Net Nanny 6

Keeping tabs on what youngsters get up to online isn’t easy. Net Nanny lets the parents in the home set up rules for how members of their household use the internet, and then enforces those rules automatically.

The latest edition, Net Nanny 6.0.5, which we are looking at, includes support for the latest Windows 7 operating system.

Net Nanny blocks website access either by using a ‘white list’ (a list of allowed websites) or by analysing the text in each website the user tries to access before it allows them to view it. For older children the category-based content filtering might be more appropriate – you can instruct the computer to either allow or block entire categories for each child. That said, the 31 categories are quite broad (such as ‘news’ or ‘religion’) and it is not always obvious exactly what they filter - you will need to do some experimentation to get the right mix for your needs.

As well as letting the user set limits and a daily schedule for web access, Net Nanny also lets them monitor control access to chat rooms, instant messaging and peer-to-peer services, and it can even monitor Facebook profiles. Games can be blocked, and it can also block most of the technical tricks used by savvy teenagers to get around parental control software.

All online activities can be monitored and logged and email alerts are sent to an administrator (any user can be given administrator rights) when certain things happen - if a user tries to access a blocked site, for example.

Although it worked well, there are a lot of options to get to grips with, some of which will be overkill for most users. Six pre-set age categories for users make the initial setup a bit easier - for example, choosing ‘Young Child’ sets up white list filtering, blocks all non-browsing activities and blocks internet use between 9am and 6pm. These settings can be modified later.

Users can be allowed to request overrides - these are sent by email for approval by an administrator. A very useful feature is that you can manage all program settings and approval requests remotely from any PC using a secure website.

Net Nanny 6 is powerful and easy to use, but setup can be confusing as the user names don’t match Windows account names.

If you want to use it on multiple PCs in one home, make sure you buy a ‘multiple seat’ licence - this can manage all the PCs centrally from one computer. The alternative ‘multiple license’ option means you have to manage each PC separately. Settings can be cloned from an existing account during installation, so it’s fairly easy to set up on multiple PCs.