McAfee Runs Interference for Kids on the Net New Parental Controls Software Blocks Sites, Filters Chat Eric Grevstad
Mon 12/2/02 -- It's bad enough that your kids can be exposed to porn or hate speech on the Web; it's even worse that they might be exposed to online predators. McAfee Security Consumer hopes to help parents protect their children with McAfee Parental Controls 1.0, a new suite of identity protection, chat filtering, online time limit, and other tools that lets Mom and Dad manage how each child can communicate across the Internet.
The $30 package can be customized to block specific words and Web sites, or to default to age-specific settings for Web site blocking, objectionable word filtering, Internet access time limits, and chat filtering (the ability to monitor a child's chat messages and block inappropriate and offensive content). All settings can be customized for each child in the family.
During both chat sessions and Web surfing, identity protection features allow parents to secure info such as names, addresses, phone numbers, and bank-account and credit-card numbers, and prevent these and other specified pieces of data from being transmitted without parental permission.
An activity log accessible only by parents details each child's online activity, including time spent online, Web sites visited or tried, files downloaded, and e-mail addresses of correspondence and attempted correspondence.
