ESET NOD32 Parental Control: How it works?

The kid’s growing up. One day he’ll remember the password and figure out how to find the new episode of his favorite cartoon on Youtube – all the joy for Mom and Dad! Little fingers nimbly type into the search engine and deftly cope with tasks beyond the reach of amazed grandparents. And now we are no longer in control of where the child goes after the cartoon, and what unnecessary things he sees on the Web by accident..

For many families, the school season begins not only with the choice of a briefcase, but also with the purchase of the first phone “just in case” and increasingly – a smartphone with Internet access . A little earlier or a little later, but any child gets their hands on a tool to communicate with their parents. Not everyone, but many moms and dads think about what their child can see or download from the Internet. Even if you have an obedient child and you have instructed about what “can and can not” on the web, the probability of encountering harmful information is high!

How the parental control system works?

Children and Technology

Modern parents begin to use smart phones and tablets early enough both for child development there are a lot of interesting educational programs for kids now , and for leisure in a queue, on the road and just for the joy of the baby . As children grow up, it is not too much trouble. The parent controls the whole process: downloading programs and interesting educational games, choosing cartoons from the Internet, and also limiting the time for games.

Our first-grader also went to school with a phone and spent a lot of time using it by himself during homeroom and recess. And we armed the program “Parental Control” from ESET.

Parents and their helpers

For a child for whom adults have not defined the boundaries of what is allowed, it is difficult to learn to limit oneself. Especially time for playing games and surfing the web. Along with the growth of game content and technology in the market have appeared opportunities to limit access to the vast world of the Internet. We got the ESET NOD32 Parental Control for Android app for testing, created by ESET the leading developer of anti-virus software .

For the test we used a Lenovo tablet parent and LG G3 smartphone child , the devices are connected to the Internet.

Step 1. Download ESET Mobile Security app on both mobile devices: Google Play or Play Market to help you we chose the free trial version first 3.2.60.0-0 . Choose the settings you are interested in. For example, if you want, you can turn on the “Anti-Virus” function in case the device is stolen or lost. This allows you to watch the movements of the device online, send a message to the finder, take pictures from the built-in camera in a personal account on the portal my.eset.com.

Step 2. Install the Parental Control app on both gadgets and configure the necessary options. So, the child’s location is only available when geolocation is enabled on the child’s device.

It’s easy and simple.

TEST 1. GAMES

ESET NOD32 Parental Control allows you to limit time your child can play games. We set 30 minutes a day on weekdays and 2 hours on weekends. My son used to get personal messages from the app: “Vovka, the time for games is over for today”. Through quick messages, your child can reach out to you for more play time – you’ll always have your hand on the pulse and explain your decision if necessary. For example, to remind them of chores or lessons. This is especially handy for working parents who leave their kids home alone.

The app also lets you set what time of day your child can play. This is very convenient to exclude games during the breaks between lessons. It is not uncommon to see students leaving the classroom and immersed in a game, but with the bell ringing they raise their heads from their gadgets, while not communicating with each other at all and not resting from their busy classes.

Tip: notice that you can set different play times on different days of the week depending on your timetable .

TEST 2. IN NETWORK

Controlling your son’s online activities is a necessary option for us, including because of pop-up ads and occasional “adult” content. The parental control module allows you to protect children from unwanted information. Users can easily set up access to different sites depending on the age of the child, block resources in more than 20 categories, create their own white and black lists of sites.

The app allows you to set up monitoring so that you can see your child’s activity on the web daily and even online or receive notifications by mail for example, for a week, for a month . Settings can be edited from the parent’s device, change the list of undesirable sites.

Our son didn’t try to go to suspicious sites labeled 18+, so we had to ask dad to “help”. In such cases, the app would address the child by name and warn him or her that the resource in question is inappropriate.

Of course, it is always possible to send a message to mom asking for permission to do something. In this case, the parent’s device receives a request, after examining the content of the site is left to decide whether to agree or forbid.

Tip: Don’t tell your child the password, or make up a complicated password so she can’t make changes to the settings herself.

TEST 3. CHILD’S COORDINATES

The user will be able to monitor the child’s movements online. Of course, we are talking about detailing to a building, not to an apartment or an office! But making sure your child gets to school is easy. Only the quality of cell phone coverage can make it difficult to locate the child.

Tip: Don’t expect to find out a teenager’s coordinates if he doesn’t want to. It’s not hard to guess to turn off the location or the Internet on the child’s smartphone you can’t forbid it . It only works with younger students.

The school year, our son’s first year of school, is over. For him it was difficult, but interesting: new friends, new knowledge and, most importantly, independence. And we’re happy that a lot of anxiety has been avoided with ESET’s helpful program.

The parental controls by ESET solve the following problems:

1. Kids see only safe sites.
2. You know what apps your kids open and how much time they spend playing.
3. You have peace of mind because your kids are always in sight.
4. Kids get tips in a playful way.

Advantages: ease of use, on-line control, the ability to edit settings at any time from a parent’s device.

Disadvantages: some of the limitations of the application can be bypassed by an “advanced” child with computer skills.