Methods and systems for restricting electronic content access based on guardian control decisions

• US 8,346,953 B1
• Filed: 12/18/2007
• Issued: 01/01/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AOL Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kyaw, Thu Rein, Hew, Chin
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Ashok
• Assistant Examiner(s): Desrosiers, Evans
• Application Number:
  US12/000,843
• Time in Patent Office: 1,841 Days
• Field of Search: 709227-229, 709207-209
• US Class Current: 709/229
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4542 Blocking scenes or portions of the received content, e.g. censoring scenes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4667 Processing of monitored end-user data, e.g. trend analysis based on the log file of viewer selections
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4755 for defining user preferences, e.g. favourite actors or genre retrieval personalisation and generation of user profiles for the retrieval of video data G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 Web browsing , e.g. WebTV

Abstract

Methods, computer-readable media, and systems are provided to facilitate a second user to allow or deny a first user, such as a child, from accessing content by proving the second user with a content profile based on decisions made by other users with respect to the content. In one implementation, a system allows the second user to set a threshold to automatically allow or deny access based on the other users'"'"' decisions. The decisions made by other users are aggregated into information that may be based on similarities between the child and other children from whom other users have previously made decisions regarding the particular content. In addition, the aggregation may more heavily weight decisions by users that have a history of making similar decisions to the second user.

Claims

1. A system for remotely controlling access to electronic content, wherein a first user uses an electronic device and a first guardian uses a guardian device, the system comprising:

a database for storing a first plurality of control decision records associated with a plurality of guardians; and

a server in communication with the database comprising;

receive a content profile request based on a first user identifier and a content identifier, wherein the content identifier is associated with the electronic content and the first user identifier is associated with the first user;

create a content profile for the first user identifier and content identifier, the content profile including information indicating a percentage of guardians that have allowed access to the electronic content, wherein the content profile is based on at least one control decision record in the database associated with the content identifier, the control decision record containing a second guardian decision made by a second guardian with respect to a second user, wherein the second guardian decision is a past decision granting or denying the second user access to the electronic content, wherein the content profile is based on aggregating a second plurality of control decision records associated with guardians that have made similar past decisions when compared to the first guardian, a degree of similarity influencing which of the first plurality of control decision records are included in the second plurality of control decision records;

transmit the content profile;

receive a first guardian decision from the first guardian, granting or denying the first user access to the electronic content; and

create a new control decision record associated with the content identifier, the new control decision record including the first guardian decision and being stored in the database.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the server is further operable to send the first guardian decision to the electronic device of the first user, granting access to the electronic content when the first guardian decision indicates allowance and denying access to the electronic content when the first guardian decision is a denial.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the content profile is based on aggregating a plurality of control decision records associated with other users sharing at least one similarity with the first user associated with the first user identifier, the similarity being based on age, gender, nationality, religion, educational grouping, or locality.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the content profile indicates a sequence of control decisions with respect to the content identifier, the sequence of control decisions being made by at least a second guardian within the plurality of guardians.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the server is further operable to receive a request for a second content profile from the first guardian, the second content profile being based on criteria specified by the first guardian.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the first guardian decision includes a rating of the content associated with the content identifier, wherein the rating is stored as part of the new control decision record.

7. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the stages of:

receiving a request for a content profile, the request including a content identifier and a first user identifier, wherein the content identifier is associated with the electronic content and the first user identifier is associated with a first user;

creating a content profile for the first user identifier and content identifier, the content profile including information indicating a percentage of guardians that have allowed access to the electronic content, wherein the content profile is based on at least one control decision record in a database, the control decision record being associated with the content identifier and containing a second guardian decision made by a second guardian with respect to a second user, wherein the second guardian decision granted or denied the second user access to the electronic content in the past, wherein the content profile is based on aggregating a plurality of control decision records associated with guardians that have made past decisions similarly to the first guardian, the degree of similarity influencing which control decision records are included in the plurality of control decision records;

sending a first communication containing the content profile to a first guardian;

receiving a first guardian decision from the first guardian, granting or denying access to content associated with the content identifier;

creating a new control decision record associated with the content identifier, the new control decision record including the first guardian decision; and

storing the record on a storage medium.

8. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the stages further include:

sending an access communication to an electronic device of the first user;

granting access to the electronic content when the first guardian decision is an allowance; and

denying access to the electronic content when the first guardian decision a denial.

9. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the content profile is based on aggregating a plurality of control decision records associated with other users similar to the first user associated with the first user identifier, the similarity being based on age, gender, nationality, religion, education grouping, or locality.

10. A system for controlling access to electronic content by a first user of an electronic device, the system comprising:

a database for storing a first plurality of control decision records based on decisions received from a plurality of guardians; and

a server in communication with the database comprising;

receive an access request associated with a content identifier, wherein the access request is for the first user;

determine an aggregation result for the content identifier by aggregating past control decision records associated with the content identifier, the aggregation result including information indicating a percentage of guardians that have allowed access to the electronic content, wherein at least one of the aggregated control decision records contains a decision made by a second guardian with respect to a second user, wherein the second guardian decision is a past decision granting or denying the second user access to the electronic content, wherein the aggregation result is based on aggregating a plurality of control decision records associated with guardians that have made past decisions similarly to the first guardian, the degree of similarity influencing which control decision records are included in the plurality of control decision records; and

automatically send a first communication based on the aggregation result to the electronic device for utilization in granting or denying the first user access to the electronic content.

11. The system of claim 10, the server further operable to:

determine a threshold used for automatically choosing whether the first user should be granted access to the electronic content; and

compare the aggregation result against the threshold to determine whether access should be automatically granted or denied.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein each control decision includes a content rating.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the server is further operable to:

receive a communication from the first guardian, the communication containing criteria that is used in determining the threshold.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the server is further operable to automatically select the threshold based on the threshold of a plurality of guardians that have made past control decisions similarly to the first guardian.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein when the threshold is not met, the server is further operable to:

create a content profile based on at least one control decision record in the database associated with the content identifier, the control decision record containing the decision of a second guardian;

send a first communication containing the content profile to the first guardian;

receive a first guardian decision from the first guardian, granting or denying access to the content; and

create a new control decision record associated with the content identifier, the new control decision record containing the first guardian decision and being stored in the database.

16. A method for storing control decision records in a database for later aggregation in determining whether to allow a first user to access electronic content, the method including stages comprising:

receiving a guardian decision from a first guardian with respect to a content identifier, the content identifier being associated with the electronic content, wherein the guardian decision grants or denies the first user access with respect to the content identifier; and

storing a new control decision record in a database, the new control decision record containing the guardian decision, a content identifier, and a person identifier, the person identifier being associated with the first user;

wherein the new control decision record is stored in a manner that allows the new control decision record to be accessed based on the content identifier, and the guardian decision to be aggregated with a plurality of other guardian decisions made by other guardians for users other than the first user, in order to generate a content profile that includes information indicating a percentage of guardians that have allowed access to the electronic content, wherein the content profile is based on aggregating a plurality of control decision records associated with guardians that have made past decisions similarly to the first guardian, the degree of similarity influencing which control decision records are included in the plurality of control decision records.

17. The method of claim 16, the stages further comprising:

storing a user attribute in the database, the user attribute being associated with the first user and being one of age, gender, nationality, religion, educational grouping, or locality.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein a threshold level from a plurality of threshold levels is assigned to the first user based at least partially on threshold level values for other users that share the user attribute with the first user.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein a threshold level from a plurality of threshold levels is assigned to the first user based at least partially on past decisions made by the first guardian relative to decisions on similar content made by other guardians;

and

wherein past decisions by the first guardian allowing the first user access to the similar content at a relatively higher frequency than the other guardians, cause the threshold level assigned to the first user to be relatively less restrictive.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the first threshold level is calculated as part of a process that runs independently of receiving contact from the first user or first guardian.