Category:	Parental Control Porn Filter
Skill Level Required:	Moderately Advanced
Minimum System Requirements	98 Second Edition (SE) ME Millennium Edition NT, service pack 5 2000 Professional XP Home XP Pro
Download for immediate installation	Yes. CD available for additional fee.
Link To Purchase & Download:	Purchase Net Nanny Child Safety Software Bundle

Net Nanny for LookSmart, Ltd. is one of the best known brands of parental monitoring/porn filtering software today. The latest version, 5.1, adds improvements to an already excellent program. Net Nanny Child Safety Software is available by itself, but we'd suggest buying the Platinum Bundle package. The package includes Net Nanny Chat Monitor software and Net Nanny Ads Free ad blocking software with the Child Safety program. The combination of these three programs provides excellent protection to keep your kids safe while they surf. Purchasing the programs together makes them considerably less expensive than purchasing competitor's equivenalent programs. And, you don't have to worry about conflicts between the different programs.

Net Nanny's Child Safety program - the porn filter - has an excellent reputation for controlling Internet access. You can set an overall level of filtering that provides very good filtering. You can fine tune each level to allow or block individual sites as you wish. With the most restrictive filtering enabled, the program blocks has a very, very short list of sites automatically approved and will block almost everything you have not specifically approved. Great protection for kids inclined to explore things they shouldn't. If you just need insurance that your kids won't stumble onto something they shouldn't, one of the lower filtering levels will be appropriate. You can set different options for several users - letting each have more or less access. Each profile is password protected to make sure each kid gets the correct permissions.

The program keeps a log of all Internet activity, including visits to both approved and attempts to visit unapproved sites. You can set an option to have the program email you when an attempt is made to view a blocked site. Reviewing the logs regularly lets you see if the level of filtering is appropriate. Or, it may show you that it is time to have A TALK with your teen.

One of the best features of Net Nanny is it allows you to prevent Internet users from disclosing your personal information. When you configure Net Nanny for the first time, you enter information that shouldn't be disclosed like your name, address and phone number. Net Nanny can prevent users from submitting that information through web site forms or in chat rooms.

Net Nanny tries to get you to use the (for-profit) LookSmart family-friendly search engine. The program attempts to reset your browser's default search engine when installing. If you are net savvy, you may want to continue using your favorit search enigine. If you're not devoted to any particlar search engine, LookSmart's engine may be a good choice. Net Nanny installs a toolbar at the top of some browser's windows, allowing you to search from any page.

Other options allow you to set time limits for Internet access and computer use for each user, and to use Internet content ratings to automatically approve sites (Not really a good idea; compliance is voluntary many unscrouplous sites claim to be child friendly), to approve of programs and games for each user and to remove tracking cookies sites have placed on your computer to track your surfing.

Net Nanny's software requires a little more skill to install and configure than some of it's competitor's programs. Computer users familiar with browsers, Internet addresses and finding program executable '.exe' files won't have any trouble. Novice computer users may be slightly overwhelmed with the options in the configuration control panel. The documentation included is very good, some patience and experimenting will get you through.

Net Nanny Child Saftey does tweak a couple of my hot buttons. Installation and configuring for the first time are overly complicated. The program helps itself to some space on your desktop and installs icons without asking. It also attempts to reset your default browser to LookSmart's family-safe browser. Several times after we disabled the browser change, the program attempted to make the change anyway. Very aggressive behavior for software that's supposed to be letting you control your Internet surfing.

Net Nanny partners with a number of companies, to distribute free trial versions of their software. One of the 'features' of the trial version is particularly annoying. When installing and opening the program you are prompted to visit Net Nanny's site to purchase a 'Trial License Key' to unlock the software. The wording in the dialog box is unclear - many users will think they need to purchase the key for $39.95 to use their free version. The key is only needed if you chose to purchase the progam at the end of your trial period; your free trial is indeed free.

Overall rating is Net Nanny Child Safety, Chat Monitor and Ads Free are all solid programs that provide very good protection. Other than the - minor - complaints above, the software is usually effective and trouble-free.