| Parental control software is a kind of software package for your home computer that controls computer usage, filters the Web content, and allows parents to ensure a safe overall online experience for their family members.
When you decide to use a parental control software tool for your family, there are important features you should search for. First and foremost, the program should be user-friendly and easy to install and set up. Secondly, the tool should be protected with a password and difficult for savvy kids and teenagers to turn it off. It should block or filter anything that parents regard as improper for a kid. Some software programs include profanity masking - even in e-mails and instant messages - a proxy guard to keep your kid from surfing on a proxy website to avoid the parental control programs, and social networking control programs to block or control your child's conduct on the most visited websites, including 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 chat conversations for you to have an idea who your kid is chatting with and what they are chatting about when you are unable to monitor.
Other features which parents may regard as valuable include time limiting which allows you to set a schedule for your child'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 tools also have pre-set profiles grounded on age purpose-built to create a very user-friendly set-up for computer-illiterate parents who want to protect their kids from some of the dangers arising out of using the Internet. Some software tools allow parents to use the package on a network containing up to three home computers. This is a great feature to look for, if you have several computers at home or if your child has their own laptop.
Even though the software packages are similar and are aimed to allow parents to control computer use and filter the Internet content, they are different in features that may make one or another more appropriate for your family or situation. For instance, some parental controls really work well with social networking websites while some do not, so if your kid has a personal profile on any of these sites, you will want to pick out a program that has those features. Each software package has something different to offer, so take the time to read each review thoroughly to find out which program is right for you. |
