DigitalShepherds

Recently I sat down for a Skype chat with the head of a new company offering something very promising in the parental control/family management software segment, Hanan Lavy of United Parents Online. A friend had forwarded an article about his company and I found myself intrigued by what was written so I figured I’d get in touch with them through their UnitedParents.com portal and get some more information. What we spoke about could prove to be the future of child monitoring software and I must admit that the geek in me is giddy with anticipation, provided it fully delivers.

So, what is it that United Parents Online is offering? Through UnitedParents.com they’re offering what I can best describe as an early warning system for parents. This is not software which alerts you to inappropriate contact alone, though it does do that. This is not software that is reactive, though it does offer parental notifications via email or sms if there is a problem with inappopriate online interactions, or even “iffy” ones. This is, however, software which utilizes up to 30 parameters of analysis to digitally fingerprint individuals who are attempting what is deemed by the parent (and other system conditions), to be inappropriate contact before the contact has become overtly problematic. To put this in english, imagine having the FBI’s Cyber Crimes detectives at your beck and call, monitoring your child’s interactions with people online. They are monitoring your child’s conversations, but most importantly, they’re monitoring what is being said by the person interacting with your child. Someone asking too many times for a picture of your child? A red flag is sent up. Someone asking persistently about meeting your child offline or for your child’s address? Another red flag is sent up. Your child lies about their age and is conversing with someone quite a bit their senior? Red flag. That’s UnitedParents.com.

How does UnitedParents’ software know how to flag individuals? When using the software, parents are greeted with configuration settings which allow them to input various information including the childs age. The system used by UnitedParents.com begins creating a logical fingerprint, which is a fancy way to say, a profile of the individual and their M.O. and sends this information across it’s network to stop this individual from having any further contact with any children using software or services that has the United Parents’ software solution integrated into it. The idea here is that the software will be integrated into Instant Messaging applications and social networking sites so that when there are “persons of interest,” there will be quite a broad network of users protected. The initial release of the beta software from UnitedParents is targeted at business who provide the instant messaging services and social networking sites, followed up a few months later by a software offering for personal use.

One thing you may wonder is if someone who is actually your child’s age is contacting your child and asking to share a picture, maybe a well known school friend or trusted relative like a cousin, how does the software handle that? In the case of gray areas, the parental notification features kick in and parents are notified as a cautionary measure. Though not available to the public yet, we here at Digital Shepherds will be keeping a close eye on the developments with United Parents Online to see what develops for the personal user in the future, as well as how they fare with getting businesses to pick up their product and integrate into highly trafficked social messaging destinations. When we’re able, we’ll bring you a full review of the personal product.