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Internet BabySitter
Price: £19.99 inc VAT

Features
Performance
Ease of use
Value for money
Overall

Reviewed By: Andy Shaw

This review updated: 24/11/2005
Featured in magazine:
Issue 123
Manufacturer Contacts:
Supplier: SoftwareXpress
Tel: 01895 829385
Web Address: www.softwarexpress.com


There are two main ways of protecting your children from the seedier side of the internet. One way is to use some form of internet filtering to block offensive websites, limit the time your kids spend online and stop them from telling random instant messenger contacts where they go to school. The other way is a bit more surreptitious – you can spy on them, find out what they've been doing and give them a good ticking off if they put a foot wrong.

Features
The Internet BabySitter falls into the latter camp. You install the software on your home PC, but it doesn't appear in the Programs menu. Instead you have to run
a specific file and type in a password to configure its controls and check its findings. Most people would have a hard time spotting that it even existed. The program monitors email (as long as it's Outlook or Outlook Express), chat clients and websites, and can record every keystroke made on the computer. So even if your children use a web-based email account you can still monitor them.

Performance
Perhaps the biggest flaw is that BabySitter doesn't support all the software your children may be using. Our tests with the Firefox browser fazed it, though you can at least still see the URLs that were typed in from the keylogger section. This means that at least it's capable of doing the job you set it, which is to record all movements on your home PC, but it works best if you're using Microsoft software.

Ease of use
If you tend not to use Microsoft's browser and email software you'll have to track everything through the keylogger, which is a thorough but messy way of going about spying on someone. Even with supported browsers and email, you're going to have to read through acres of innocent and probably somewhat boring information to root out incriminating evidence, unless your offspring are particularly prone to abusing the family PC.

Value for money
You can't really put a price on keeping your children safe, whether it's online or anywhere else. Software like this may help you pick up on a behavioural trend before it gets out of hand, and £20 isn't a lot to spend for this kind of information.

More Internet Filtering reviews:

• Webroot Parental Controls
• McAfee SiteAdvisor
• WOT
• Link Scanner Lite
• TrendProtect