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OnlineFamily.Norton

Free
Reviewed
April 2010
Email
OnlineFamily.Norton

Best web-based parental controls

Pros
  • Encourages parent-child negotiation
  • Web control good for PCs and Macs
  • Easy remote configuration and reporting
  • It's free, at least for now
Cons
  • Might not stay free of charge
  • Ineffective against unknown proxies

Norton's parental controls on such products as Norton Internet Security don't get much praise from reviewers, but the company's online offering, OnlineFamily.Norton, fares far better. Because OnlineFamily.Norton is managed over the Internet, it works for both PCs and Macs -- though some functions, like its good IM filtering, don't work for Macs. Critics are impressed with OnlineFamily.Norton's emphasis on communication between parents and children. The program, for instance, allows children to send their parents an explanatory message when they want to access a possibly inappropriate website. Reviewers believe OnlineFamliy.Norton is only outclassed by the top-rated Net Nanny (*Est. $40 per year), which can block proxy servers OnlineFamily.Norton can't. Subscriptions to OnlineFamily.Norton were originally supposed to cost $60 per year beginning in January 2010, but as of this writing, the website is still free. It is unclear if and when Norton will charge for the service.

There are few professional reviews of OnlineFamily.Norton. The best is at PCMag.com, which takes a thorough look at the program's functions and compares it with similar software. ComputerShopper.com also rates OnlineFamily.Norton, but doesn't provide quite as much context.

Our Sources

1. PCMag.com

PCMag.com's Neil J. Rubenking is impressed with OnlineFamily.Norton, saying that the new web-based service is a great improvement over the "lame" parental controls offered as part of Norton's security products. Rubenking is particularly impressed with instant messaging supervision, but feels the whole package is very good. Only Net Nanny edges it out in some areas, such as proxy filtering.

Review: OnlineFamily.Norton, Neil J. Rubenking, May 1, 2009

2. Computer Shopper

Reviewer David English scores OnlineFamily.Norton just below Net Nanny, ComputerShopper.com's top choice for parental control software. English says that OnlineFamily.Norton has a few failings -- notably the inability to block proxy servers -- but that it still holds its own against Net Nanny and others. English particularly likes how the program emphasizes communication between parents and their children instead of relying on a fixed set of rules.

Review: OnlineFamily.Norton, David English, May 2009

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