Parents have the ability to set web restriction levels by high, medium, none, or custom all of which carry an explanation of the sites blocked as you click on the level. You can also custom block by 1 of 10 categories. It is easy to use as well as customizable to the parents needs. Parents also have the ability to block file downloads to the computer which can cause security, performance, or licensing issues.
Games controls (tied into prescriptive guidance from the Entertainment Software Ratings Boards, or other global ratings boards or by single category).
The parent can block by the recommended levels of the rating board or custom block categories from blood and violence to nudity based on their own family needs.
- Time of use controls that control when a managed user can access and use the computer
If parents want to set a block of time that their children can use the computer for gaming or homework, etc., they can schedule this hour by hour for each day of the week.
- Auditing & monitoring
Parents can view the activities that their children are using the computer for from web sites visited to web sites blocked to most utilized applications. Also important is amount of time spent on the computer if you haven’t applied the times controls so that you can manage the amount of time your children are spending on the computer.
Parents will also have control over the applications that the parentally controlled account will use, so an example would be, if a parent would like to block their child from having access to P2P programs or IM, they could block that particular account from access to these applications.
A point to mention with all these tools is that they are readily apparent to the children and young adults that might be using one of the parentally controlled accounts. If a child goes to a website that has been blocked, they will receive a message on the screen that tells them they have been blocked from the site. We like to say that “Overt is better than Covert” in the case of family settings so as to drive better and more frequent conversations between the parents and their children in these regards.
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