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| Net Nanny 6.5 Star Ratings |
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As a parent with children who are very technically literate and using the computer and internet more than ever before, it is so important to stay on top of what they are doing. Does this mean you should look over their shoulders every two minutes while they are online? Of course not - what parent has time to do that? Fortunately, there are parental control software programs which can do it for you. Even for parents who are not internet savvy at all, Net Nanny makes it easy to get the parental controls up and running.
By right-clicking on the Net Nanny icon in the system tray next to the clock or by double-clicking the shortcut icon which is installed on the desktop, you can customize all of your settings. It is a very quick and easy set-up process. Net Nanny is one of the more well-known parental control software programs available, so we really wanted to put it to the test to see how well it works and which features and benefits it offers to families.
When you try to open the admin tools on Net Nanny, you automatically have to type in the password – every time – not just the first time. Once inside the admin tools, you have the options to Add or Remove users. This feature is great if you have children of different age levels and you want them each to be only able to access age-appropriate material on the internet. When you click to Add a new user, you can either completely customize the profile or choose a pre-defined profile for the following: Young Child, Child, Pre-Teen, Teen, Young Adult, Adult. For this review, we set up a “Pre-Teen” profile. As a Pre-Teen user on the computer, the settings are as follows:
- Filter Settings: Blocked for objectionable websites, chat rooms, peer-to-peer, and newsgroups.
- Time Controls: Blocked between 10pm – 6am
- Monitoring: Enabled for all activity
- Games: Allowed to play E10+ (Everyone Age 10 +)
You then add a User Name and Email Address and set up a password for that user and click “OK”. We also set up an adult’s profile to see how the two would work simultaneously. When trying to access inappropriate sites, a warning box opens which says that the website is being blocked based on the content. As an admin, you can filter the content manually as well as manage settings to allow or disallow social networking sites like Facebook. When testing different websites, the filtering worked very well and whether typed directly as a URL or from a search in a search engine, it only allowed age appropriate content for a pre-teen and gave the option for an override for adult content to be viewed.
Net Nanny 6.5 Parental Control Software Features:
- Keyword Blocking
- Remote Management
- Pornography Blocking
- PC Game Blocking
- IM Alert/Analysis
- Search Engine Integration
- Cell Phone Alerts
- Fully Customizable
What’s New with Net Nanny 6.5 Parental Control Software?
The main difference with Net Nanny 6.5 is that it offers profanity masking on websites, in emails, and in instant messages. Instead of seeing the naughty word, your child will see something like this: @#!*%. The software has new social network filtering which is a great tool for sites like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and others. You can control the content your children see on such sites as well as view a report of their conversations and see detailed information about the pictures, videos, personal descriptions and other content they are looking at. There is also a new Proxy Guard feature which prevents your child from using a Proxy Server to get past the Net Nanny controls.
Net Nanny 6.5 Pricing:
$39.99 for the first subscription and $19.99 for each additional subscription. If you already have Net Nanny version 5.5, you can upgrade to 6.5 for free. There is a 14 day free trial.
Net Nanny Customer Support:
You can contact Net Nanny/Content Watch from 8am-5pm Monday through Friday at 1-800-485-4008 (MST). When contacting the customer service department with a question about one of the product features, it took well over ten minutes to get through to a customer support staff member. She explained a few of the features and answered all of my questions thoroughly. Alternatively, if you need additional support during off hours, you can either send them an email directly to info@contentwatch.com.
Summary:
Overall, Net Nanny 6.5 is well-designed parental control software and a great choice for families who share a computer. It has pre-loaded profiles for all ages and gives parents the tools needed to protect their children online and to monitor all of their activity to ensure it is appropriate.
Pros:
Inexpensive Controls for every aspect of the internet from searching to instant messaging and social media sites.
Different pre-loaded profiles allow easy set up for different members of your family in minutes.
Cons:
If you forget to log off and your child comes to the computer within 10 minutes of you, they are able to access the computer as an adult and have access to unrestricted content.
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