Whether you use the Internet for leisure or educational purposes, there’s a wealth of information available online for all the family. Unfortunately, it’s also a place where kids can get into trouble. There’s a lot of content available online that’s inappropriate for children and has few, if any, restrictions on accessing it.
With all the great resources available on the Web, the last thing you’d want to do is to ban your kids from going online altogether. Most parents will be aware of sensible guidelines to help protect their children online, such as keeping the PC in a communal place in the home and supervising or monitoring your children’s internet usage. It’s difficult, however, to monitor the online activity of older children who surf the Web without adult supervision. For many parents, using parental control software to help keep their kids safe and stop them from viewing harmful content provides additional peace of mind. We’ve taken a look at some of the services and software available
today that give parents more control over their children’s online activities.
Safe services
One option is to sign up to a family-friendly ISP, which will offer parental controls as part of its bundle of services and features. The other is to look at bespoke software packages that can help.
Software solutions
There are plenty of packages to choose from which give you full control of the information and services your kids can access online and let you customise what content you think is appropriate for them to view.
CyberPatrol
The latest version of CyberPatrol’s parental control software looks after every aspect of your child’s online experience, helping to monitor their online activity without taking away the enjoyment.
The Headquarters section is where you take charge of all settings and features. There is no limit to the number of users you can set up on your PC and once you’ve created user profiles and passwords, you can set a content filtering level for each child complete with a choice of graphics that will appear if they try to access a blocked site. This is a great idea as the icons make it fun for younger kids to use. If your teenagers feel patronised by this, however, there is a stealth option that simply loads a ‘page unavailable’ message instead.
You can filter web pages by subject matter and keywords and keep an eye on instant messaging and newsgroup access. For each of these you can opt to either allow access, block access or filter access on a case-by-case basis. The Chat Guard tool features a list of blocked words and phrases that you can add to or edit at any time. The latest version also offers you the option of not only prescribing when your children can go online but also setting time limits for how long your kids can use different online features, such as instant messaging.
CyberPatrol is a thorough and comprehensive application. Installation is easy and you have the choice of a 14-day trial before you commit to buying.
McAfee Parental Controls
The Parental Controls software from McAfee can either be purchased as part of the McAfee Internet Security suite or bought separately. If you’re only installing Parental Controls, setup is quick and easy, with step-by-step guides to help you along. Once you have set up an administrator password, you can add additional users. The software recognises existing Windows login user names but you can add more as needed.
There are five settings to choose from to set up different users. Once you have chosen the right setting for your child, you can then customise each profile further. Although the McAfee software doesn’t have the extended features that CyberPatrol offers, you can still limit your child’s internet access time, restrict access to certain applications and set up newsgroup and chat filtering to set restrictions based on certain words and content.
The software is easy to find your way around and will provide you with an activity log of who has been using your PC and which applications and websites have been accessed.
Net Nanny Chat Monitor
Chat Monitor focuses specifically on chatrooms and instant messaging services and discreetly monitors and records any popular chat application on your PC. Its aim is to notify you if your child is involved in potentially risky conversations and allows you to limit the time they spend chatting online.
During installation, you’re given the choice of placing a visible icon in your System Tray or setting up the software so that you can only access it using a keyboard button of your choice, based on whether you want your kids to know that you’re monitoring them or not.
Most of the features are installed by default although there are optional settings for filtering using keywords, which will be blanked out on the screen using asterisks. Rather than searching simply for crude language, the software focuses on phrases that are commonly used in chatrooms by paedophiles, although you can add other terms.
Although Chat Monitor looks slightly dated, it carries out its intended job well. However, for the same price CyberPatrol will protect kids during all online activity, not just in chatrooms.
Norton Internet Security Suite 2007
Unlike the McAfee internet security suite, the parental controls feature within the Norton package cannot be purchased separately.
The Norton software will recognise existing Windows login information for the different users of your PC, though you also have the choice of setting up separate Norton accounts. There are four account types to choose from, covering children, teenagers, adults and the administrator (the adult who sets up the software and controls the different accounts).
Parental controls are easy to use and cover websites, application usage and newsgroups that you can allow or block access to completely. It’s a simple procedure involving check boxes. You can add to the list of blocked sites at any time as well as block access to any application. Unlike CyberPatrol and Chat Monitor, you can’t list banned words and phrases, which is a shame. Also, the default settings are sometimes too cautious and strip out all your email attachments, so make sure you set the features to suit your own needs. Similar to McAfee’s suite, Norton has separate security, firewall, intrusion detection and anti-virus tools to keep your entire family safe.
Playing it safe
Whether you’re after an all-in-one internet services package or more specific software to protect your kids online, there are plenty of products to choose from.
All of the products we have looked at in this feature place a great deal of control in the hands of the parent, while offering plenty of flexibility to tailor the settings to your child’s surfing needs.
Ultimately, though, there’s simply no substitute for adult supervision or educating your children about staying safe online.
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