04/04/2012

New Site Announcement: parental control software reviews



One of the most common questions we get is:
Which antivirus software should I buy to protect my kids online?
Really though, when we probe a little deeper with the visitor who's asking the question, there are two intents behind the original question.
  1. What's the best at keeping a virus off my kid's PC?
  2. What's the best at keeping my kids away from sites with objectionable content?
When it comes to the second one, many of the top Internet security suites do come with parental controls. The problem is: they're just not as good as dedicated parental control software. After all, they really are meant to be antivirus software first and foremost.

So, as happened with this site when we looked at the antivirus software review landscape back in 2006, we found found a need. From that came pcAntivirusReviews.com.

Here we are now in 2012, and again we saw a problem. Most importantly, the other review sites all try to pigeonhole kids of all ages into one "best" product. That's just not reality though. The software needed for monitoring a seven year old is usually quite different from the software for monitoring a 17 year old.

And, seeing no sites that were testing the software as thoroughly as we'd like it tested, we're proud to announce the launch of our own parental control software review site.

The reviews are done, and while the site is in its infancy now, it's online and ready to go. Once you've checked it out, if you have questions, we're extremely familiar with each of the programs, having just finished our first complete round of testing, so please ask. We're glad to help.

The main thing you'll see (aside from our usual candor about the software) is that unlike other sites, we're not claiming there's one so-called "best parental control program". Instead, you can look at things as you need to: according to what properly fits your family's needs.

Most importantly among these things is the age of the child being monitored or if they're an "at risk" youth of any age.

So, the three broad categories for consideration are:
  1. Children under 9
  2. Children 10 and up
  3. At-risk kids of any age
Looking at things this way will help you narrow things down more quickly and make it easier for you to choose the right software.

So, if you're in the need for something to help you monitor what your kids are doing online (or to help you block sites with objectionable content), your job just got easier.

Let us know if we can help. (Full contact information at the new site.)