Bay of Plenty Times
  • Bay of Plenty Times home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport

Locations

  • Coromandel & Hauraki
  • Katikati
  • Tauranga
  • Mount Maunganui
  • Pāpāmoa
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Thames
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Bay of Plenty Times

Experts create filter to keep online porn from kids

By Josephine Edmonds
Bay of Plenty Times·
9 Jul, 2016 06:00 PM2 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

A free online tool developed by two Tauranga IT professionals aims to protect young children from pornography.

Aaron Sinclair, 44, and Rory Birkbeck, 34 have spent the past six months working on Safesurfer, an online setting that offers malware protection and can protect your network and children from adult content.

Mr Sinclair, who has two young children, looked on the market for a product to do this, but could not find anything simple so came up with the idea of a network device that filtered the internet and Mr Birkbeck worked with him to develop the idea into an online cloud version.

They said the main reason behind the creation was to help parents ensure their children were not exposed to online pornography.

"There are people on my street who have kids and I know that the moment they are unsecure, there is potentially a gateway for their kids to come in and access and bump into stuff accidentally.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"I just wanted something really easy, and to be able to go to people and say, put this in and it will sort it out for you" he said.

Mr Sinclair said it was not right that parents could not protect their young children from accidentally seeing pornography on the internet.

Safesurfer allowed them to have a choice, "my kids will have a choice when they're old enough".

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Safesurfer was free but people could make donations to help fund the site. It had been set up as a social enterprise under a trust structure to ensure the integrity of the organisation was maintained Mr Sinclair said.

"The feedback that we're getting through the website is that there are people out there who are really struggling and what we're seeing through our website is just the tip of the iceberg" said Mr Birkbeck.

Tauranga Police Detective Sergeant Darryl Brazier, who is in charge of the Western Bay of Plenty Child Protection Team, said it all comes back to parental responsibility.

"Parents need to take responsibility and see what their children are viewing."

Mr Brazier acknowledged that sites that contain adult content are often visited by younger people, and said anything that restricted children to those kinds of sites could only be a good thing.

Mr Birkbeck and Mr Sinclair hope to see 60,000 to 80,000 users by the end of the first six months.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Bay of Plenty TimesUpdated

Substation fault cuts power to thousands in Tauranga

11 Jul 03:01 AM
Bay of Plenty Times

Theatre stalwart's triumphant return after PTSD recovery

11 Jul 02:00 AM
Bay of Plenty Times

'Moments are priceless': Silver Ferns stars reunite for TV reality show

11 Jul 12:00 AM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Substation fault cuts power to thousands in Tauranga

Substation fault cuts power to thousands in Tauranga

11 Jul 03:01 AM

Power was cut to 21,529 customers at 12.30pm in Tauranga.

Theatre stalwart's triumphant return after PTSD recovery

Theatre stalwart's triumphant return after PTSD recovery

11 Jul 02:00 AM
'Moments are priceless': Silver Ferns stars reunite for TV reality show

'Moments are priceless': Silver Ferns stars reunite for TV reality show

11 Jul 12:00 AM
Home-schooled students ride 755km to Parliament for equal sports access

Home-schooled students ride 755km to Parliament for equal sports access

10 Jul 11:07 PM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Bay of Plenty Times e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Bay of Plenty Times
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP