Friday, October 10, 2014

The best parental control software, how to choose? – CNETFrance


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The back is long gone and the holidays are approaching. But then the last little has taken a sudden passion for the family computer since the mistress showed her how to use word processing and what looked like a seahorse on wikipedia.

You already know that it is essential to support your child in front of a computer but want to look up a few minutes of the screen, just to put the pasta cooking? You need a parental control software. What are the best solutions? The AV-Comparative organization has tested and here is his selection.



Parental control does not replace parents

As an antivirus does not prevent all software adverse move, the parental control software is not foolproof. The presence of a parent is the best solution to address the risks that your child or teen falls to inappropriate content or abuse of computers.

On the other hand, in addition to configuration and various settings based the age of the children, parents must ensure that it does not circumvent the protections put in place and they are adapted and evolve depending on the capabilities of the child. Too soft setting will not prevent abuses, as well as setting too strict hinder the young user may use other means to perform a task or access content: bypassing the protection, use of computer school or with friends, connecting from other unsupervised like smartphones and tablet devices.

Finally, parental control software will restrict the possibilities but will not say why they are inappropriate. Again it is the adult who will explain the reasons for blockages or supervision, whether at the level of operating schedules or type of blocked content: internet adult content, violent or addictive games etc …

Making your choice: efficiency in question

You will see that finding the best parental control software is not an easy task. The best software we have decided to highlight are those that block the most harmful content for children and are available in French. However, these also have a defect: they also block legitimate content

With the summary table, you will see all the solutions tested.. Your choice may be based antivirus solutions you already use and in this case, use the lists of permissions such software by allowing or blocking the sites manually can be a satisfactory solution will be. Again, install a parental control software without support would be a mistake.



For Windows

The following software is compatible with Windows systems and are available in French. The best are chosen for their detection rates and their false positive rate, ie the sites detected as dangerous as they are harmless.

Microsoft Family Safety

Microsoft first roundup in the standings. Not only its detection rate during testing has been no fault (100%) but the false alarm rate is below that proposed in those top rankings. On the other hand, as we saw in the tutorial on how to enable parental control Windows 8 and 8.1, setup is easy and well integrated into the system.

Microsoft Family Safety is free, he moved on Windows Vista, 7 and 8 and will block access to the computer depending on the day, time and time spent each day systems. Blocking sites can be done manually or automatically as with the use of games and applications.

 Parental Control Windows 8

Norton Family

Good detection rate and comprehensive features characterize the proposed solution by Norton. It limits the time spent on the computer and provides navigation filters according to the themes and the age of the child. It also helps to establish green or red lists of websites.

Norton offers its product free version for all Windows systems and paid versions “Premier” with additional features for Android, which can be interesting if you have a mobile in this system. For them it will cost 40 euros.

 Norton Parental Control

ESET Smart Security

The proposed by antivirus solutions for control detection rate parenting is very good, especially with regard to pornography. Its false positive rate is also very acceptable. It may be a good solution if you are a regular customer for security solutions (ESET Smart Security or ESET Multi-Device Security).

The software, however, not possible to limit the usage time and simply filter web content. Despite this, it has the advantage of being compatible with all versions of Windows since XP. Regarding the price, count from 40 to 50 euros depending on the dealer to equip three different computers for a year.

 Parental Control ESET

Other parental control software for Windows: comparative

We would have liked other examples of parental control software, and some could be in the list. AVG for example, offers an attractive rate of detection but encounter compatibility issues with Windows 8 and Internet Explorer 11 Others present in the list and if their detection rate regarding pornography is very good, they block less of other types of harmful content: tobacco, alcohol, weapons, etc … But if you decide to draw yourself a green list of sites, they will be effective

AV-Comparative has found some very interesting software. but not all are available in French. To have an accurate view the full report is available online (PDF, English). Simply an array of global comparison for Windows is available. You can also view the proposed Filtra.info ranking.

 Comparison of parental control software

Tablet and smartphones

The same table ranks this time the solutions for tablets and smartphones. This is not a detail because if the children are wise at home at the computer and they have an uncapped phone, they have access to harmful content in this way, they do not hesitate to if one believes the investigation by the magazine “Special Envoy” aired on October 9, 2014 France 2

 The parental control for mobile devices

Conclusion: assisting in all cases

The best parental control software are unfortunately those that also block more legitimate content. As explained in the introduction, the adult must be present to explain as much as possible and if necessary unlock the content in each case.

If the choice is more flexible, but software that lets content at risk a parent, in addition to its regular monitoring, will instead choose to establish itself a green list. It will also regularly check the browsing history to detect potentially problematic content without hiding this for subsequent review of the child.

Do not hesitate to ask for advice on software and means for out the parental controls on our support forums.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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