New Parental Controls With McAfee Family Protection App

Making sure to keep an eye on your child's Internet access has always been a difficult task and it is only getting harder with more and more kids owning mobile devices such as iPhones and iPod Touches. Fortunately McAfee's new McAfee Family Protection for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad lets parents control and monitor how their kids access the Internet on their mobile gadgets.The McAfee Family Protection is a $20 Web browser app with a number of parental control features built-in. In order for the app to be effective, parents must disable the Safari app on their children's iPhone by accessing the iPhone's Restrictions settings.

The app offers standard Website and search filtering and it automatically blocks age-inappropriate sites, such as known pornography sites. For the extra-concerned parent, the program includes location-tracking for devices that are GPS equipped, so you can be aware of your child's location whenever he or she is accessing the Internet. Parents can also view statistics such as visited websites and access times, and give or grant access to websites of their liking. They can even go as far as remotely disabling all web browsing if need be. Another popular feature is the ability to block mobile Internet usage only during hours one may consider inappropriate, so you can make sure your child isn't surfing the Internet on sites such as Facebook during school or past bedtime. The app release coincides with the publishing of mcAfee's study on teen online behavior called "The Secret Lives of Teens."

Their study had revealed that nearly half of the teens who participated shared personal information with strangers while online. In addition, 28 percent of the kids updated their status on social networking sites including their physical location (dangerous combination for teens who communicate with strangers.) Furthermore, 65 percent of students revealed that they used their mobile devices while in school. Given these facts, now may be an even better time to make sure that your children are using the Internet safely, whether it is mobile or not.