Micheal Dermody is both an educator and a dad of two boys, 11 and 13. He’s also an IT consultant

His blog, Keeping Kids Safe Online, recently featured Safe Eyes Mobile after both his boys received iPod Touches for Christmas. A lot of parents don’t realize that iPod Touches have WiFi connections and can connect to the Internet.

Here are his comments:

Installing it was easy.  There were a few screens of setup I had to do on each iPod and it required me to create a master administrative account so that I alone could change settings.

During setup I chose the types of site content I wanted filtered out (like adult, violence, hate, etc.).  Naturally I checked most of the options only to find that it filtered EVERY site out, including most news sites and even National Geographic Kids.  Lesson learned – you can’t go crazy with blocking things out or it will block everything. The nice thing about the app is that I can change settings as we go along.  When a site is blocked that shouldn’t be, I can add it to the “allow” list.  If a bad site slips through the filters I can add it to the “block” list.

The app will obviously have to evolve as my kids use it which means, like any filtering/monitoring software, it will require my time to maintain and adjust it.  I’ve said it before and I’ll continue to say it, when it comes to keeping your kids safe online, there is no magic application that you set once and walk away from.  If you want the software to do its job you have to put some time in.

Micheal makes a great point here: while we’ve done everything we can to make installation as easy as possible, filters do need a bit of customization to make them work just right for the person they are intended to protect. It’s also true that no filter can work optimally without steady parental involvement, which is why we say that parents are not included with our products.

You can read Micheal’s full review on Keeping Kids Safe Online.

Filed under: Uncategorized