Parental Control Software

The Great Parental Control Software Debate

As a parent, I understand your concern. In most places, the Internet is still largely unregulated and unrestricted. That means anyone with a computer and an internet connection can freely surf the web and all that it has to offer. And of course that includes the good stuff, the bad stuff, and the downright scary. Surfing with abandon is okay for adults, but for kids, an all-access pass to any and all kinds of websites can cause expose them to material that's either age-inappropriate, offensive, or potentially harmful.

There are several software options parents can use to protect their children from the more nefarious sites on the internet. Parental control software is readily available and tailored to protect children from accessing adult-oriented websites.

But not everyone agrees about the effectiveness or even the necessity of parental control software. Some say the best parental control is placing the computer in a common area where Mom or Dad can always look over their shoulder. Others are staunch advocates against any type of censorship on the Internet, including the censoring of children's web surfing. Bennett Haselton is one such advocate and makes his case on Peacefire.org. "Having a debate about whether people under 18 can handle being on the Internet," Haselton says, "is a bit silly at this point, because we already know that they can." And Jo Glanville, an editor for the Index on Censorship, is a bit more cynical. She claims that "Clamping down on internet freedoms has been a lucrative enterprise for software manufacturers."

The need for internet blocking software to limit what websites can be accessed does go beyond the family computer, though. It can be useful in schools, libraries, or even workplace settings. Whatever your parenting style or position on the matter, the fact is there are plenty of parental control and internet blocking applications available and some are more effecient than others.

Popular Parental Control Software Packages

McAfee, long known for their desktop anti-virus software, has added parental controls feature to their latest consumer product, Total Protection 2009. This security product is for Windows and is compatible with Internet Explorer 6.0 or later version and Mozilla Firefox version 1.5 or later. It lists with a rebate at $39.99 for a one-year subscription. You get other features besides parental control: anti-virus and spyware, anti-spam, firewall, identity theft protection and data backup capabilities. A useful feature is the ability to enable age-appropriate searching for each user of a computer. This setting ensures that the safety filters of popular search engines like Yahoo and Google are turned on so that a youngster isn't exposed to an inappropriate website. Parents can also add specific websites or keywords that may be linked to content they would not want their child to access. McAfee Total Protection Security can be downloaded for a trial period of thirty days, and you can use it to protect up to three PCs.

Safe Eyes is another program designed to shield kids from the darker side of the Internet. Safe Eyes can run on Windows or Mac. It's a robust program and with it parents can perform a variety of safety checks; blocking websites, blocking or logging instant messages, monitor e-mail, or get alerts sent by email or cell phone. It may seem like overkill, but this multi-platform program provides granular parental controls at a relatively low price of $49.95.

Other popular parental control software packages include Net Nanny, CyberPatrol Parental Controls, and Bsafe Online. There's even freeware out there for parental controls. The non-profit group SafeFamilies.org provides a free Internet filter that parents can use to block certain websites. It's called the We-Blocker and the program gives parents control over what kids access online. Not as comprehensive as a solution as McAfee's or as detailed as Safe Eyes, We-Blocker still allows parents to have some degree of control over their children's web-surfing and it's free.

Do these programs guarantee that kids won't find a way around the controls each program offers? No, of course not. Yet, for parents worried about what a child may be exposed to online, or who a child may be exposed to, parental control software can provide some peace of mind when you're not there to keep tabs on their online activities.