October 14, 1999 Web posted at: 2:42 p.m. EDT (1842 GMT) by Dan Caterinicchia

From...

(IDG) -- Dotsafe Inc., an Internet service provider, recently announced it is offering free Internet filtering to any public or private elementary school, middle school or high school in the United States.

Dotsafe will offer participating schools filtering technology for life, as well as personalized e-mail accounts for every student, a school Web page and the guarantee that there will be no advertising on portal pages. A spokeswoman for the Phoenix, Ariz.-based company said it can accommodate up to 400,000 students in the program and has received inquiries from schools nationwide from New York and Florida to California.

Arizona Sen. John McCain (R) has authored legislation promoting Internet safety and is a strong proponent of the Dotsafe initiative. "Though there is no perfect solution, I have always promoted the use of blocking and filtering technology as a critical component to protect children online," McCain said.

Dotsafe's main business is as a filtered ISP, and it charges about $20 per month to customers nationwide for service. Any schools interested in the free program can get more information on the Web at www.dotsafe.com.