November 05, 2010 10:54am
Parental Controls for Android APPs
Source: ASACP The Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection
by: Company Press Release
(LOS ANGELES, CA) -- The Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection (ASACP) proudly announced on Monday an exciting expansion of its' successful Restricted to Adults label to mobile phones based on Google's Android operating system. The first-of-its-kind software, which is being targeted at carriers and handset manufacturers for distribution with new phones, will prevent applications marked as adult from running on RTA-enabled Android phones.
The RTA Parental Controls for Android Mobile Apps system consists of a unique Meta data tag that can be inserted into any age restricted Android application and the RTA Mobile App Filter. The RTA label (unique Meta data tag), once inserted, can then be detected in any Android mobile app with the filters Meta data tag detection algorithms. When the RTA Label is detected by the RTA Mobile App Filter, the age restricted app can be stopped or the entire package with the RTA Labeled app can be removed from the mobile device.
''The expansion of the Restricted to Adults label to mobile applications shows that the adult entertainment industry continues to self-regulate and provide parents with tools to keep age-restricted content out of the hands of children,'' said ASACP Chief Executive Officer Joan Irvine. ''ASACP is very pleased with the adoption of the RTA label into adult websites and browser parental controls since 2006 - over 4.5 million sites are labeled with RTA,'' Irvine said. ''Since the bulk of App developers have agreed to include the RTA Label for Android Mobile Apps software into the Apps they develop, we are certain of success with Apps, too,'' Irvine added. ''In addition to Google's Android,'' Irvine said ''ASACP hopes Apple and Microsoft will include the RTA parental controls in further editions of their mobile operating systems.''
''Before this technology there was no way for a parent to prevent their child from viewing age restricted mobile applications,'' said Tim Henning, ASACP Vice President for Technology. ''The RTA Parental Controls for Android Mobile Apps system solves this problem by giving parents the power to effectively control the content their children consume via mobile apps,'' he said.
Henning noted that the RTA Parental Controls represents a ''significant stride in keeping pace with ever evolving technologies'' that can be used to deliver age- restricted content. ''with the explosion of mobile platform applications, including adult entertainment apps, it is important for parents to have a tool that will allow them to more effectively control the content their children consume on their mobile devices,'' Henning said.
Currently this system has only been developed for use by the creators of age restricted apps and the manufacturers of Android mobile operating system devices but it is being adapted for use on other mobile operating systems.
About ASACP:
Founded in 1996, ASACP is a non-profit organization dedicated to online child protection. ASACP battles child pornography through its Cp Reporting Hotline and helps parents prevent children from viewing age-restricted material online with its Restricted to Adults (RTA) Website Label (www.rtalabel.org). ASACP is the only association in the world that coordinates the adult entertainment industry's efforts to protect children online. It has spent more than 14 years creating progressive programs to protect children and its relationship in assisting the adult industry's child protection efforts is unparalleled. For more information, visit www.ASACP.org.
About the ''Restricted to Adults'' label:
RTA is the adult entertainment industry’s initiative to protect children from viewing content that is age-restricted. It was developed by ASACP out of a need for an easy to use and internationally recognized label that designates content for adults only. The RTA label is a unique string of ''meta data'' which can easily be inserted into the computer code of any website. Parental filtering software recognizes the tag and prevents children from viewing adult content. The RTA label is free and universally available. ASACP launched RTA in November 2006 and currently over 4.5 million sites are labeled with RTA. From a recent poll of these companies, there are conservatively over 6.5 billion visitors per month to pages labeled with RTA. Most of the parental control systems and Apple and Microsoft operating systems filter on this meta-tag. IPhone and phones with Ie browsers also filter on RTA.
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