salon.com - Technology April 22, 1999
Cybersitter's maker responds to the Colorado tragedy by telling parents
how to monitor kids' Web activities.
Less than 24 hours after teenage gunmen ran amok in a Littleton, Colo.,
high school, Solid Oak Software, makers of the Internet filtering
product Cybersitter, sent out a press release touting "an informational
Web site for parents concerned with what their teens are accessing on
the Internet."
It's not the first time Solid Oak has adroitly taken advantage of a
shocking news event to promote its software. Shortly after the Heaven's
Gate mass suicide in 1997, the company sent out a similar release. In
January 1998, after a California teenager committed suicide, another
Solid Oak press release announced that Cybersitter "blocks Internet
sites providing information on methods of committing suicide." And the
day after the full text of the Starr Report was released online, Solid
Oak immediately announced that Cybersitter would "probably"
automatically block access to the report, based on its lascivious
content.
Cagey marketers with a sharp eye for good PR opportunities, or soulless
ghouls out to capitalize on any remotely Internet-related tragedy to
hawk their censorware? You make the call. Certainly, Solid Oak sees
nothing wrong with its approach.
Marc Kanter, vice president of marketing for Solid Oak Software, says,
"We try to make parents aware of the technology that is out there to
assist them. If we can help parents in any way, shape or form prevent
these kinds of tragedies, we will do so." Kanter said that the most
recent press release wasn't even aimed at promoting Cybersitter --
"what's there is designed for parents who don't want to install a
filtering product. We try to show them ways to find out what their kids
are up to on the Internet."
Kanter points to abundant evidence that the teenagers involved in the
Colorado shootings spent a good deal of time on the Net, but he is also
quick to note that "under no circumstances do we believe that the
Internet caused the tragedy. This unfortunate incident was about a lot
more than just searching and finding material out on the Internet."
And yet, even if the Internet didn't cause the massacre, the teenagers
who did had spent time online. And that's apparently reason enough for
Solid Oak to promote Cybersitter on the heels of another tragedy.
-- -- Andrew Leonard
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Marketing in the wake of a massacre
salon.com | April 22, 1999
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