Parental Control Software Top 5

Parental Control Software Reviews

Learn More About Parental Control Software

Parental control software is exactly what it says.  It's software that allows parents to control what their children  & family are able to view and do online.  As the Internet becomes more of a necessity in our families life because of work, school or just fun, it also allows more opportunities for us to easily and freely access inappropriate content and websites that can change or effect our lives forever.


Here are just a few staggering facts about the Internet:

     
1 in 4 children have been exposed to pornography online.

       45% of youth said someone has made unwanted sexual comments to them on the Internet.

       47% of children have received e-mails with links to pornographic websites.

       57% of parents worry that strangers will contact their children online.   

       86 % of the girls polled said they could chat online without their parents’ knowledge.

       64% of teens say they do things online that they wouldn’t want their parents to know about.

       There are an estimated 372 million porn web pages of which about 50% are freely accessible by anyone.

       40% of teens said they have posted personal information about themselves on the Internet.

To read more facts, visit our Internet Safety Statistics.


Most likely, if your child is using the Internet, they are also going to chat rooms and using Instant Messengers.  Although this can be fun among friends, the fact is, 75% of children end up talking with someone they don't even know.  They could be giving out personal information such as their address, phone numbers and even pictures of themselves.  This has become one of the biggest concerns among the Internet because many kids and teenagers have no idea who the other person really is.

How will Parental Control Software Help My Family?

Most parental control software is highly customizeable.  What this means is that you can easily set the software to control what websites your family visits,  whether or not they can chat, what programs they are allowed to access, what times of the day they can go online and much more. 

Listed below are some of the main features of parental control software:

Ability To Record - Many programs such as SpyAgent and WebWatcher allow you to see exactly what your family does online by recording and storing information such as chat conversations in chat rooms and instant messengers, screen shots of what they are looking at, every keystroke they type so you know exactly what information they are giving out, every email sent and received, what websites they visit and what keywords they type in search engines

Ability To Block - If your main concern for your family is to prevent them from accidently accessing inappropriate websites such as pornography, then try Safe Eyes. This feature allows you to block websites based on categories such as adult content, drugs, violence and gambling.  Many parental control software programs also allow you to enter keywords to block.  For example: If one of your keywords was "nudity", any website containing that word will be blocked.  You can also enter website addresses to block.

Screen SnapShots - Some parental control software will automatically take snapshots of the users screen.  Most programs allow you to control how often the snapshots are taken such as every 30 seconds or every 30 minutes.  This allows you to see exactly what they see

Ability To Control Programs - This feature allows you to block a range of applications such as instant messengers, media players, newsgroups, email, FTP, and more.  This can prevent such actions like illegal music and file swapping and chatting with unknown strangers.

Online Time Control - Some parental control software allows you to  allocate the amount of time each day that a person can have access to the web. You can set different time limits for different users. Once a user's time limit has been reached,  the software ends access to the web and ensures that the user cannot regain access.  This is vey useful if the children are going to be home alone and you do not want them on the Internet by themselves.

Notification Alerts - Would you like to know when and if your family accesses something you did not want them to? Many parental controls software programs will send you an email or even call your cell phone when inappropriate material has been accessed.

What We Recommend

Whether you decide to go with one of the parental control programs we have on our site or any other, try it first.  Most will offer either a 7 - 31 day free trial.  Because these programs are all so different, make sure you get the one that works best for you and your family.  To see our choices, visit our Parental Control Software Reviews.
DISCLAIMER: All monitoring products are intended for use on a computer that you own. In addition, if the person you want to monitor is 18 or older, you must tell them they are being monitored to comply with law. Please check all laws before use
Main Menu
Web Directories
Partner Link