Make your Internet Child Friendly

Internet safety is a hot button topic for any parent with young children. There are so many tools and settings at our disposal and it is so hard to navigate through the choices. I have spent time over the past 9 years trying to find things that work for my children, yet provide the level of restriction that makes me feel comfortable. I have never actually found the perfect setup.

I am intrigued by this deal that is offered today on Mamapedia. While I have never used it, this looks to be an interesting deal and for $3 worth a try. Its called KidsBrowse and is a “deal” for the next few days. I watched their video and it looks interesting. Offering one of my favorite features – a lock out button, meaning they can’t exit kids mode. I am downloading it and will report back, but wanted to get the info out there just because it is one of the most cost efficient ways to implement a safe browser for your family.

Most recently I have been using Trend Micro’s Online Guardian. I was given a year subscription to try out and I have to say that I appreciate the reports and the security level it offers. Their key features are: Monitors Online Social Networking activity, Protects against Cyber Bullying and Predators, Filtering out adult and inappropriate content, and limiting internet time and setting a daily schedule. It is one of the better options given the age of my children 11, 9 and 7. While I have enjoyed it, I am not sure that I am willing to commit to the $49 a year to continue after my complimentary subscription runs out. Which will put me back in the market.

Over the years we have used:

• KidRocket which is free and was great when the kids were younger and when they had a PC. The limitations on websites and the switch to Mac knocked this one out for us.
• Zoodles which is great and offers options for almost any device you could want. So it’s a great one stop shop. But again, my kids have kind of aged out of this type of service. But if you have preschoolers this is a great one to check out.
• KidZui my kids didn’t like. We ran into a lot of issues with needing constant parental approval for everything. I would approve a website only to have it prompt them for approval for each subset page. While I appreciate the intent, it was not “smart” about filtering at all. Perk. It’s
• Kido’z is another one similar to KidZui but again is not the right fit for our family.
• bsecure is one that looks great and is suggested by Focus on the Family. Until recent;y it was not available for Mac, but now it is. I like that it is a one time purchase for $49.95. Based on the comparison from Apple Controls and their controls it looks very appealing

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So that is my quick and not dirty spiel on a few of the options out there for making your computer more child friendly. Would love to hear any other tips you might have!