Parental Control Reviews & Comparisons 2014

Today there are many parental control software packages available and all of them cover the basic features. However, most packages come with their own unique abilities as well. Therefore, when selecting a parental control software package the question should be asked: What it will be used for? Below are some of the top Parental Control software compared.

Showing 1 to 8 of 8 results « Previous | Next »
Rank	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
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Product Name	NetNanny	Qustodio	SentryPC	SafeEyes	KidsWatch	Salfeld Child Control	AVG Family Safety	Norton Family
Website	Visit	Visit	Visit	Visit	Visit	Visit	Visit	Visit
Pricing	US$ 39.99	US$ 44.95	US$ 49.95	US$ 49.95	US$ 45.95	US$ 29.95	US$ 49.99	US$ 49.99
Review	View	View	View	View	View	View	View	View
Parental Control Features
Time Management	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Mask Profanity	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
Social Monitoring	Yes	Yes	Limited	Advanced	No	No	Yes	Yes
Alerts	Yes	Yes	Web Based	Email	Email	No	Email	Email
Remote Admin	Yes	Yes	Limited	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Basic
User Profiles	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
Search filtering	Yes	Yes	Yes	Advanced	Yes	Limited	No	Yes
Chat & IM Control	Monitor	Yes	Monitor	Yes	Monitor	Limited	Basic	No
Reports	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Internet Filter	Yes	Advanced	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Block Pornography	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
General Information
Supported OS(es)	4	4	Windows	2	1	Windows	Windows	3
Special Features	Many	Many	Many	Many	Yes	Few	Yes	Yes

Parental Control Software Guide

Parents are beginning to realize the extent of the danger that the internet opens up to their kids. With anyone able to launch a web site with whatever type of content that they like, including adult oriented and other inappropriate content, it is becoming harder to control what influences the kids fall under.

Parental control software is the latest attempt by software corporations to offer a solution to this growing problem. Such applications can contain a list of restricted sites, block whole categories of sites (like adult, gambling, gaming, etc.) and provide a wealth of other options to help protect impressionable kids from that big bad internet world out there before they're better able to protect themselves. After all, you cannot look over their shoulder the whole time.

Free, Trial or Paid?

The majority of the parental control software available is of the paid variety usually with a price point of around $49.99 for 3 PC licenses. That said, there are several applications that do offer trial versions or free more feature-limited versions. One such commendable one is the Norton Family app, which strips out the reporting features that parents rely upon, but still offers better than a trial version to look over before making the purchase of the Premier version which includes extensive reporting features.

Web Site Filtering Subscriptions

For the more advanced software companies that continually add new web sites to their database of restricted web sites, they often either sell the software on a yearly basis or separate out the initial purchase of the software from a yearly web site filtered list subscription (much like is popular with anti-virus software).

Software Platforms

All major applications offer Windows compatibility, however not all have confirmed compatibility with the latest Windows 8. If you own a copy of the latest Windows operating system, it may be necessary to verify with company staff before making a purchase.

Some packages also feature support for the Mac OX X operating system, most often through using the Safari web browser.

No notable parental control app provider offers a version for Linux.

Licensing

In many cases, a license will be provided with product purchase that provides for up to 3 PC installations. In the case of at least one software provider, SentryPC based in Germany, this was restricted to computer in different residences/offices, or else a separate package should be bought for each location. Quite often additional licenses could be purchased for larger-sized families.

Mobile Apps

At least half the parental control desktop applications lacked a mobile app to accompany it or lacked support for iOS, Android, Blackberry and Windows Phone.

Only the largest software providers who already offer a wide variety of software packages dug deeper and offered a wider variety of mobile apps.

Remote Access

Remote access provides web-based or mobile app-based options to monitor kids activities away from the kid's PC. One would have expected all major parental control apps to offer this option, but some came up lacking. If this is of particular interest, then look out for mention of this feature within the reviews.

Monitoring & Reporting

The level of monitoring of web sites, social media sites, immediate messages, emails, and other activities varies considerably between software packages.

There is a little less variability when it comes to reporting, though packages like the Norton Family Premier package does a better than average job with the range of reporting available and provides an Android app that extends this monitoring to the smart device too.

Conclusion

Parents would be wise to familiarize themselves with the different types of parental control software packages available, the pros and cons of each, and make the best purchasing decision based on their perceived needs. There are notable differences between applications and some options like remote access are lacking in some offerings. Other apps have additional controls to prevent a savvy child from modifying the operating system to get around the restrictions without the parents knowing.