According to the company press releases, Internet Safari is specifically designed to augment the cognitive thinking abilities of young children by encouraging exploration of the Internet. Diane Barker, Marketing Manager for Heartsoft, explained that while Internet Safari does not use the IE browser engine, the interface is based on Internet Explorer. This is a delibarate effort to ease the transition from Internet safari to IE when the child is ready for an adult browser. By adjusting the browser's six levels of security threshold tolerances, Internet Safari can be modified by parents and educators to reflect changes in a child's level of maturity and experience. Unlike filtering technologies, Internet Safari does not limit children's access to a simple pre-selected list of web sites.
Additional security is available in the way the application is set up.
Every configurtation change made to Internet Safari must be made with a security CD that comes with the application. The Internet Safari Outpost portal page included with every copy of Internet Safari provides a great starting point for children to explore the nearly unlimited resources of the Internet. The many web sites in the Safari portal were selected by parents and educators and have been grouped by content area to facilitate children's quest for information on the Internet. Barker empahasized that Internet Safari is the only browser application to date that meets President Clinton's mandate for introducting more filtering controls into Internet browsing software. A date for Internet Safari's release has not been set yet, Barker said.