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OUR REPORT ON FILTERED ISP’S – Remember Chuck’s inquiry about filtered ISP’s that block access to offensive sites? Here are his findings. He also found that there are a lot of filters that will work with your current ISP. These allow you to keep your current email address and internet service, but prevent you from accessing objectionable material. Finally, a few people suggested services that provide information on several providers and filters.

Faithe suggests:

This is a full service ISP. Christian Purity offers many of the same features as the big boys (AOL, MSN, etc.) but it costs only $15.95/month ($14.95 if you pre-pay six months in advance.) They give you six email accounts with the service and a personal web page. I was assured by tech support (who responded quickly to my email query) that my email could be accessed from overseas via the internet. They also offer a filtering service ($3.99 per month) and web site hosting (various plans from $12.99 to $99.99).

Tex suggests:

Christian-net.com is another full-service provider. The cost for this one is $16.95/month. It comes with five email addresses and 10Meg of personal web page space. They too offer a filtering service for those who want to keep their current account for $3.95/month and they also offer filtered DSL service through a partnership with DIRECTV DSL.

This one comes to us from New Zealand:

Maxnet offers their service through various plans ranging from $9.95 to $24.95/month. None of these are for unlimited usage though and excess time is charged at $.99 to $1.95/unit depending on your plan. (I assume a unit equates to an hour.) Maxnet is unfiltered by itself and you must subscribe to their Net Guardian service at $3.95/month for filtering. Maxnet is a complete computer services company that offers everything from network building to E-commerce to private consulting.

Leslie gave us this one:

SurfPure offers unlimited family-friendly Internet access with 5 e-mail accounts, 5 M free personal web space for $21.95/month. A bonus for us missionary types is that they have dial-in access from over 200 countries. Although they promote their services for families, business owners may like services such as bulk email accounts (up to 200 for an additional monthly charge), E-commerce, and Web design.

Thomas suggests:

Setting the Captives Free offers their ISP for $17.95/month. It comes with a whopping 10 free email addresses (great for large families!) and 10 MB of web space. You can order your service either filtered or unfiltered and your filtering can be customized. They also offer "no hold" customer service, something you will appreciate if you have ever waited on hold with AOL customer service. Setting the Captives Free is more than just an ISP. They are true ministry with bible studies offered on porn and sexual impurity, unhealthy eating habits, teen-age purity, homosexuality, and smoking addiction.

Mark suggests these two:

We-blocker is a free internet filtering service. That’s right, I said FREE. They do have a button to link to a contribution page. By contributing you can eliminate the ads by downloading a code. Your surfing can be filtered from seven categories of offensive sites (pornography, violence, drugs and alcohol, gambling, hate speech, adult subjects, and weaponry). And sites can allowed if you prefer by turning off the filter.

Hedgebuilders offers their A+ filtering service for $46/six months. That is $6.00 a month plus a $10 set up fee. (Currently they are running a summer promotion with the set up fee waived and a two week trial.) A+ works with broadband and also blocks offensive words on search engines. And, for missionaries and pastors, the service is FREE. It also works with any internet service so it great when you are out of the country.

Wes suggests:

Family connect is a filtering service offered for $5.95/month with discounts for six month and one year contracts. Try it for seven days free. Family connect can filter emails from viruses, porn, and spam (unsolicited email) with their user-friendly email filter. They also have a book offer ($5.95) that explains how the internet and filtering works and the traps that porn pushers use to lure you in.

Chris suggests:

Don Wildeman’s American Family Association offers the American Family Filter. It costs $40 a year for the basic service ($60 for the whole family) and is endorsed by Josh McDowell and Dr. Donald Weiss of Heart to Heart Counselling Centers.

Doug suggests:

I really liked this filtering service’s home page. Their cost is $4.95/month or $49.95/year. You can adjust your filter to six different levels of age-appropriate access. One note of interest is that Family Click says their service doesn’t work with AOL because AOL disables any non-AOL parental control devices. I can’t confirm this but it is scary if true.

Mike in the UK sends this suggestion:

OSCAR is the UK Information Service for World Missions. It offers a plethora of information about overseas Internet providers, filters, and availability by country. This could really be advantageous to those who are involved in missions and travel extensively.

Thomas suggests:

Sorry, my browser couldn’t access this page on the day I was writing this. I think I had looked at it earlier and it was interesting but I don’t remember any details. Be sure and check it out if the link works for you.

I am not sure which of the services I have mentioned are and are not available for the Macintosh. Many times computer services arrogantly assume that the whole world uses a PC. But, Thomas also suggested these filters for the Mac users out there.

This is a filter developed by a dad who wanted to protect his family from the dangers of the internet. It is available for $5.00/month. It also blocks offensive chat.

www.cleanweb.net

Clean Web offers filtered internet service for $21.95/month. It comes with four email boxes and 5MB of web space. They seem to have a lot of access numbers for smaller cities in addition to the metropolises.

Pastor Dan suggests this unique program for accountability:

Covenant Eyes is an accountability program for internet users. When you sign up for the program, Covenant Eyes tracks time spent on the internet and sites visited. This information is emailed to an accountability partner you choose. The good thing is that no acceptable site is blocked as filters sometime do. Single member costs are $6.95 /month with lower rates for families and ministry staff that sign up together. Covenant Eyes is endorsed by Focus on the Family and Promise Keepers.

You can sign up at the web site or make contact here:

Mr. Lynn T. McClurg
Director-Covenant Eyes
321 N. Shiawasse St. Ste B
Corunna, MI 48817
Direct # 1-989-834-1616 EST
Fax # 1-509-461-0465
E-mail: lmcclurg@covenanteyes.com <mailto:lmcclurg@covenanteyes.com>
Internet Accountability is effective.

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