Picstick

The Picstick (the first part stands for Parents In Control) is a small USB device that plugs into your computer and blocks unsuitable websites and email, among other things.

The thinking is that instead of installing software which can be removed the Picstick is harder to get around. If it's unplugged, the computer can't connect to the internet at all.

It was easy to set up – as soon as we plugged it in a menu appeared prompting us to install the software. This is all covered in the short but to-the-point installation guide, and it was all over quickly. Configuration was easy too, with clear symbols and text explaining what exactly we were doing. This included choosing whether to block the web entirely apart from chosen sites (better for younger kids) or, for older children, to block only certain categories of site (such as drugs).

The blocking worked well, and you can also set words and phrases to be blocked from outgoing traffic, so that if a child attempts to send your phone number out, it will be converted to a string of * signs. But the lists of sites to block were inadequate, allowing us to surf all sorts of dodgy content.

While Picstick works, other good parental control software is available for less.