What is Parental Control Software?

Parental Control Software for internet and computer monitoring is a must if your children are online regularly.  Online safety statistics are scary and real.  So what is Parental Control Software and how does it work?

The software generally comes in two main types: Parental control software for filtering and parental control software for monitoring. As the strength of the software is totally dependent on a families needs, it is important to understand the main features of each type of internet parental control software before downloading.

Internet Parental Control Software is software that can be downloaded onto computers in order to monitor and control a users computer and internet activity.  Parental Control Software can set restrictions, block, monitor and record all or just certain internet and computer activity, based on the settings you give it.

The Software is used:

-By parents to monitor and control their child’s internet and computer usage.  This gives parents peace of mind, while giving children the freedom to use the internet as a social and learning tool, whilst ensuring they do not endanger themselves or their family.
-By adults to find out what their spouse or significant other may be up to.

-By employers to help assure employees adhere to company guidelines (and aren’t abusing or wasting company resources and time)

The software generally comes in two main types:  Parental Control Filtering Software and Parental Control Monitoring Software.

Parental Control Filtering Software

These programs work by using Internet filtering processes to block specific actions that the software and/or the parents set.  The best parental control filter should provide the following features:

-Blocking access to specific types of sites by URL restriction such as gambling and porn websites. When your child tries to go to one of these websites an “HTTP 404 Page Not Found” error will pop up. You can also block certain computer programs like games and file downloading from the internet like music downloading, you tube or pictures.

-Content Filtering by specific words or phrases like “sex” or “drugs” can ensure searches made on those words are blocked.  You can also set up a filter that blocks access to certain traffic on the Internet, such as email, newsgroups, instant messaging, and P2p (peer to peer) hosting.

-Management & Time Usage controls.  For example setting time limits that will limit and restrict the computer to certain times of the day or to a certain amount of downloads. When reached the computer will simply shut off. This can also be set for internet and program use.  Some parental control filter software will also issue alerts to parents (via email or text) when their child tries to do something they shouldn’t like access restricted sites or search restricted keywords.

Our Consumer Guide Article What is Blocking and Filtering Software has a more in depth look at the main features you should look for in Parental Control Filtering Software.

Parental Control Filter Software is great for Schools, Libraries and other public places. It is mostly effective with younger kids as blocking websites often fails to keep teenagers away from inappropriate content as they simply use a friends computer or try to go around the software.  This is where Parental Control Monitoring Software comes in.

Parental Control Monitoring Software

Monitoring software is generally completely invisible (undetectable) to the user and allows them to use computer and internet freely, while allowing the parent/spouse/employee to monitor and record all activity.  Parental Control Monitoring software will record keywords searched, sites visited, emails, instant messages, chat room conversations, passwords.  This information can then be accessed via reports.

Parents are also often given choices on how closely they monitor their child.  For example, some will simply want a basic email report of what their child has done online. Others may want to monitor IM and chat content, see actual screen shots of what the user has been up to, and obtain passwords.

-Screen Shots. Most parental control monitoring software sends reports that are word based with a list of sites visited, keywords searched, emails written etc, while other software reports via actual screen shots of the sites visited and pages accessed.  This gives you a VCR playback type reporting that is easy to understand and go through.

-Remote Reporting. Remote access is very important to ensure that you can retrieve the reports remotely without having to be on the computer you are monitoring.  This can be done via email, or some with some software via an online site that is password protected.

Our Consumer Guide article What is Monitoring Software takes a more in depth look at the main features you should look for in parental control monitoring software.

Internet Parental Control Software when used properly is a great tool to ensure the safety of your child.  Some software only uses filtering or monitoring, while some software use a combination of both. It is best to work out what features you would like in the software first then have a look at the parental control software reports and you will see a “features” section, actual consumer reviews and overall score.