Today, web filtering software is a great tool that allows you to take charge of your computer and its usage…again to protect your kids…but which one should you choose…find out!
Now you'll be glad to know that all it takes is just a few clicks to keep track of what your children are doing while online…parental control software enables you to do just that even from another computer. This would allow you to monitor and control what you want your kids to access online even if you're not physically around to supervise them.
However, with thousands of parental filtering software available today, choosing the best internet filtering program can be quite overwhelming. This is especially true if you don't have any idea on how to choose the said software and what to look for.
So to help you in selecting the best parental control software that is suited to your needs…here are some of the most important factors that you should consider in getting one.
Monitoring software versus internet content filtering software…explained
When it comes to selecting software, you can choose between monitoring and internet filtering software.
Internet monitoring software
Internet monitoring software usually do not filter out any bad content, all it does is inform you if someone is accessing inappropriate stuff. A lot of packages will enable you to monitor PC activities such as net surfing, chat, email messages and instant messaging. Other software even have features like screen shots at predetermined time schedule.
Your children may not even realize that you're monitoring them since some of these packages work in stealth mode. But of course, you may want to tell your children that you're using software to monitor their online surfing, which could prevent them from doing inappropriate things while online.
Internet content filtering software
Internet content filtering software or parental control software, on the other hand, will enable you to have more control over your child's online activities. It will allow you to set up content that is displayed and block specific websites which are not appropriate for your kids.
So which one to choose?
Choosing which parental control software to use can be difficult…however it may not be so hard to make a decision if you will base your choice on your kids' age groups.
So if your child is aged 10 and below, you may want an internet filtering software, since these age group are prone to be accidentally exposed to indecent material on the internet.
On the other hand, if your children are teenagers, most likely they are more technically savvy than you. Therefore, the best choice can be internet monitoring software so that you can keep track of their activity, the one with porn blocking feature is much better.
If you can't make up your mind, then you can have both.
Although web filtering software helps you to make internet surfing much safer for your kids, nothing beats the importance of talking to your children about the safety measures that they should observe in online surfing.