The internet is among the most incredible humankind inventions as it gives people different chances of making various discoveries. However, it also allows users to access malicious content such as pornography, violence, drugs, and gambling.
If you want to bar some people, such as children, you will use an internet filter to access these malicious topics. This software you can use to filter and monitor online content depends on your motives and preferences.
This article will compile the best internet filtering software. The software include:
• Kaspersky Safe Kids
• Surfie
• Quostodio
• Net Nanny
• Bark
• McAfee
Read the article further to discover more information concerning these programs.
Topics Covered
Kaspersky SafeKids
The software is the cheapest, with an annual subscription of $15. It has excellent features that assist in generating detailed reports. Kaspersky SafeKids is used to monitor social media sites such as Facebook and YouTube, whereby it is used to track how these sites are accessed on IOS and Android devices. You will receive 100 profiles on subscription to be used across 500 devices for your license; thus, you can use it for a long time.
Kaspersky SafeKids have numerous standard tracking tools such as geo-tracking alerts when a user leaves a particular safe zone to navigate a restricted one. Besides showing you the user’s last location, the software also alerts you when a user’s device switches off or runs out of battery.
This internet filter software can be used to filter various contents across specific web browsers. The content includes gaming, adult content, violence, religious material, profanity, and gambling. It also supports age-based filtering.
The disadvantage of this software is that it does not cover social media sites such as TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat. In addition, it lacks some features on IOS that come as basics in Windows and Android. Thus, if you are an Apple user, you might find Kaspersky SafeKids hard to use.
Surfie
Surfie can be used with IOS, Android, and Windows. It assists you in filtering and blocking the content you do not wish some people to be exposed to. The software has 18 filter categories to allow you to block certain websites. These categories include violence, online gaming, and pornography.
In addition, Surfie allows you to whitelist the content you are okay with, even if it falls under the filtered category. It also allows you to block any content even if it does not fall under the filtered category. On top of this, the software will enable you to control when your child will access the internet and for how long.
The software’s exceptional feature is the keyword monitor that alerts you when a tracked device receives a text, email, or message with phrases that resemble red flags such as, are you home alone? And don’t tell anyone. In addition, you can add your keywords, and the software will pull down the program being used in any of the set phrases is used.
On the other hand, Surfie also monitors what a user sends and prohibits them from using the tagged keywords or sharing their personal information. The software records all the emails, text transcripts, and instant messages so that you can read them.
Qustodio
This is the best internet filtering software as it is much easy to use. Qustodio is pretty straightforward to install on both smartphones and computers. The software allows you to access each user’s profile from your device. Also, you are free to adjust their time and access allowances without even touch9n their devices.
The software features 29 filter categories that allow you to block the content and websites you do not wish some people to access. This content may include gambling, religion, drugs, pornography, whereby you can either block the content, lock the device, or receive an alert when the filters are triggered.
The exceptional time management controls allow you to control the amount of time used in accessing the internet. This feature will only allow internet access during the permitted hours.
The software will record many details of what is being accessed and present to you a detailed report. Qustodio will present you with whole conversations, unlike other software that only tells you that a particular user has accessed email or texted someone.
In addition, it allows you to tag specific keywords and phrases such as come alone, got weed? Or don’t tell mommy. So, if a particular user receives these kinds of texts, Qustodio alerts you.
Net Nanny
Net Nanny is among the oldest and cheapest internet filtering software. It features excellent protection tools for blocking malicious online content. The software has over fifteen filters to restrict users from accessing websites that broadcast content such as drugs, gore, or pornography. The software alerts you when a particular user tries to browse anonymously.
Net Nanny features an exceptional feature known as the profanity blocker. This feature masks the swear words so that users will neither see nor read them. In addition, the feature prevents the users from typing these words anywhere on their devices. You can set the software to either change these words as they are typed or erase them. Again, you will be alerted when profanity is detected.
This software also features time controls that block the users from accessing the internet at certain hours. This feature allows you to set different hours for the various users based on your terms. In addition, Net Nanny features AI-powered filtering that is used on social media handles such as YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
Net Nanny also blocks certain websites that broadcast content on drugs, violence, pornography, and gambling. The software analyses the real-time users’ internet access and bars them depending on the set preferences.
The downside of Net Nanny is that it lacks some essential tools such as message capturing and text notifications. Instead, these features are purchased in a separate program to be used alongside this software.
Bark
Bark can be used across various social networks such as Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Twitter. The software also covers Reddit, Spotify, Discord, Spotify, among other sites. The software offers extensive monitoring as it can be used to monitor the users’ timelines, posts, chats, documents, and videos.
The program utilizes Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning algorithms to filter content across various topics such as sex, violence, gambling, drugs, religion, and other malicious content. After detecting a user trying to access the filtered content, the software notifies you through snapshots of the triggered content.
On social media monitoring, Bark is excellent for tracking Android devices. You may run into several issues when monitoring IOS devices since some Apple apps do not support monitoring. Some of the unmonitored IOS apps include Skype, Snapchat, Discord, and TikTok.
The program allows you to monitor websites on unlimited devices. Also, it will enable you to set internet access times for different users.
McAfee
This software is the last in our article. It is excellent in providing security and filters for Internet access. You can use the program to prevent users from accessing pornographic or cyberbullying activities. However, McAfee lacks some essential features that are present in some internet filtering software.
The good thing about McAfee is that it allows you to block websites based on their content, theme, and URL. This way, the users have minimal chances of sneaking the websites through certain loopholes.
McAfee allows you to view the users’ activities and set time limits for devices and Internet access. These limits can be different depending on your preferences and motives. The software also features an exceptional tool that allows you to track the users on maps. You can even set this tool to notify you when a particular user leaves or enters specific geographical locations.
The software is the best to use with Windows and Android devices. However, despite being compatible with IOS devices, the McAfee might not be ideal for tracking and monitoring app and web usage.
Conclusion
Website filtering and blocking are some of the essential features of internet filtering software. In this article, we have discussed the best internet filtering software that will undoubtedly serve you well. The programs feature many filter categories that will assist you in monitoring different content. Another option is accountability software if you feel like a filter just isn’t enough of a deterrant.
Some of these programs, like Qustodio, will allow you to record any access on the filtered websites. When choosing your ideal internet filtering software, ensure that you put these essential features into considerations since they vary across different programs.
