CyberPatrol Review – Keeping Kids Safe Online

I was asked to review CyberPatrol and happily agreed since the Princess Nagger has her own computer and while I do monitor her activity, I am unable to do it consistently.

I have desktop icons on the Princess Nagger’s computer of the kids games she is allowed loves to play – you know, like Dora and Diego and Wow Wow Wubzy…

But when she’s browsing games at Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network or any other fun place to browse, she still encounters those tempting pop up windows (in spite of a pop up blocker). I don’t want to have to stand over her shoulder and tell her ‘NO’ every time she gets intrigued by an ad or free game trial. She does, however, understand that she is not to download anything without permission, and of course she doesn’t have access to any payment methods or even an email address of her own…that will come way too quickly as it is.

I had a few false starts trying to install it, as I had to make sure there was no spyware already present on the Princess Nagger’s computer. I actually didn’t mind the ‘false starts’, because it made me aware of the necessity of having something like CyberPatrol on the Princess Nagger’s computer, since I never use that computer myself, and spyware can be very tricky!

CyberPatrol definitely made a difference. Over the last 4 days Princess Nagger has spent more time on her computer since she’s out of school. She didn’t notice any difference in the performance of her computer – I didn’t notice any difference, either, when she roped me into playing one of the games for her.

The thing I liked best is that I can set different filtering rules based on different variances like age. Most of our friends kids are older than the Princess Nagger, so I can set the filters based on their age (and what their parents allow for browsing the internet). CyberPatrol doesn’t just block bad websites, it also lets you set time limits, keeps track of where they’ve been going on the internet, and even blocks them from sending out personal info.

It’s very easy to use – the default settings are excellent, so you can just do an ‘install and go’ mode and not worry. I like that it has lots of ability to configure it the way you want, because it makes it much more flexible when any ‘older’ kids come over to visit.

If you’re looking for a reasonably priced security software to keep your kids safe, I would definitely recommend CyberPatrol.