Net Nanny 2.0 (for Android)

Many parents are scared of giving their little one his or her first smartphone. What if he uses it to look up porn? What if she falls for an Internet scam? You can't always watch what your child does on his first Android device, but Net Nanny can. For $19.99 per year for a single device, and $9.99 per year for additional devices, Net Nanny 2.0 for Android is a powerful "safe" browser that filters offensive content from your child's device, and goes beyond what most of its Android app competitors offer. With this app installed, your young one will have a fairly tough time looking at anything you don't want him to?on the install device, at least.

Net Nanny offers does not yet offer support for Google Android 4.1 Jelly Bean (Free, 4.5 stars), but a product manager said to expect one next week. I tested Net Nanny on a Verizon Galaxy Nexus running Android 4.0.2 and a Galaxy SII running Android 2.2

Configure Settings: Filter, Apps
As soon as you download Net Nanny, the app blocks all existing and new browsers from running. When your child tries to launch the default Web browser, for instance, he'll see a landing page with a "BLOCK" message from Net Nanny, plus a click linking him to the Net Nanny browser.

As with most modern parental control apps, you configure your child's Net Nanny profile from any Internet-enabled device with a browser. Like its desktop sibling, Net Nanny relies on both an extensive database of blocked URLs and a powerful, real-time context analysis engine.

Net Nanny gives you four default age groups to choose from, which can block sites in up to 18 different categories. The 18 categories probably cover enough for most parents, including gambling, porn, nudity, profanity, and even quirky ones like anime and swimwear. However, you can create your own categories and add websites that fall under them, or add websites to existing categories. I created the category "celebrity gossip" and added links to TMZ.com, E!, Just Jared, and a few other gossipy blogs. You can tell Net Nanny exactly what to do if your child stumbles across a "bad" site. Net Nanny can warn, block, or allow the site. "Warn" just presents the child with a warning page before letting him proceed to the bad sites. The profanity category has one extra option?mask, which simply replaces objectionable words with a "#" symbol.

The only annoying part about the filter is that it's not easy to override the filter on a blocked site. You have to log into the remote Web portal to manually whitelist that site. This is a nuisance if you installed the app on your own smartphone and occasionally lend it to your child, or if your child really needs to see a false positive website. In AVG Family Safety?($19.99/year, 4 stars), you can override the filter by entering the master password. However, some might see this difficult override feature as a positive.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/IB3pHgTGE8o/0,2817,2407546,00.asp

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