Two L.A. Web sites, BeNetSafe.com and Utherverse.com, aim to address the question of sex on the Internet. The first does so by protecting minors from sexual content; the second provides a fantasy world.
If the wildly popular MySpace.com could be converted into an adult content site, it might look a lot like Utherverse.com.
Utherverse.com launched with the intent of creating a fantasy-driven virtual reality network for adults. The executives at Utherverse.com wanted to emulate sites like MySpace.com and Friendster.com, but aimed at an alternative lifestyle audience.
“We created the world to provide a virtual social experience, rather than a real-life experience,” says Ray Schwartz, president of RedLightCenter.com, which is a division of Utherverse.com. “It’s an alternative lifestyle experience where you can live a totally different life.”
While MySpace.com is getting tens of millions hits throughout the country, Schwartz can only be hopeful about Utherverse.com, which only has about 40,000 users currently.
He’s hoping for as many as a million users by the end of 2006. If just 10 percent of those visitors pay the $20 to engage in “adult activities” like interacting with other users that would translate to about $2 million.
For the most part, the site is free to explore.
“It’s pretty amazing,” Schwartz says. “The primary reason people come together is just to socialize.”
The creators say they are determined to safeguard the site from underage users, but in reality all that is required to access the site is a user’s claim that they are of age.
“Our solution to providing adults with their own online venue was simply to prohibit anyone under 18,” said Brian Shuster, chief executive of Utherverse.com Inc. “Our users can feel safe and relaxed in the knowledge that they are dealing with adults.”
Shielding Kids
BeNetSafe.com, which launches today, is an Internet-based subscription service designed to enable parents to track their kids’ online activity within the social networking environments like MySpace.com, Friendster.com and conceivably, Utherverse.com.
“Trying to monitor our own kids’ lives online, we realized the need for a service that provided parents with critical information about what their teens are doing and who they are hanging out with online,” said Brad Weber, co-founder and managing director of BeNetSafe.com.
Using customized search technology, BeNetSafe.com can provide parents with information on individuals their children may interact with online. Their contact’s friends, hometown, sex, age, body type, school, sexual orientation, occupation and photographs are profiled.
“We turn the data uncovered via our automated search technology into simple-to-read reports that demystify postings on a teen’s MySpace site, so that parents can easily see if their kids are sharing personal information with strangers and if someone inappropriate is hanging out on their site,” said Michael Edelson, co-founder and managing director of BeNetSafe.com.
Civil libertarians may raise privacy objections and the potential for lawsuits, should posted data prove false, would seem significant. Law enforcement officers, however, are on the same page.
“BeNetSafe will be a valuable complement to our ongoing traditional law enforcement efforts to bring online predators to justice,” said Philip Rosenthal, an investigator with the Rockland County Sheriff’s Department in upstate New York. “It’s truly a brave, new world for even Net-savvy parents
An interesting business model note: BeNetSafe charges $9.95 a month to protect kids against sex, which is about six times more expensive than buying into sexually oriented sites. Everyone knows that sex sells; for concerned parents, protection from exposure to sex in the unregulated world of the Web may become an even hotter commodity.
Direct Approach
Well-known cinematographer Doug Trumbull’s keynote speech at the Directors Guild of America’s Digital Day event last month had the crowd spellbound.
He went over the joys and vicissitudes of working with digital cameras and other equipment, gesticulating and pointing emphatically as examples and exhibits were projected onto an onstage screen.
It was an impressive speech, all the more so because Trumbull was 3,000 miles away in Boston. What was really onstage at the podium, Network International Solution’s cutting-edge projection technology, was an extremely lifelike image of Trumbull.
Guild members saw a series of presentations on digital delivery, digital formats, cutting edge applications, future workflows, digital security and various delivery platforms.
Exhibitors included American HiDefinition, Adobe Premiere, Ascent Media, Avid Technology, IATSE Local 790, MESoft, Occidental Studios, PlasterCity Productions, Digital Intermediates, ARRI, Clairmont Cameras, Dalsa, JVC, Panasonic, Panavision, Sony Corp., Spheron Camera System, Thompson Grass Valley, Birns & Sawyer, J.L. Fisher, Inc., and Wafian.
Strategic Consulting
Santa Monica’s Seena Technologies Inc. has teamed up with Woodland Hills-based Key Information Systems. They intend to offer mid-sized companies the same range of digital strategies, information integration and hardware infrastructure deployment services typically offered by the larger IT consulting firms.
Staff reporter Dan Cox can be reached at
[email protected]
or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 230.
