Methods and systems for enforcing parental-control policies on user-generated content

• US 8,281,361 B1
• Filed: 03/26/2009
• Issued: 10/02/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Gen Digital Inc.
• Original Assignee: Symantec Corporation (NortonLifeLock Inc.)
• Inventors: Schepis, Adam, Newstadt, Keith
• Primary Examiner(s): Kosowski, Carolyn B
• Application Number:
  US12/411,899
• Time in Patent Office: 1,286 Days
• Field of Search: 726/1
• US Class Current: 726/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2541 Rights Management protecting software against unauthorised usage in a vending or licensing environment G06F21/10; security in data switching network management H04L41/28; security management or policies for network security H04L63/20; access security in wireless networks H04W12/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02

Abstract

A method for enforcing parental-control policies on user-generated content may include identifying a web document with user-generated content and identifying a set of links in the web document that relate to the user-generated content in the web document. The method may also include identifying a target web document for each link in the set of links and determining a parental-control rating for each link in the set of links based on the target web document. The method may further include generating a composite rating of the web document based on the parental-control rating of each link in the set of links. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable-storage media are also disclosed.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for enforcing parental-control policies on user-generated content, at least a portion of the method being performed by a computing system comprising at least one processor, the method comprising:

identifying a web document, the web document comprising user-generated content that is not authored by an entity that publishes and/or hosts the web document;

identifying a subset of links in the web document that are related to the user-generated content in the web document by;

1) parsing the web document to identify a set of links in the web document;

2) identifying, within the set of links, one or more links which are related to the user-generated content by determining that the one or more links refer to the user-generated content, by determining that the user-generated content includes the one or more links, and/or by determining that the one or more links refer to a content-generating user responsible for generating the user-generated content;

3) excluding, from the subset of links, one or more links identified in the set of links that were not determined to be related to the user-generated content in the web document;

4) including, in the subset of links, the one or more links that were determined to be related to the user-generated content in the web document;

for each link in the subset of links;

identifying a target web document of the link;

determining a parental-control rating for the link based on the target web document;

generating a composite rating of the web document based, at least in part, on the parental-control rating of each link in the subset of links; and

enforcing the parental control policy based on the composite rating of the web document.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the enforcing the parental-control policy based on the composite rating further comprises:

identifying a suspect part of the web document related to the link;

blocking access to only the suspect part of the web document.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein identifying the web document comprises:

detecting an attempt to access the web document;

determining that the web document includes user-generated content by determining that the web document includes a framework for user-generated content.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein determining that the web document includes the framework for user-generated content comprises:

parsing the web document to identify page elements on the web document;

determining that the page elements on the web document and/or an arrangement of the page elements on the web document are indicative of a publishing framework for user-generated content.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein excluding, from the subset of links, the one or more links identified in the set of links that were not determined to be related to the user-generated content in the web document comprises:

excluding, from the subset of links, one or more generic advertisement links.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein generating the composite rating further comprises:

determining a reputation rating for the content-generating user;

generating the composite rating based on the reputation rating for the content-generating user.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein identifying the web document comprises:

detecting an attempt to access the web document;

determining that the web document includes user-generated content.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein determining that the web document includes user-generated content comprises:

identifying a uniform resource locator of the web document;

parsing the uniform resource locator to identify a domain associated with the web document;

determining, based on the domain associated with the web document, that the web document is located on a website that hosts user-generated content.

9. A system for enforcing parental-control policies on user-generated content comprising:

a detection module programmed to;

identify a web document, the web document comprising user-generated content that is not authored by an entity that publishes and/or hosts the web document;

identify a subset of links in the web document that are related to the user-generated content in the web document by;

1) parsing the web document to identify a set of links in the web document;

2) identifying, within the set of links, one or more links which are related to the user-generated content by determining that the one or more links refer to the user-generated content, by determining that the user-generated content includes the one or more links, and/or by determining that the one or more links refer to a content-generating user responsible for generating the user-generated content;

3) excluding, from the subset of links, one or more links identified in the set of links that were not determined to be related to the user-generated content in the web document;

4) including, in the subset of links, the one or more links that were determined to be related to the user-generated content in the web document;

a rating module programmed to;

for each link in the subset of links;

identify a target web document of the link;

determine a parental-control rating for the link based on the target web document;

generate a composite rating of the web document based, at least in part, on the parental-control rating of each link in the subset of links;

enforce the parental control policy based on the composite rating of the web document;

one or more processors configured to execute the detection module and the rating module.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the rating module enforces the parental-control policy by blocking access to the web document.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the rating module enforces the parental-control policy by:

identifying a suspect part of the web document related to the link;

blocking access to the suspect part.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the suspect part of the web document comprises at least one of:

a comment;

an image;

a video;

a hyperlink.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the rating module enforces the parental-control policy by:

identifying an attempt to submit user-generated content;

blocking the attempt to submit user-generated content.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the rating module further generates the composite rating by:

identifying an incoming link that points to the web document;

identifying a source of the incoming link;

determining a parental-control rating for the source of the incoming link;

generating the composite rating based on the parental-control rating for the source of the incoming link.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable-storage medium comprising one or more computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to:

identify a web document, the web document comprising user-generated content that is not authored by an entity that publishes and/or hosts the web document;

identify a subset of links in the web document that are related to the user-generated content in the web document by;

1) parsing the web document to identify a set of links in the web document;

2) identifying, within the set of links, one or more links which are related to the user-generated content by determining that the one or more links refer to the user-generated content, by determining that the user-generated content includes the one or more links, and/or by determining that the one or more links refer to a content-generating user responsible for generating the user-generated content;

3) excluding, from the subset of links, one or more links identified in the set of links that were not determined to be related to the user-generated content in the web document;

4) including, in the subset of links, the one or more links that were determined to be related to the user-generated content in the web document;

for each link in the subset of links;

identify a target web document of the link;

determine a parental-control rating for the link based on the target web document;

generate a composite rating based, at least in part, on the parental-control rating of each link in the subset of links; and

enforce the parental control policy based on the composite rating of the web document.