Youth Protection
Internet Parental Controls

Vital Industry Stats- American Family Association

1. Over $10-Billion spent on porn annually.
2. Larger than NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball combined
3. Over two million known porn site URL’s
4. More than 2,500 new sites coming online every week
5. Most of these sites originate offshore, not covered by any US law.
6. Unimaginable things most people would not even remotely consider sexy are routinely available on the Internet.

Only one in three parents utilize filtering software on their computers at home to protect their children.  My hope is, that if you are currently not using filtering software at your home, that you take this article and make your own search for a filtering product that fits your family’s needs.   

The following Internet safety products were tested by Internet-filter-review.com.  I have taken some excerpts from their results and listed them for you.  Their testing didn’t include all products on the market so I have included a few more products at the end of the article that you may want to consider, as well as some websites that may aid in your search. The numbers beside each product indicate their review results.

Net Nanny #1

Net Nanny had as many or more features than the other competitors. One aspect that Net Nanny stands out in, is the ability to block online games, something the other competitors have not dealt with. The other feature that was interesting was the email filtering. Even though it is not an anti-Spam product, it does filter out objectionable content in an email while still allowing you to read the email without the filth.

CYBERsitter #2

One useful function that is available that none of the other products have, is the ability to scan your hard drive for objectionable material. It also will find any types of spying programs that may have been installed on your computer, either inadvertently or intentionally. CYBERsitter also had the most features out of any of the products reviewed. CYBERsitter was the only product to include a basic email-filtering feature, even though this feature wouldn't replace a typical Spam filtering product.

ContentProtect #3

ContentProtect is a powerful filtering tool that allows you to determine what Internet content enters your home. In August 2004, the Walt Disney Company chose ContentProtect as the Internet Filter to be used on the new Disney Dream Desk PC.

What was extremely impressive was the remote management and remote reporting functions.   ContentProtect was the only product to offer these very nice features.   The remote function allows you to be anywhere in the world and be able to look at all activity logs as well as make any configuration changes. Another interesting function was the dynamic filtering.   In other words, CNN.com might get blocked in the morning because of a very violent news story.   An hour later, when the website content changed, it was allowed through
Parents can be instantly notified via email, if attempts to objectionable material are attempted.   Another nice feature was the ability to override any blocked website, as long as you have the password.

McAfee Parental Controls

McAfee Parental Controls is a good product. However, with McAfee's good name in the anti-virus marketplace, this product was a disappointment. It was extremely difficult to set up.

Even though there are a plethora of options as far as setting up ratings, sensitivities, and individual profiling, they are very difficult to understand. The overblocking/underblocking was very good, but when you did get a blocked website and performed an override function, there was an occasional looping of override options.

Norton Parental Controls

Norton Parental Controls of the Internet Security suite is a good product. Norton has a great reputation for building great products. However, this one has a ways to go before it will be considered "great".

With Norton's knowledge of port controls, it was disappointing to see that no peer-to-peer blocking was implemented. The overblocking worked extremely well. Even though there was no override function for a blocked site, most of the time you wouldn't need an override.

Several Products not included in their review, but seemed to be widely used.

Bsafe Online –Supported by American Family Association

• Highly effective and reliable—in the 99% range—best on the market today.
• No noticeable time degradation when you use your computer.
• Does not under or over-block.
• Works in a new way to plug the holes where pornography can get to your PC.
• Our maximum-security package offers a tamper-proof accountability option that generates three reports every week. To show exactly what websites that PC has visited.
• Bsafe web-based email blocks spam, porn, objectionable content and helps protect children from predators

ComputerCOP Deluxe

• Instantly see what your children have been doing online.  See images and text even if they have been deleted.
• Patented for its ease of use
• Keystroke capture utility allows parents to see if their children have been giving out personal information
• See if strangers are communicating with your children online.

Some Websites to visit for additional resources for products and information:

http://www.safersurfers.org/software.htm

http://www.safekids.com/

http://familyinternet.about.com

PROTECT YOUR KIDS TODAY AND INSTALL FILTERING SOFTWARE ON YOUR KIDS PC.