Customer Reviews

Webroot Parental Controls (PC)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I must admit I'm a staunch believer in Webroot products. I like this a lot better than Net nanny which believe me is harder to use and you cant uninstall it without it causing major problems on your comp.

Now Webroot Parental Controls, is really good, admittedly I didn't find it hard to use, but for those that do there is net or phone support to help you.
I like the fact I could use on more than one computer, so worked out I could put it on my daughters laptop and her desktop and also mine, which she uses sometimes.
I put in a few security measures that I wanted it to handle like certain phrases, or web pages and also the time to cut off her Internet access (I Loved that part, she didn't)but at least I don't have to keep going and checking that she has come off the net.

Took me about 30 mins to install and setup the parameters, but well worth the time and money.
At least I know now that she has done her homework because she comes and shows it me, to get extra net time. Marvelous.

Fortunately I had just the test specimen ready to roll!

I installed this onto a computer to be used by a 10 year old girl next door, that I put together for the family. First impressions are that this product is easy to install and not too heavy on resources.

My major concern about it is that it could be a little daunting to computer illiterate adults. That to me is a genuine issue as children don't install their own control software.

Once past that, the product does offer a comprehensive and customisable set of tools which can ensure kids don't go to places they don't belong. A good product from an established name, but could be a little more user-friendly for the adult with little or no computing experience.

Easily installed, easy to set up, and the kids despise it which means it must be good. I've used it for the best part of a year now, and would have given it a full five stars if it wasn't for the surprise pop-up I've just received telling me I need to renew my subscription. If I'd know that I was only getting a year's use out of it, I would have chosen a different product.

Besides, many of its features now come as standard in Windows 7.

I wonder what advertising standards would say?

I've just installed the product and found that the web filtering feature is time-limited to one year. After that you are asked to "renew your subscription". This is not mentioned anywhere in the sales material. I cannot find out what that renewal cost is, but I'm not impressed.

This review is short. I tested the product by using my 10-year-old. I watched him surf the web without letting him know that this new application was running. After an easy installation, I was disappointed to see that my test subject was able to send his name and address to a friend over MSN messenger. I re-installed the old product immediately as I felt unhappy to leave him alone with this product installed. Very disappointed.

I was also tempted to go through support to find out if I had done something wrong (probably), but I figure that if I can't install the application first time round without lots of tests, then it has already failed as many people may not realise that they have made a mistake and allow their kids to send dangerous data over the internet.

Webroot parental controls seemed like a doddle to me and did the job well. Once installed, the software integrates with the windows user logon screen. During the setup process, you give it a new pass word and once the computer has rebooted, you can logon with this password and set options for all users.

The interface is pretty straightforward and I managed to configure it all without consulting the (CD) manual. This software is ideal for parents as you can control virtually every aspect of your child's computer usage. You can limit what sites they look at, what content, and even limit time spent on the internet and on the computer itself. Therefore, you could fairly easy filter out pornography (picked up all the sites I tried, although (naturally) there were still some images cropped up on Google image search. It isn't infallible, but it will stop kids from actually entering most sites. You could also set say, 1 hours web time and 3 hours computer usage simply.

All in all, I was impressed. I also tried Norten parental controls and it seemed to slow my computer down a lot as the list of potentially bad websites loaded. This isn't the case with Webroot's software, nothing seems slower. All in all 5* for the software functionality, and I'd only give it 4 overall as it did let a few images through on google and there was no paper manual (which I like).

A pretty good and simple program which I used successfully for several months. Unfortunately my need for some product support when the program suddenly stopped reporting my kids' PC use was thwarted by Webroot's withdrawal of help for this product. Try to get help for it, and you get directed to an unhelpful pdf document which states that the product is being withdrawn, without a replacement.
Not worth buying, under these circumstances.

This product fully lives up to expectation. Not only does it manage your children's Web access, it looks after program access and general computer use too.

It's very easy to configure, if a little tedious at times. Each user has a profile graded from 1 to 7, so you can set different defaults for youngsters and teenagers, say, then customise the details. You can specify different times when access is allowed for each day of the week. Smart kids can't get away with changing the time on the computer!

Other niceties include the ability to override access times, program use, etc., on a single-use password basis. You could trade passwords for all sorts of things - good behaviour or finishing homework, for example!

I found the reporting tools a real bonus - check on what the children have been up to, with reports on demand or to your email address.

This software could also be used to manage employees' use of computers and the Internet, incidentally.

The only thing that disappointed me was that the free subscription for website updates is just one year, although I suppose that's no different from AV products.

Overall, an excellent product - highly recommended.

We live in a fantastic age where the Internet provides us with an entire world of information from the comfort of our own home. Everything you could possibly want to know or see is simply a mouse click away. And there lay's the problem. The Internet also provides us with masses of data of a more mature nature. From pornography to drugs and from gambling to violence, we all want to protect out impressionable children. And whether your child has a PC in their bedroom or use a computer in the family room such as the living room. We parents can not monitor there online activity every second. That's where the Webroot Parental Control software comes in. Not only does it control what subject matter your child can access, but it can also limit the amount of time your child spends online, automatically logging them off at their predefined bedtime (while at the same time allowing parental passwords to bypass time restraints.)

The software is simple to install, easy to control and customize. allowing you to tailor the level of protection for each child, assigning them their own profile. It offer's customizable and detailed reports on your child's activity. It prevents the installation of potentially harmful software, and offer's everything you would expect from Parental Control Software. There are sites that don't fall into the predefined catagies, so expect to spend some time on the computer making sure all inappropriate sites are blocked.

Overall this Webroot package is among the best parental control software I've came across to date. And considering it costs less than twenty pounds, it's a small price to pay for peace of mind.

I was very pleased to review this product, especially after my 13 year old recently accessed some unsavoury material on the internet... this was just what I needed!

This was fairly easy to install, although it is useful to have someone in the family with some computer knowledge/literacy to set it up, as it has lots of customisable options and it isn't always easy to know what settings are the best. Although it has some age range options preset, some children are more mature than others, so you may need to do your own adjusting to fit your childs needs.

You can monitor how long your child is online and all their browsing history, which is really good. It has really given us peace of mind, even though my daughter hasn't even attempted to misuse her computer priviledges since we installed it... obviously the knowledge it's there is enough!

A very useful, helpful product for anyone with computer literate children.