CyberPatrol

Letting your child use the computer and access the web is a good idea – but only as long as you take measures to protect him from inappropriate content. With the CyberPatrol tool, you can block websites that are not age-appropriate, like adult or gambling sites, for example. Furthermore, you can use the application to block chat and instant messaging, to limit the time your child spends online, and to block access to certain applications.

To run CyberPatrol, an application designed for Windows-based standalone PCs, the following system requirements must be met: Pentium II processor or better, 256MB of RAM memory or more, 30MB of free disk space, an active internet connection.

A setup wizard will help you get CyberPatrol up and running on your PC. It will ask you to pick between a Typical and an Advanced installation. The Typical installation is recommended for most users; all program features will be installed. Choose the Advanced installation if you want to be able to pick the installation directory, set proxy server settings, or if you are installing the application in an organization.

Once the installation completes and you run CyberPatrol for the first time, you will be asked to provide a password to protect access to the application and you will be invited to create a profile. This entails choosing an environment, like home or business, and picking a user type, like child or young teen. Choose “child” as the user type and some very strict parental controls will be activated.

You can further fine tune these settings from the application’s HQ. To the left, on the CyberPatrol Headquarters, you will see buttons for managing the user profiles, customizing filter settings, accessing some extended features, and more. Select an entry from the list on the left and more info will be presented in the pane to the right. It is, overall, a fairly simple interface that you will use with ease.

A child should not be able to access certain types of sites. CyberPatrol, with its filtering functionality, makes sure that only age-appropriate sites can be accessed. It will block sites from a certain category, sites that include certain keywords, and sites from a customized blacklist. CyberPatrol’s filtering will also block chats and instant messages, newsgroups , and applications. And last but not least, CyberPatrol will manage how much time your child spends online.

CyberPatrol’s powerful filtering functionality will ensure your child does not access anything that’s not age-appropriate and doesn't spend too much time online.