'Online Family.Norton' to monitor online activities of kids
By siliconindia   |   Friday, 22 May 2009, 00:42 IST   |    3 Comments
Printer Print Email Email
'Online Family.Norton' to monitor online activities of kids
Bangalore: Symantec has launched 'Online Family.Norton', an online tool, which allows parents to monitor their kids' online activities. This product was launched considering the second annual Norton Online Living Report, conducted in March 2009 which says that nearly one in two adults in India think that kids spend too much time online. Unlike traditional parental control products that focus on just blocking and monitoring kids' online activities, Online Family.Norton goes a step further by encouraging parents to educate and communicate with their kids. "Parents don't have to 'out-tech' their children to protect them online but should participate in their online lives. OnlineFamily.Norton helps parents connect with their kids online so the parents know the children are safe, even when the parents are not around," said Effendy Ibrahim, Consumer Business Lead, Asia South Region, Symantec Asia South. This product allows parents to sit down and create home rules for online activity. Children are always aware that Online Family.Norton is active on their computer, and they can also view the House Rules they established with their parents at any time. "Online safety should be a top priority for every parent, but it can be a daunting task if they don't have the resources they need to get started. That's why we are offering OnlineFamily.Norton to families for free this year," said Janice Chaffin, Group President of Symantec's Consumer Business Unit. Online Family.Norton will give parents complete control of the web. They can view search words and phrases that a child searches on sites like Google, YouTube and Wikipedia. This will tell parents what their kids are interested in. It also monitors activity on social networks like Facebook and MySpace with the ability to see how kids represent themselves. This online tool can be customized according to the age group and kids need. Even though this tool will be seen as useful by parents but children might feel insecure as their privacy will be invaded. Through this tool parents can even see what their children chat with each IM buddy along with every website that they have visited and every word they have searched.

siliconindia