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Tue
Mar 15, '11
0
No Better Testimonials
We like to watch for online mentions of our product, Net Nanny, in hopes that whenever someone offers praise or criticisms of our product we can receive it and use it to make our product better.
There is one group of people, however, who seems to post a lot of online complaints about our product. For whatever reason, teens seem to hate our software. While we do encourage parents to talk with their kids and explain the importance of having a filter on the computer we know that that doesn't always happen - and it often drives teens to the web to leave bitter reviews. Because these reviews speak volumes about the effectiveness of our product and the inability of kids to circumvent it, I've compiled just a few of these comments to share with you.
Comments recently left on Facebook/Twitter/YouTube:
"I hate you I hope you burn in the underworld!" - Kyria
"hate this so much :(" - Martha
"im the one prankcaaling your company" - Ryan
"I joined fans to write on your wall telling you how much I hate your program" - Alex
"My net nanny won't let me call them a bunch of #####" - Rick
"dont you have some poor child to bug??" - beatlesloveryay
"absolutley no way to bipass this 6.0 bull ####" - Jeremyhify
As much fun as it is to read these comments, we really do want our software to work well for both the parents and frustrated teenagers. To help this happen we encourage all parents to sit down with their children and explain to them why an Internet filter is important and what Internet usage expectations they have. If you need a real life example of how Net Nanny helped save a teenage girl from an online predator you can use this true story as a reference. -
Thu
Mar 10, '11
0
Product Review - Free Parental Control Bar
Net Nanny is made by ContentWatch, my employers. The company is a for profit institution, and employs a good number of individuals that it pays well and that pay helps feed their families. We can't give Net Nanny away for free, or we'd all die. No money = no food = death. However, there are some companies out there that giveaway software because they don't need the money (or because they've monetized their free product in other ways). We salute those organizations. One such organization, the Website Rating and Advisory Council, has created a free web filter toolbar that you can add to Internet Explorer to enable safer searching. While our company does not make it a point to prop up competitors, we do see value in free tools, even ones that may compete with our own software. So, here's my review of the WRAAC's ParentalControlBar Internet Filter.
Installation:
Quick and easy. Your computer will continue to tell you that the program does not come from a trusted source. However, this is common with most software you try to install on a Microsoft Windows system - since we're telling you you can trust them, you can. Just click “run whenever you see that as an option. You'll be asked to enter a password and your email address. Very easy installation and I had the toolbar running in under 5 minutes.
First test:
So, I'm not a big pornographer myself. As such, my first test simply included me typing “playboy.com into the browser. Voila - blocked. It's nice that the block comes up with an override option, in case you feel the site is okay for yourself but not for the little ones. It also has an option to add the site to a white list, which would always let the site through in the future.
More extensive testing:
Tricky children may try to go through Google to get to their sites, instead of just typing the web address into the browser. So, my next test was to go to Google and search for “playboy. Blocked. No, not the search. The actual site “google.com was blocked. Hmm, guess it's because Google hasn't been living up to their “Do No Evil slogan as of late. Trying to navigate to bing.com - nope, they're blocked too. The reason for blocking is because these sites are “unlabeled. C'mon guys - two of the biggest sites on the web and you haven't categorized them?
Ultimately, however, the youngest of kids might not need access to search engines - they just need a couple fun, very child friendly sites, right? So, I'll test several Net Nanny suggested kid friendly sites see if they make it through:- Nick.com - Blocked.
- BiologyInMotion.com - Blocked. Granted, this site does talk about bile, urine, and thyroid glands - maybe it should've been blocked. Really though, it made the Net Nanny safe sites list because it's full of fun and great tools to teach kids about biology.
- PBSKids.org - Blocked. Of any of the sites out there this should be classified as one of the most safe sites out there.
- All sites blocked - couldn't find one that wasn't.
It looks like their software doesn't come ready “out of the box. A quick check of their own website, ParentalControlBar.com, shows that even their own site is not getting through because it has a little social networking tool embedded which isn't on their categorized list. The settings are definitely going to need some tweaking.
Changing the control settings:
They've done a good job with the user interface. It's clean and not cluttered with too many options. There are three tabs in the settings window: allowed site list, blocked site list, basic site filters. For now, I don't want to put any sites into the allowed/blocked tabs. Going straight for the filter settings, of which there were just a few (thank goodness - free tools should be super simple because there isn't much buy in to actually learn the software). You can block or allow the following categories: unlabeled content, explicit sexual material, nudity/sexual material, violence, strong language, chat rooms & message boards, potentially harmful activities. The last four categories are all set to “allow out of the box. I'll check those real quick to see if there are any “violent sites that are being categorized:- 666Gamer.com - found this site by searching Google (on a non-protected computer) for “best violent websites and then tried it on the protected computer - blocked as “unlabeled.
- umm - I don't follow the violence industry so I'm at a loss for more sites to try. I tested several that came back in Google search results and all were blocked as “unlabeled.
It looks like their “unlabeled category is blocking everything. Now I'll set the “unlabled to allow and try these same sites again. Okay, now that I've allowed the “unlabeled category everything is getting through. I've still got the sex/nudity filters turned on, but the toolbar didn't block playboy.com. Thus, I've come to the conclusion that their preset filter is garbage.
Broken Filter, What is it Good For?
It seems like this filter will still work well for the youngest of kiddies, when you just want to allow a few sites that you've previewed and added to the white list. For this you're going to have to manually type in a few sites you'd like to be available. My tests show that this feature works well.
You can also set up a black list - though this isn't recommended. Imagine trying to view the few hundred million sites out there to determine whether they were bad or not. There are millions of pornographic websites. You could try and download a black list that someone else has already compilied. Download the blacklist here. But when I go into the settings and look at the blacklist page, I'm let down once again. There is no way to import a list. There isn't even a way to copy/paste the list in. There is no way I'm manually typing in a few million domain names manually. Looks like a real blacklist is out. To the makers of the ParentalControlBar I'd suggest an “import blacklist feature as a first priority for development.
Circumventability
Even if you are a computer wiz and know how to lock down your user account so it won't allow for a new browser to be installed (which would kill this tool which doesn't work in Firefox or Chrome) you still can't lock down the “uninstall feature built into Internet Explorer. I'm not going to say how to uninstall this tool through IE, but it isn't tough - I imagine any kid could figure it out in about 12 seconds.
Conclusion
Super easy setup and nice user interface got my hopes up, only to be later shattered by the fact that this tool does not work as advertised. But heck, it's free. The only situation I would use this tool is if I was putting it on my family computer for my 5 year old to be able to surf one or two sites that I've pre-determined and loaded into the white list. For that kind of scenario I think this would work fine. Either way, mad props to the maker of this toolbar... if they keep developing it and tightening it up then it may be something I'll someday use.
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Thu
Mar 10, '11
0
Where to get a good Internet blacklist?
With Net Nanny and it's already exceptional dynamic contextual analysis (yes, that's a blatant plug) why would you ever want to create your own Internet blacklist? Maybe you want to add an extra level of blocking to Net Nanny by adding a blacklist to it's custom blacklist feature (we promise it's not needed though). Or maybe you just like the monotony of viewing millions of websites and typing up lists of those sites which contained offensive content. Or, heaven forbid, you want to use a free Net Nanny alternative (yes, there are alternatives, some of which are free) that requires a black list.
Whatever the case, I'd like to help. I've done the footwork and scoured the web - there are a lot of blacklist resources out there, but most of them were blacklists that hadn't been updated since the early days of the Internet. The industry leader of Internet blacklists, Dan's Guardian, used to provide a free list that was well maintained. Now they only have paid solutions. The best free solution I could find, and it does appear to be pretty good, is provided by a French university, Université Toulouse 1 Capitole. You can download the "adult sites" blacklist here.
If you end up using this blacklist I'd love to hear how it goes for you - please leave a comment! -
Thu
Mar 3, '11
1
Blocking Amazon's Look Inside Feature
Yesterday one of our customers asked in our forum how to turn off Amazon.com's Look Inside! feature. If you aren't aware, Look Inside let's you page through a certain number of pages from books online- it's a clever and nicely implemented way to let customers browse and flip through a book to see if it's what they want. I've always loved that feature.
So it caught me off-guard when our customer, M, asked how to turn it off. He rightly points out that the previews in Look Inside are just images, not text, so Net Nanny doesn't 'see' anything bad. But if it's a bad book it may be granting previews of bad content we don't want in our homes.
Far from blaming Amazon, I would say this is just a case of a company wanting to do something really cool and not even thinking of the parental controls angle. It happens a lot, unfortunately. I'm going to write to Amazon and ask if they're attempting any kind of protection there or not and at least bring it to their attention.
As parents, we need to be deeply and actively committed to protecting our families if we're going to catch subtle things like this.
If you want to disable Look Inside, just disable the domain sitb-images.amazon.com in the Blocked Web Sites tab of Net Nanny for Mac. In Windows®, add a Web Exception for that domain. Even though the Look Inside interface will come up normally, all the preview images will be blocked.
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Thu
Mar 3, '11
0
Viruses, Malware, Spam? On Smartphones?
