Symantec unveils beta parental control

[hatred]

After Norton unveiled Online Backup, a backup line for the general public (see our brief Symantec launches an online backup), Symantec offers another online service, this time in public beta. Norton Family Online is a parental control service based on web and download a client on Windows or Mac OS X. The service that we could not test completely because they can connect to server Symantec allows, after having established a parental account and accounts for their children, monitor the Internet activity of the latter, including sites they visited, searches they have undertaken (including compatible with Google, YouTube and Wikipedia), instant messages they have sent or their activity on social networks.

Other features include the ability to define a limited number of hours of connection, or to filter certain categories of sites like most parental control solutions available. The side of the child, he can send petitions to parents, for example to access a particular site or request more hours of connection. Norton Family Online is currently available in public beta, and only in English.

[Pratim]

Yeah too cool to always have the parents on the basks to look on which site you go. They must allow a minimum living kids, this kind of control allows to enforce the limits set by parents without infringing on the child for all that. It is a good compromise I found. For parents who want to keep an eye on their child (or for women with their husbands, I propose an additional.key logger.

[Damiano]

This is the software that allows a child to taste the full range of Symantec in the long term. I think it is a useful tool which, combined with the vigilance of parents, may prove beneficial. Parents are often overwhelmed by the technological knowledge of their children. I remember being young in front of my computer to chat to strangers, telling my parents that they were friends from school and my parents thought I was there because they knew nothing!

So in my opinion, this tool can help parents to really know the use of their child on the net but it will never replace a parent worthy of the name.