Is your child safe?

Some things that you should consider for when parental control software include:

• web filtering capabilities and effectiveness (filter by categories, keywords, blacklist, whitelist)

• app blocking features (disable IM, email, web, or specific programs and specific times)

• monitoring capabilities (email, chat, websites and web searches, screenshots, etc.)

• management capabilities (remote management?, email notifications?)

Parental Control Software - Common Questions

Q: Why do I need parental control software?

A: A report recently published by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and the University of New Hampshire revealed that of a sample of children & teens who use the Internet:

• 1 in 5 children - Solicited for sex in the past year.
• 1 in 33 children - Aggressively solicited sexual, meaning that the child was threatened, asked to meet, called on the phone, or received mail or gifts.
• 1 in 4 children - Exposed to photos of people having sex
• 1 in 17 children - Threatened or harassed on the Internet, including threats of harm to the child, friends or other family members.

Q: What makes a good parental control solution?

A: A truly effective parental control solution should have filtering/blocking capabilities as well as monitoring capabilities. Not only must you be able to protect children by resticting access to what they can access online, but you must also have the ability to monitor their online activities such as: who they are communicating with, what they are communicating about, are they being sexually solicited, what are they searching for, what programs are they running, what are they looking at (screenshots), etc.. By knowing what they are doing and seeing, you will stay informed of their activity and therefore be able to take appropriate action. Very few parental control programs offer both blocking and complete monitoring capabilities effectively.