other hand, sites are identified as objectionable according to their true content before being added to a list of blocked sites. If you try to access one of these sites, the filter will instantaneously check the list to see if it is one that should be blocked. A site not on the list is never blocked; all the sites on the list are always blocked. DAB filters are accurate and very fast. DAB filtering also allows lists of objectionable sites to be continually updated, providing you with the highest possible level of assurance that you'll find what you need without being bothered by what you don't need.

(back to top)

Why is POWERblock the best choice for filtering?
Because of our commitment as a family-friendly Internet company using cutting-edge technology, we want your experience of the Internet to be as positive and safe as possible. And so we've worked hard to provide you with the best filtering system in the world. After more than a year testing and evaluating various filters, we've decided to license the X-Stop R2000 from Logon Data Corporation. The X-Stop R2000 is the only filter that uses pure Direct Address Blocking. It's the fastest filter on the Internet, and contains the world's largest and most accurate list of blocked sites. In an independent test of Internet filters, X-Stop was rated number one, with a blocking rate of about 95% of all objectionable sites. POWERworx has specially adapted this filter to your needs, adding value which is passed along to you. Not only does this filter block all the sites on its list, but its Mudcrawler X2 Search Array continually browses through the Internet and searches over a million web pages per day. Thousands of new and obnoxious sites are discovered and added to the blocked list all the time, often within hours of their going online. In effect, Mudcrawler slogs through all the bad stuff so that you don't have to. But if you should stumble onto an offensive site, you can help clean up the Internet by notifying X-Stop. Their managers will then view the site to determine if it should be blocked. This highlights one of the great strengths of filters such as POWERblock: it operates at the objective level of the finest technology performing lightning-fast searches while human beings still make the final evaluations and judgements. Another advantage of POWERblock is its ease of use. Because the filter is connected to POWERworx's state-of-the-art Network Operations Center, we do all the work. There are no programs for you to download, no software that you must continually manage and update. Your computer runs just like normal. There's no way for your children to get around the filtering. Your only decision is whether or not to enable the filtering. And once you do enable it, all the sites on the list are blocked, and you won't have to face any choices you might not want to make.

What is POWERworx's position on filtering?
As technology evolves, filters such as POWERblock will become smarter, faster and more accurate. Lists of odious websites will grow ever more inclusive and up-to-date. Surfing the Web will be safer than it is today. But because human beings will always be responsible for which sites are deemed appropriate or not - whether through sophisticated search programs that people write or through simply evaluating what is on the computer's screen - no filtering system will ever be perfect. Sometimes a site might be blocked that some people would find interesting and would want to access; some people will find certain unblocked sites a shade too violent or risqué. While POWERworx can't ensure that you'll always be pleased at what you do or don't find on the Internet, we're dedicated to providing you with the safest and most illuminating experience possible.

(back to top)

What are the benefits of filtering?
For single subscribers, our filtering provides peace of mind and a cleaner Internet environment. It's simple to use and allows surfing of the Web with fewer hassles. Affinity Partners will be able to promote our filtering as the finest in the world, and will enjoy the flexibility of being able to provide the service to all, part or none of their constituency as they find appropriate.

(back to top)

How do I report a site that should be blocked?
Please email us at powerblock@powerworx.net .