What Is Parental Control Software?
Parental Control Software is an extension of what is sometimes called Net Nanny Software. The purpose of Net Nanny Software is to monitor your child's access to the Internet and to allow you to block inappropriate web pages.
Parental Control Software goes further by monitoring your child's use of virtually everything on their computer, allowing you to block, filter and log their access as necessary.
Is Parental Control Software Necessary?
The Internet is an excellent resource for learning and fun, but it does have a darker side. Last year's statistics make for worrying reading:
- 1 in 5 children received some sort of mild solicitation for sex via the Internet.
- 1 in 33 children were pursued aggressively.
- 1 in 4 children were exposed to images of people having sex on the Internet.
- 1 in 17 children were harassed or bullied via the Internet.
Even given those statistics, however, there are moral implications to consider. Is it right to spy on our children? That's a question that can only be answered by parents in relation to their own children when they balance the potential risk against the moral consequences.
What Should All Parental Control Software Do?
At a minimum, parental control software should be able to:
- Log websites accessed and block them by URL.
- Log email sent and received from local email packages (like Outlook) and remote web mail packages (like Hotmail).
- Log both sides of instant messenger chat conversations in all the popular applications (MSN Messenger, Yahoo Instant Messenger, ICQ & AOL).
- Log all keystrokes entered.
Additionally, the software should be able to install itself stealthily, keeping itself hidden from the child whose computer is being monitored.
What Is Remote Monitoring?
With a lot of parental control software, parents must log onto the child's computer to get access to the logs and configure the program. This means finding private time when the child is not around and it can be inconvenient.
The best parental control software will provide remote monitoring facilities. This means that once the software is installed, all monitoring and configuration can be performed remotely via a web browser.
The convenience of this makes such a huge difference that once you have used such software it would be very difficult to go back to software without a remote monitoring facility.
What About Other Features?
Additional features that you might find useful in parental control software may include:
- The ability to email reports to you.
- The ability to set 'trigger' words or phrases that will either send you a real-time report or activate some monitoring when the child types the phrase into their computer.
- The ability to take screen shots, thus providing you with a copy of exactly what the child was seeing on their computer.
- The ability to block web sites by phrases and keywords as well as just by URL.
- The ability to log the programs you child has run on their computer.
There are other features too and they may vary from software to software.
What Should I Pay For Parental Control Software?
To get the best software, complete with remote monitoring facilities, you would expect to pay around $100. Slightly lesser software can be purchased in the $50-$75 region and then there is budget software below $50.
Summary.
Parental Control Software has an important role to play in keeping our children safe online. The only other way we could successfully manage their computer use is by physically watching them while they are using it, which is impractical, or banning them from using it altogether, which is perhaps a little unfair.
If you're still awake after reading this and want more information about Parental Control Software, please visit: http://greenfedora.com/r/a/202-buyersguide.php
I'm a technical nerd with 25 years in the computer industry, having had jobs ranging from tea boy to programmer to IT management.
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