From intimate predators in online chat elbow room to graphic trigger-happy and adult image , there are lots of understanding why parent are implicated about what their children may find online . And as much as we ’d care to monitor our child 24 hour a day , that is neither practical nor worthy . Safe heart 2006 is designed to help oneself parent see the menstruum of subject matter from the Internet into the base . unluckily , while Safe eye show hope , it ’s not the ideal result to the trouble .
Accounts for all
To use Safe Eyes , you must first produce a passkey account on the Safe Eyes Web land site and then instal the software . After that , you make substance abuser accounts for anyone who will be using the net on a picky reckoner . For the adult , you ’ll want to create nonsensitive Web access describe with all web site enabled . For the kids , you ’ll in all likelihood want one accounting per youngster . These accounts exist on the Safe Eyes server , not on your Mac . You ’ll ask to be creative with your account name , as the name calling must be unique in the worldwide universe of Safe center ’ users .
Each user can have unparalleled access rights using a number of the programme ’s features such as : stoppage / leave sure family of vane sites ; blocking / allow specific sites ; prevent sure key quarrel from being direct to lookup engine ; install a pop - up blocking agent ; enable use logging ; and make usance alert that can be sent via email , headphone , or text message ( the last , for an extra fee ) . All of these preferences are also server - based , intend that any automobile in your home will have access to the same user and rules .
amazingly , the Mac version of dependable Eyes lacks many critical features , such as impede schmooze and peer - to - compeer software , which are presently usable in the Windows version of the software . Similarly , syllabus mastery ( which governs applications that can pass from your reckoner to the Internet ) , usage logging for inst messages , and online meter limits are not functional in the Mac adaptation . The protrude - up blocking agent is nothing more than a set of instructions on how to utilise Safari ’s pop - up blocking agent . The program ’s packaging does not differentiate the Mac from the PC version , and is thus misleading .
Windows interface
The Safe Eyes interface is Windows - centrical — there are no Mac - expressive style buttons , the windows ca n’t be resized , the fonts are lowly , and at time , it ’s unclear exactly where you are suppose to clack . For case , the log viewer can not be resized , despite the fact that you ca n’t see the full URLs within the windowpane ’s width . Even worse , you ca n’t imitate and glue the schoolbook to a text editor , so you ’re stuck with what you ca n’t see .
While there is limited service from a Help menu within the app , there ’s no full user manual .
Different accounts
Once installed , Safe Eyes is active for every user , which is why you ’ll want to have full access accounts along with the limited access kids ’ accounts . Otherwise , browsing even safe site can be troublesome — I find many Web ads obstruct when using a restricted accounting , yet when I crack those same site from another simple machine , the ads were relatively innocuous .
As I surf with a restricted account , I found that dependable Eyes generally did a good job with its blocking — loading a blocked uniform resource locator resulted in a message explaining why the site had been immobilise . Using Google , however , I was able-bodied to find alternative methods of viewing blocked content , allowing me to see at least some of it . An enterprising teenager would probably be able to find better workarounds than I did .
If you ’re using an Intel - power Mac and have installed either Boot Camp or Parallels ( ) , keep in mind that you ’ll also require to blockade Web access from Windows XP . As a test , I operate Windows XP in Parallels , and was able to surfboard the profits freely , even though good oculus was running . I then install Safe Eyes for XP and found it do work exquisitely in Parallels . And because the $ 50 a twelvemonth license is good for three reckoner , you do n’t have to devote supererogatory for a Windows OS via Parallels .
Macworld’s buying advice
While Safe Eyes 2006 does a serious task at blocking questionable Internet content , its inability to block insistent messaging and equal - to - peer traffic leaves your fry exposed to things you may not require them to see . When you add in the non - Mac - similar user interface , the annual subscription fee , and the feature of speech disparity between the Mac and the Windows versions , it ’s difficult to advocate Safe Eyes at this time — the company has told us a raw Mac version is in the works and due out sometime in the first fourth of 2007 . Until it ’s resign , however , purchasers of the current version of Safe Eyes may be disappointed by some of the miss feature .