We here at ContentWatch have been offering Net Nanny Mobile for over a year, and we are feverishly working on improving and expanding the way we protect mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. Net Nanny Mobile (and soon to be ContentProtect Pro Mobile, for businesses, schools, and enterprises) has always provided anti-virus and anti-malware functionality.
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Tue
Feb 8, '11
4
What Makes the Internet Unsafe?
Happy Safer Internet Day! Yes, that's right, although you may not have heard about it- it is today. Although pushed by a European Union funded group, it's always good to think about being safer online.
It came to my attention because of some resources put out by Yahoo spotlighting how parents are doing at protecting their children and some new resources Yahoo has made available regarding Internet safety over at http://safely.yahoo.com. I was really happy to see the great content they have there and recommend you take advantage of it. There's some great info there. I especially like the family pledge worksheet, which outlines an agreement that parents and their children agree to follow. Communication about these topics is vital. If all you do is build a wall, when your kids are outside the wall, they'll have no clue what they should do.
Unfortunately, a rather large elephant in the room seems to have been left out of the festivities. There is appropriate emphasis on cyber-bullying, identity theft, smartphone safety, and online privacy. These are important. Here and there in the Safer Internet Day and Yahoo! Safely content are references to "inappropriate content". It appears that the term pornography is no longer politically correct. Maybe it's just too harsh and writers and editors are opting for inappropriate content because it sounds milder.
The fact is that "inappropriate content" is everywhere, and often isn't thought of as inappropriate. TV shows and movies talk about pornography as a funny joke that adults elbow each other and snicker about. It's just something that's portrayed as a part of growing up. While dealing with and avoiding pornography is a necessary life skill, there is no point at which pornography becomes appropriate.
As parents we need to decide for our families what's appropriate for us. If we don't, others will. Media companies, school teachers, and our kids' friends will set the bar wherever they want to. Maybe you're unsure if you have the right to decide what should be classified as pornography. Don't be unsure. If you don't decide, others will decide for you. Yes, what you decide is inappropriate in your family may offend someone out there. Maybe your kids are going to whine or stare at you in horror. It's okay. Setting boundaries is part of parenting. When I'm watching TV or movies to this day, I know exactly what my mom would say about anything that comes onto the screen. Because as a child and something would come on that was inappropriate she would tell us so, and explain why. And often it would get turned off. You have that power.
Happy Safer Internet Day. Along with all those other important online safety ideas, don't forget about pornography. Set boundaries. Talk to your kids. Decide what's inappropriate for your family and don't let anyone decide for you.
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Thu
Feb 3, '11
1
Stopping Bad Websites
Not too long ago, my wife handed me one of my daughters' homework assignments. She had been asked to note some people in her family that help others in their work and she had listed me:
"My dad keeps bad websites from spreading all around the world!"
That made me really happy for two reasons.
First, I love what we do here at ContentWatch: helping families like mine everywhere to take advantage of the modern marvel of the Internet but to do so in a safe way. We build peace of mind.
Second, I know that my daughter knows there are bad websites. She's only six right now but she already knows. I suspect (and hope, I guess) that she doesn't understand how a website can be bad.
Years ago, a friend of mine told me about his dad, who was a special forces commando of some kind without his children ever knowing it. He had a civilian cover job and the military sent him to places all over the world as needed. After retirement and revealing his secret to his children, he answered the door of his home one night to find his daughter's ex-boyfriend, drunk on his porch with a friend. The ex-boyfriend insisted on seeing his daughter. This father told them to move along before they got hurt. They did not move along and decided to push him around. The fight was very brief.
Now I'm not a violent person, but I want to protect my family too. Every good dad wants to protect his family. And it can be pretty frustrating when bad websites slip into your home. There's no confrontation on your porch. No way to tell them to leave your family alone.
We as parents must be deeply and actively involved with our children if we want to protect them. Buying stuff (even Net Nanny!) is not enough. They're just tools. If someone is determined to get to those bad websites, there are ways around anything. Our kids need to understand what that Net Nanny icon on our computer means and cooperate with it. They need to understand that there are bad websites (and lots of other bad stuff) out there and if all protections fail, what to do then. And we need to stay vigilant to make sure we have done all we can. -
Fri
Jan 14, '11
1
They Like Us, They Really Like Us
We are not the bashful types here at Net Nanny, but sometimes we get tired of tooting our own horn.
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Mon
Jan 10, '11
0
Net Nanny Preloaded on Toshiba's Full-Sized Windows 7 Laptop for Kids
-Pre-installed to be ‘kid safe out of the box’, Net Nanny selected as parental control for Best Buy exclusive laptops for kids-
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Thu
Jan 6, '11
3
Net Nanny Helps to Catch a Predator
Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
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