eZeView Technologies plc is proud to announce two revolutionary new products. First, its Filtered Internet Access, which provides children with the safest possible online experience; and second, the fantastic eZeSchools, a powerful and unique online educational tool that provides "Virtual Schools": secure online communities tailor-made to fully complement the school or college it serves.

The majority of children these days have knowledge of computers and the Internet that is vastly superior to their parents, and many parents don’t realise the extremely harmful nature of some of the material that anyone with an Internet connection can view. And of course, parents don’t want to have to peer over their children’s shoulders while they’re surfing the Net; they want to be able to leave them to it without worry. The eZeView Filtered Internet Access system provides this peace of mind through a single, easy-to-use CD installation or a straightforward online download.

Other Internet filtering programs only tend to analyse the front pages and URL’s of websites and then display recommendations. However, eZeView’s system – five years in development – scans the entire content of every page of whichever site the user is attempting to view and can instantly deny access if it finds unsuitable material anywhere on it. Unlike other filtering systems, this restriction cannot be bypassed, ignored or overridden. The philosophy behind the system is that if something is suitable for broadcast on pre-

watershed terrestrial television, then it’s suitable to be viewed on the Internet by a minor. Thus the kids can be "left to it" for the equivalent of less than 96p a week, a small price to pay for your complete peace of mind,

This revolutionary system forms the foundation for eZeSchools, eZeView’s revolutionary "Virtual School" communities system. Of late the media has made much of the need to begin to realise the potential for computers to take their place as the cornerstone for the future of education; the government has famously begun an initiative to get the entire country online by the year 2005. eZeSchools takes a bold step towards this future with a new and exciting platform.

eZeSchools provides a safe environment for children to interact with other people in their custom-made online schools. Each Virtual School is designed to resemble the real school, and eZeView work closely with each institution to provide a online environment where pupils, teachers and parents can find facilities that complement and enhance the school’s place in the local community. These include:

One of the most exciting of these features is the facility for students to take practice exams. Generated from a database of well over 20,000 National Curriculum-compliant questions and written by experienced teachers, these practice exams afford students invaluable experience of working under exam conditions (including working against the clock) for almost any subject, from Year 7 right through to A-Level. With the potential to greatly increase their all-important exam experience, this will hopefully improve grades in the real thing.

Username/password-based access makes it impossible for children to come into contact with harmful elements whilst using the Virtual Schools, and as the system stores full profiles for each individual user, students are only able to access the areas relevant to their age and the subjects they are studying. And mischievous students are unable to abuse the facility as the environment displays the identities of everyone once they are logged in.

Another feature from eZeSchools – and one sure to reduce a great deal of amateur dramatics from children hoping to pull a ‘sickie’ - is the possibility for children who are absent through illness to participate in the lessons they are

not able to attend via the relevant area in the Virtual School. Teachers can take lessons in front of a webcam so that absentees needn’t miss a lesson ever again. The absent child can access the lesson through the Virtual School and can, for example, ask the teacher questions just as if they were there.

But these live online classrooms have even greater benefits for the schools; they enable schools to share resources with other schools. With the help of the online classrooms students - especially those wanting to study minority subjects that perhaps their own school can’t accommodate - can "attend" lessons at another school without having to travel. So for example, a student wanting to do an A-Level in Latin can join the Latin classes at a school perhaps 50, 100, 200 miles or more away. And as more schools adopt this ultra-modern system the more their pupils are going to benefit from sharing the facilities of fellow eZeSchools.

At present eZeView provides Virtual School communities for over a dozen schools or colleges in Essex, with several in the Kent, Surrey, and West Sussex areas pending. eZeView is an ongoing concern: the schools are never "finished", as they are constantly being improved upon. Those already in place have been hugely successful in providing a tool not just for those who work and learn at the schools, but also for providing an environment that the whole local community can use to interact in safety. Parents can chat to each other and also keep up-to-date on their child’s progress at school while enjoying a closer relationship with their child’s teachers, and through the "Storeroom" area users can order stationery, school uniforms etc. from the local suppliers.

David Peters, CEO of eZeView Technologies, said at the launch: "Our driving motivation behind the development of these services has always been to make the Internet a completely safe, yet exciting, environment that children can learn in. We think this is just as it should be.

• David Amess, MP

"We are extremely pleased with the content interactivity and abilities of the virtual school and find that it is of great benefit to our students, staff and the wider community including parents and local businesses all of whom have shown great enthusiasm for our virtual school."

- Michael Frampton, Head Teacher Southend High School for Boys

"I have reviewed many educational sites and indeed those which offer ‘safety’. I am extremely impressed with the eZeView approach to the market and find their whole offer, particularly the virtual schools, to be far superior to any thing that I have seen in the market."

• Dr Peter Johnson, Tutorial Fellow Exeter College Oxford

• Michael Wills MP, Parliamentary under-Secretary of State for Education

"I am most impressed with the eZeView educational offering – this is the way forward for schools and the best possible use of Internet technology."

- Dr David Falkner, Fellow Christchurch College Oxford

• Southend Evening Echo

Chief Executive Officer

eZeView Technologies PLC

Barnes and Walters Limited