Parental Control Software Review

Parental control software protects kids from online dangers

If you want to protect your kids from the darker corners of the Internet, parental control software (also known as Internet-monitoring or filtering software) helps keep children safe even when you're not around. Parental control software lets parents limit what their children see and read online, filtering (or outright blocking) offensive content like porn or violence. Most programs are cloud-based management systems that also let parents remotely manage time spent on the Internet, or on their computer or device.

The best programs select which programs children can use or the content they can see; alert parents immediately via email or text message of attempts to access questionable websites or programs; monitor and log Internet activity, including on instant messaging social networks; let parents create settings for multiple users; and operate on multiple devices.

Parental control programs sometimes over-block or under-block, but performance has improved significantly over the years and is good enough to give reviewers confidence in recommending programs. Reviews also say the top filtering programs are nearly impossible for children to circumvent, provide easy-to-read reports for parents/guardians and let them manage the programs remotely.

While many parental control programs are effective, many are also subscription-based and must be renewed annually. These services tend not to be updated as frequently as other types of software. In addition, stellar parental control programs dedicated to monitoring social media networks and chats or mobile devices are difficult to come by, although many software makers include these services.

One question parents will have to ask themselves is which company's products align with their philosophy on privacy and safety. While some companies like Norton encourage dialogue and cooperation with children, keylogger company Spyrix's products are designed to secretly track a person's every move on a computer.

Our best-reviewed picks are based on ease of setup, features and performance. Norton Family (Free), previously called Norton Online Family, a popular software product that works on PCs, Macs and Android devices, gets rave reviews. Net Nanny (Est. $40) is expensive but has premium features, social network and IM filtering and a terrific interface. Safe Eyes (Est. $50) works on both PCs and Macs and is our choice for Best Reviewed parental control software for Macs.