Pros & Cons
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- Filters IM at protocol level.
- Can detect cyberbullying in IM, intervene, and notify parents.
- Browser-independent Web content filtering.
- Flexible Internet time scheduler with daily maximum.
- Threshold-based parental alerts.
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- Inability to filter HTTPS URLs weakens other features.
- No social networking management.
- Online control interface is awkward.
- Lacks features found in competing products.
PureSight Owl 2011 Specs
| OS Compatibility: | Windows 7 |
| OS Compatibility: | Windows Vista |
| OS Compatibility: | Windows XP |
| Tech Support: | and phone. |
| Tech Support: | chat |
| Tech Support: | |
| Type: | Personal |
Cyberbullying, sexting, and other inappropriate uses of instant messaging are constantly in the news. Children's knowledge of IM leaves many parents in the dust, and kids don't always engage common sense before chatting. PureSight Owl 2011 ($59.90/year direct for three licenses) aims to actively protect kids from bullying and other bad chat behavior, and it also offers basic parental control features including content filtering and Internet scheduling.
As with Norton Online Family Premier ($49.99 direct, 4 stars), Bsecure Online v6.16 ($49.95 direct for three licenses, 4.5 stars) and others, with PureSight Owl 2011 all configuration after the initial installation happens through an online parent portal. You can separately configure profile settings for up to 10 children, starting from an age-appropriate preset for each. Your remote changes take effect within 15 minutes.
PureSight profiles aren't linked to Windows accounts, so you'll want to set the most restrictive account as the default and require the others to log in for their less-restrictive profiles. Each parent or older child must downshift to the default profile upon leaving the computer. It's a little awkward, but it doesn't require setting up a Windows account for each child. On the other hand, if the kids do have their own accounts, each login will reset PureSight to the default profile.
Instant Messaging Protection
PureSight controls instant messaging at the protocol level to monitor and filter chat traffic for AIM, Yahoo, and MSN as well as Trillian, an instant messaging aggregator. It can't filter Skype, IRC, or Jabber/Google Talk, but it will block use of those protocols.
At the default "filter" mode, PureSight's IM control overwrites bad language in incoming and outgoing IM messages and watches for problematic conversations including bullying and sexual interactions. PureSight isn't fooled by leet-speak or phonetic spellings, and it tracks popular IM acronyms and slang. If necessary, it will terminate a dangerous conversation, block the sender from further contact, and notify parents.
PureSight's own multi-lingual database of dangerous chat words and phrases is proprietary, but parents can create their own list for added protection. In particular, parents can prevent kids from broadcasting too-private information like the home address and phone number. For each parent-specified word or phrase PureSight can flag each occurrence, conceal the phrase by overwriting it, or end the conversation and block the contact. It can also immediately alert the parent by e-mail.
CyberPatrol Parental Controls 7.7 ($39.95 direct, 4 stars) also has the ability to block bad words in chat conversations, but parents must populate the list of words. Net Nanny 6.5 ($39.99 direct, 4.5 stars) looks for danger signs in IM conversations and alerts parents, with an option to record only conversations that trigger an alert. For each flagged conversation Net Nanny explains what triggered the alert. In addition to AIM, Yahoo and MSN, Net Nanny also filters Jabber/Google Talk and Facebook chat. PureSight plans to add support for Facebook chat soon.Testing IM Protection
PureSight successfully blocked access to the chat services that it was set to block and correctly filtered those it was set to filter. I engaged in IM conversations between two of my own accounts and also chatted with PureSight tech support, to get a feel for how it works.
The detailed report of IM conversations can only be viewed on the computer where the conversations took place; it's not available through the online portal. PureSight doesn't report conversations as such but rather lists each line, its status, the participants, and the date/time, with the newest lines at the top.
The actual lines of conversation are hidden by default, so parents can grant the kids some degree of privacy by only opening those that were flagged as problematic. If the flagged text includes any IM slang or abbreviations, parents can hover with the mouse for a popup explanation. Parents can also take immediate action to block further contact with any sender.
As far as I can see this system serves admirably to protect a child who wants protection, but won't stop those who seek unconstrained access to IM. Web-based chat systems like AIM Express, Yahoo Messenger, and Meebo don't go through the protocols monitored by PureSight, so it blocks all access to those sites. However, it can't filter secure (HTTPS) Web sites, so a child wanting privacy could simply log in at, for example, https://www.meebo.com.
PureSight can also block popular P2P file sharing protocols, or allow their use while monitoring what kids do with them. Supported P2P systems include BitTorrent, Gnutella, eDonky, Direct Connect, Ares, and FastTrack. As with the chat tracking, parents can only view the P2P activity report at the local computer.
Final Thoughts
PureSight Owl 2011
PureSight Owl 2011 can detect cyberbullying in IM, terminate the conversation, block the perpetrator, and notify Mom. It also handles Web content filtering and Internet scheduling. It doesn't manage social networking, though, nor does it offer the breadth of features found in the top products.