Tools for Monitoring Children's Internet & Social Network Usage

With cyberbullying and online child predators on the rise, parents have been searching for better ways to keep their children safe online. Here are the best tools available to monitor your child's internet and mobile phone activity.

SafetyWeb: Top-rated social network monitoring service

SafetyWeb is a new but highly acclaimed company which offers a reliable technology that searches through social networking sites across the entire web and brings you the following information:

• What your child is saying and doing on the web
• What others are saying about your child on the web

SafetyWeb constantly monitors this activity and alerts you if any red flags are tripped. You can check your child's activity report anytime via their website. SafetyWeb also monitors your child's mobile phone activity - so you can know who is texting and calling your child. On Facebook, one difference with SafetyWeb is that your child does not need to give the software permission to track him or her, you just need to be friends with your child on Facebook.

SafetyWeb was founded by well known Silicon Valley veterans and is venture funded. SafetyWeb is a subscription service and costs $120 per year or $10 per month. Click here and use code SAFEKIDS to receive 30% off your SafetyWeb subscription.

Social Shield: Another top monitoring service

Social Shield is another top-rated service that comprehensively monitors all of your child's activity online. The service scans social networks like Facebook and MySpace and provides parents the following reports:

• View all photos and videos being posted by your child and about your child
• View all comments and messages posted to and from your child

Social Shield also analyzes all new friends that your child makes online, and scans these people against a national predator database and alerts you if there is anything to be concerned about. Social Shield costs $109 per year (click here to activate a 10% discount on SocialShield).

WebWatcher: Discreet and comprehensive PC monitoring

WebWatcher is not specifically designed for child internet monitoring, but it has some unique capabilities which make it a powerful way to watch what your kid is doing online. WebWatcher can be discreetly installed onto any PC and can monitor the following:

• All emails sent and received on that PC (including webmail)
• All instant messages (IM) and chat like AIM and Yahoo Messenger and Google Talk
• All websites visited
• All keystrokes typed
• Word & Excel documents
• All applications used
• Take screenshots remotely
• View all monitoring features

WebWatcher might be a bit more invasive, but at the same time its the most comprehensive way to monitor your child's internet activity. If you have a particular reason to be worried about your child's online activity, this is a sure-fire way to see what's going on. WebWatcher costs $169 (software package, no monthly fee). Click here to activate a 40% discount on WebWatcher.

NetNanny: Proactive internet filtering + monitoring

NetNanny is unique in that it proactively blocks content, sites and applications that are inappropriate for your child. It will block pornography, hate sites, questionable chat rooms and message boards, and online gambling sites. You can even configure it to only allow your child to install games that meet your minimum parental ratings.

NetNanny also monitors Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and other sites to bring you reports about your child's activity on those sites. The difference with NetNanny is that it can block all messages containing profanity on those sites.

NetNanny is an installable software package that costs $39 (no monthly charge). Check if NetNanny is still offering 25% off NetNanny here. UPDATE: NetNanny is also available for Mac and mobile phones.

SafeEyes: Award-winning blocking, monitoring & time limit enforcement

SafeEyes is another proactive blocking software program which gives parents control over websites, YouTube videos, music with explicit lyrics, social networking sites, instant messaging, gaming, and email. SafeEyes also allows parents to set time limits on different types of computer usage to limit time wasting and increase productivity.

SafeEyes has won PC Magazine's Editor's Choice award for 2 years running. SafeEyes is available for PC, MAC, and mobile phones. SafeEyes costs $49 (software download, no monthly fee) - check if SafeEyes is still running their 20% off promotion.

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