So, your children are back in school. Summer has come and gone and the time for pencils, calculators and online homework is once again upon you. Oh, yeah that’s right, “online homework.” My children have online homework and it’s actually pretty cool! Only problem is that it is real easy to lose one’s focus when ctrl+T opens up a new tab so easily and Facebook/Myspace/YouTube/Twitter/AIM is just a bookmark away. In this post we’ll take a look at how to combat the back to school concentration buster by setting up a new “user login” on your Windows Vista or Windows 7 PC. » Read more: Back To School: Setting Up A New User Login To Stay Focused
Long overdue, today we’re putting out our video review of one of our favorite cellphone parental control and monitoring applications, SMobile Systems’ Security Shield with Parental Controls and Monitoring app suite. Will it prevent sexting? The short answer is yes and no. “Yes,” because perceived threat is often a great deterrent and when your children know that it’s possible for mom or dad to see everything that goes through their cellphones – even if you’re not monitoring every jot and tittle – they’re less likely to engage in risky behaviors. “No” because it won’t necessarily stop people from sending lewd images to your children, though your children will be more likely to tell their friends, “Hey, don’t send that kind of stuff to my phone. There’s a chance the ‘rents could see it!” The great thing about this software is that if by chance your child is an unwitting recipient of a sext message, you can actually delete that photo on the phone directly from the web interface itself, then have a chat with your child about the ramifications of having such media on his or her phone. So, check out our video review below and then read on for a few more bullet points on the software, as well as a coupon code below. We connected with this company and asked them to offer our viewers a discount and they were nice enough to do so, so give them a try and see if you like the software. We’re getting nothing from the discount, no kick-backs, nada….just good software we think you should be aware of! » Read more: Sexting Prevention? DS Reviews// SMobile Parental Controls for Cellphones
I know you may be thinking, “Oh Lord. What now?” Yeah, there’s always something new in town on the web but this is nothing new. Just a new take on an old idea. The concept is simple: Some guy gets his hands on some not so appropriate images of your daughter (and in some cases, your son) and then uses those photos to extort her to perform sex acts via webcam or more photos, telling her that if she doesn’t want those original photos to go out to all of her family and friends, she better comply with his demands. There’s the story which hit the news, about a 40 year old man from Massachusetts who posed as a 17 year old to gain nude photos from underage girls, then extort them into performing sex acts on webcam. There’s also Anthony Stancl, an 18 year old senior who posed as a girl on Facebook to get nude photos of 30 of his fellow male classmates. He was arrested and is now doing 15 years in prison.
This is happening to teenagers and in some cases tweens, so what can you do to lessen the chances that your child will become a victim of one of these internet predators? We’ve outlined 5 steps you can take to help combat this problem.
This week, we sat down and gave SafeEyes6 from InternetSafety.com a try and it didn’t disappoint. In our opinion, the most important added feature of this popular parental control software is the ability to filter television and film content, as well as YouTube videos. In this area, the software delivers on its promise to block rated content and explicit content on YouTube, but not without some gotchas. We’ll get into those in a moment, but it is worth noting that those “gotchas” didn’t change our opinion of the quality of this parental control package.
First things first, this software is very easy to install, configure and run. You just hit up http://www.internetsafety.com and click on the “Download” link in the navigation bar at the top of the page and give the thirty day trial a run. When you download the software, you’re given the option to set up your account with the SafeEyes website. This is the Admin account which you’ll be needing to log in and make changes to the software. Make sure you use a secure password that your children won’t be able to easily guess. After configuring the Admin settings you can then go ahead and set up the software to protect your kids as they surf their way around the net. The options you have in SafeEyes6 for protecting and monitoring your child’s activities on the ‘net are:
1. Content Controls -- Flexible content control allows you to select the types of website that are appropriate.
2. Program Controls -- Control Instant Messengers, P2P File Sharing, and other harmful programs.
3. Time Controls -- Control the amount of time spent online, and the times when the internet is available.
4. Usage Logging -- Create and review logs of websites visited, programs used on the Internet, and Instant Messaging Chats.
5. Usage Alerts -- Be notified instantly via email, text message, or phone call when someone visits inappropriate websites.
The content controls, IM logging, time controls and usage logging have become pretty standard fare and offer a wide variety of options for alerting parents to inappropriate behavior on the ‘net, but where this package really shines is in the “Videos” tab. InternetSafety.com is ahead of the curve on this one and allows you to control or block: YouTube Clip-by-Clip, Filter Online TV by Rating, Peer-to-peer and Media Player Blocking (streaming media). We go into this in detail in the video so make sure to check that out. The only caveat to SafeEyes6 video filtering is that it relies on the website you’re viewing video from to properly categorize its videos so that the proper filters are activated. So, basically the software relies on YouTube to properly identify an upload as having explicit content, or ABC.com to properly attach a show’s rating to the video file on its server. No rating attached, or a nude beach video isn’t flagged as inappropriate and it won’t be blocked. That said, this technology is fairly new, so we look forward to watching it mature as watching videos via the web continues to evolve.
