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Please note: The reports in this section are not product reviews or tests; they're meant to spotlight options for you to consider, as well as milestones in children's online-safety technology development. Comments from readers on their own experiences with these products and services are most welcome - and, with your permission, we publish them. Do email us your own product reviews anytime!
ChildWatch: Filtering + desktop management (April 28, '00 issue)
ChildWatch is a free online-safety tool that combines filtering, monitoring, a time-out mechanism, and computer management. It's the product of a partnership between a software company, Pacel Corp., and Texaco-sponsored Child Watch of North America, a nonprofit organization that focuses on recovering missing children.
With this product, parents can control how much time kids spend online, where they go online, and what applications and even documents they can use on the computer, Pacel says. Internet filtering is the part that isn't free. For a monthly fee of $5, parents can access and edit the "black list" of blocked sites that have been reviewed by ChildWatch's panel of "experts" (including, the company says, "local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, judicial representatives, and child psychologists"). In keeping with its parent organization's mission, ChildWatch comes with a screen saver that displays the faces of missing children. To us, the software sounds like a less powerful version of the "super browser" we reported on a few weeks ago, Activator Desk.
If any of you try this product and would like to comment on the experience, fellow subscribers would probably appreciate your perspective. Please email us.
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