In the note to customers, Apple encouraged parents to continue to monitor their children’s Internet access and suggested alternative services to look into.
“Apple encourages you to continue monitoring your children’s use of the Internet and to be active in preventing them from accessing inappropriate content,” the iTools team said. “One good source for information on how you can help protect your children online is Cyberangels. Other Internet security software options also are available, including Cyber Patrol by SurfControl.”
KidSafe was a way to protect children from accessing online content unsuitable for their viewing. First introduced during his keynote speech on January 5, 2000, Apple CEO Steve Jobs described the service as a “breakthrough approach to protecting our kids on the Internet.” He said today’s solution is filtering, or specifying what children can’t see. However, filtering no longer works as a viable strategy.
“KidSafe is an entirely new approach,” said Jobs at the time. “It specifies what kids can see, sites we know are safe.”
KidSafe isn’t the first iTools service to be discontinued by Apple. Earlier this year the company quietly closed down iReview. iReview also debuted on January 5, 2000 and was dubbed by Apple as “the Internet’s finest Web site review guide, with Web sites reviewed and rated by Apple.”
At its start, iReview contained over 250 reviewed and rated sites, with over 1,000 posted by last summer.
Apple has posted instructions to remove the KidSafe service from your computer on the iTools Web site.