Security software company Symantec has rolled out a new program called “Norton Online Family”, currently this program is available in beat. Symantec basically wants to educate parents abut their children’s online activities through Norton Online Family. Norton Online Family is basically a paternal control offers multiple levels of restriction and an emphasis on usage reporting.
Norton Online Family uses a desktop client application called Norton Safety Minder. The application is available for Windows as well as for Mac.
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Publisher’s description of Norton Safety Minder
Norton Safety Minder is the desktop client required to run Norton Online Family. If you’re not sure how to protect your children online, help is here! We’ll get you up and running in no time, and provide everything you need to protect your family from Internet dangers and inappropriate content. We’ll even help you save your kids from passing along confidential information online.
That can also send reports to parents E-Mail addresses. Norton Online Family also allows computer administrator to manage paternal control customization at user account level, so computer administer can have multi level of monitoring for different child group members. This feature is really useful for those having multiple child at different age group.
Norton Online Family can log Web sites, block web sites using both a topic blocker or a traditional blacklist, and report on children’s social-networking activities to their parents. When it tracks visited Web sites, it automatically filters out advertisement URLs that get pinged when visiting media-rich sites. This makes the log easier to parse through.
The blocked site can be set so that children’s can appeal to their parents for approving the blacklisted websites via E-Mail or IM chat. Norton Online Family can also be configured in such mode so that children’s can view the flagged websites but it flags parents that flags websites are visited by their children’s.
Norton Online Family also monitor client based instant messaging including Google/Jabber, Yahoo, Microsoft Live, AOL, and Skype but it can not monitor ICQ or site based instant messaging services like Facebook chat.
To use Norton Online Family it requires an online Norton Account. Registration is free (Until the program is in beta). The final pricing for Norton Online Family is not yet available.
nice, a way to keep up with the kids activities online