| Parental control software is a type of software package purpose-built for home computers which controls computer use, filters the Internet content, thus allowing parents to ensure a safe overall online experience for their family members.
When you decide to use a parental control software package for your family, there are necessary features you should look for. The first thing is that the program should be user-friendly. Secondly, the software should be protected with a password and difficult for knowledgeable kids and teenagers to turn it off. It should filter or block anything that a parent finds inappropriate for a kid. Some programs include profanity masking - even in emails and instant messages - a proxy monitor to keep your child from visiting a proxy website to avoid the parental control programs, and social networking controls to block or control your kid's conduct on the most visited sites, such as Facebook and MySpace. There are also programs that provide chat control. This feature is great for blocking inappropriate words and keeping detailed reports of live conversations so that you know who your child is talking to and what they are chatting about when you are unable to control.
Other features which parents may consider valuable include time limiting which allows you to set a schedule for your kid's Internet usage to certain times of the day and reporting features which will give you a detailed report of all of the Web activities on your computer. Some of the software programs also have pre-set profiles grounded on age groups specially designed to create a user-friendly set-up for computer-illiterate parents who want to shield their kids from some of the dangers arising out of browsing the Web. Some software packages allow parents to use the package on a network containing up to 3 home computers. This is a great feature to look for, if you have a few computers at home or if your kid has their own laptop.
Even though the software programs have much in common and are aimed to allow parents to monitor computer usage and filter the Web content, they have some differences in features that may make one or another work better for your family or situation. For instance, some parental controls really work well with social networking sites while some do not, so if your kid has a profile on any of these websites, you will want to select a parental control that has those features. Each program has something different to offer, so take the time to read each review carefully to decide which software program suits your needs best. |
