For households with kids, it is important to invest in parental control software to monitor what they are doing on the internet (especially without the parents’ consent). However, the sheer volume of internet monitoring tools available in the market can make it a confusing task for parents to find out that is suitable for their needs.
To help you identify the best web filtering tool out there, free from all of the unnecessary trappings, you need to be on the lookout for a few basic features. This will make your job easier when it comes to managing the monitoring solution and easy to configure even for the not-so-tech-savvy folks.
A chat filtering or monitoring feature is one of the must-have features in parental control software. Most teens or younger kids these days spend hours chatting friends and who-knows-who. Make sure that you monitor your kids’ chat activity to ensure that their safety is under control and to alert you with any suspicious activities they might have planned with the person on the other end of the chat room.
Also another important feature to look into is web blocking. This feature enables you to specific websites that you want to block on your PC, thus preventing your child access to the site and its content. Some of the most common sites that are blocked for this purpose are the ones that allow peer-to-peer file sharing or pornography sites. The reasons for blocking them are obvious. In addition to blocking the site itself, you can also block pop-ups on your site. Most of these pop-up advertisements contain adult material that might pique your child’s interest into visiting such websites.
Other internet monitoring tools on the web also enable parents to block their kids from sharing personal information via chat or other internet channels. These information can range from any of the following: credit card numbers, phone numbers, address, and so on.
It is also advantageous if the parental control software you have installed into your child’s PC comes with remote management solutions. This will enable you to maximize your internet monitoring capacity such that you can oversee your child’s activity on the web even when you are away from home.