One of our favorite features of the software is how the control panel is set up. It’s an activity oriented set up which makes it very intuitive. You want to filter web content? Click on the “Web” tab. Want to set up alerts for whenever a child attempts to circumvent a web filter or block? Click the “Instant Alerts” tab. Worth noting as well is that the “Music” tab also allows you to block explicit content from being downloaded on iTunes, but iTunes also has its own parental controls as well. That said, it’s nice to have the feature built into SafeEyes because there’s a lot to keep track of with children and computer use and being able to control multiple facets of your little ones’ computer use from one place is definitely a plus!
Check out the video for a look at how the “Videos” tab works and the internet videos filters in action, as well as our final analysis of SafeEyes6 at the end of the video.
One of our missions at the Consumer Electronics Show was to take a look at the options available to parents for keeping tabs on and helping guide children’s choices as they interact with the internet. One stop on that journey was to InternetSafety.com’s booth to talk about the latest release of their popular parental control software, SafeEyes6. Stanley Holditch, Internet Marketing Manager for InternetSafety.com took a moment to speak with Digital Shepherds regarding the philosophy of the company, the latest features in SafeEyes6 and their iPhone/iPod Touch app.
Mr. Holditch talks about their iPhone/iPod Touch app.
You can watch a live demo of SafeEyes Mobile HERE.
Mr. Holditch talks about the company’s philosophy.
I know one thing that was, and from time to time still is an issue for me is YouTube video content and it’s good to know that SafeEyes6 also works on YouTube to help your young internet users steer clear of inappropriate material. Once the software is released, we’ll take an in-depth look at it and post up a review. To learn more about SafeEyes, or to download a free trial, you can check them out at http://www.internetsafety.com
Digital Shepherds spoke with InternetSafety.com about their upcoming release, SafeEyes6, at the Consumer Electronics Show. For the full story, check us out at: http://www.digitalshepherds.com/blog
One of the companies DigitalShepherds will be looking to talk to at the upcoming CES conference in Las Vegas, Nevada is InternetSafety.com. Makers of the popular internet monitoring sofware, SafeEyes. They’ve really done something great here with a whole suite of products to address the needs of the home user, business owner and mobile market (iPhone, iPod Touch only at this time).
According to internetsafety.com, SafeEyes for the home allows parents to monitor computer use in several key areas:
Content Controls – Flexible content control allows you to select the types of website that are appropriate.
Program Controls – Control Instant Messengers, P2P File Sharing, and other harmful programs.
Time Controls – Control the amount of time spent online, and the times when the internet is available.
Usage Logging – Create and review logs of websites visited, programs used on the Internet, and Instant Messaging Chats.
Usage Alerts – Be notified instantly via email, text message, or phone call when someone visits inappropriate websites.
The mobile product on the other hand does not offer quite as comprehensive monitoring on the iPhone and iPod Touch as it is more or less a web filter only and does not interact with any instant messaging on the device. Though, in tandem with the parental controls already built into both devices, it is a strong product.
For more info, check out SafeEyes on their website.
One fun tidbit on this software…it’s apparently popular enough that a Facebook fanpage has been started for those (we suspect annoyed youths) who hate internetsafety.com. It currently has 276 fans. So, it would appear that InternetSafety.com is successful in what they’re doing! Keep up the great work guys.
A new feature has been added to Google’s SafeSearch, it’s called “Lock SafeSearch.” This doesn’t make it impossible for children to bypass these settings, but it certainly makes it much harder for the child who is not highly motivated to seek out sites you’d rather them not be frequenting.
To change the settings, first go HERE. Once there, go to the upper right hand corner of the page where it says “Sign In” and sign into your Google account. Once you’ve signed in, it will take you back to the “Preferences” page where you can now set the filter to the appropriate setting. I have younger children so mine is set to “Use strict filtering.”
From here, clicking on “Lock SafeSearch” will take you to a page which (1)asks you to sign in with your password again. This page also gives you information about locking the SafeSearch and what it looks like when you do. You re-enter your password which then takes you to a (2)screen with a radio button, “Lock SafeSearch.” Clicking that speeds you on your way. When you go back to the Preferences page you’ll see that (3)the SafeSearch is now locked and only you can unlock it. In the end, you’ll always know if you’re children are SafeSearching by (4)seeing the large balls in the upper right hand corner of the screen. These steps are illustrated for you in the screen captures below.
And there you have it! One caveat though, this is browser specific so if you only set this in Internet Explorer the child will be able to use Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, etc. to go around your filtering. In addition, many browsers now come with a private browsing feature which will, in effect, defeat this feature as well. I’d say that this is more for parents of young children who are not technically savvy yet and you just want to keep them from stumbling upon the nastier bits the ‘net has to offer. It’s also a fair deterrent for children who may be looking for inappropriate content on a whim and aren’t necessarily that motivated to get to what they’re looking for.
That said, the best filter is always you, the parent. Good communication and active, involved parenting and supervision are the best tools in our arsenal. Take the time to educate your children in an age appropriate fashion so they grow with the necessary critical thinking skills to productively and properly navigate the Worldwide Web.
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