Contentwatch Net Nanny 5.6 review

Net Nanny is probably the best-known parental control software.

The interface is easy to use, with everything you need on one screen. The program passed all our standard tests with flying colours, blocking access to pornographic content, extremism, gambling and violence. It could distinguish encyclopedia entries on racism from racist websites, and it recognised and blocked UK specific-terms of racial and sectarian abuse.

The program monitors instant messaging programs by default, but doesn't block inappropriate content. This isn't as daft as it might seem, as it's almost impossible to create IM filters that people can't get around in some way. It's almost better to monitor their behaviour on the fly. If you look at the logs regularly, you will at least be able to intervene should you come across a problem. Happily, the reporting function works well and is easy to use.

Net Nanny is easy to set up. It allows you to create user profiles associated with Windows user accounts, so each account is monitored automatically by its own profile. This, however, is where things started to come unstuck. We tried to customise our 'adult' account to allow us to view all content, while the 'kids' accounts were restricted. But even when we set the adult's account to unrestricted, the program interfered, preventing us from viewing adult content. Try as we might, we couldn't make it behave.

This is a good program and passed all our tests, but it can be overly restrictive.

Author: Karl Wright