Labs

Net Nanny is available either as a boxed product or as a download from www.netnanny.com. After the initial installation routine, the program reboots your system, and launches into the Net Nanny customisation routine. To prevent tampering, this can only be run once. After this, if you want to change key settings, you'll need to access the password-protected settings control panel. If you forget your password, Net Nanny prompts you with two questions, which you enter during the setup routine. If the answers match those you've entered, you'll be allowed to change the password to something new. This seems a better choice than having a 'hint' or asking you just to remember the password, as the other programs do.

Net Nanny lets you view and customise lists of permitted and restricted Web sites. You can allocate these to users of the PC, as appropriate. You can define a separate list for each user, and you can choose to block sites based on rating systems from two US bodies - SafeSurf, and the Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA).

In the ICRA ratings, you can choose the acceptable level for nudity, language, sex and violence, ranging from 0 (none), to 4 (provocative frontal nudity,

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in the case of the nudity setting). Safe Surf covers a very wide range of potential dangers, with settings for each from 0 to 9. You can download lists of changes to keep your banned and allowed Web sites up to date, either manually or automatically, on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. The interface is simple and easy to use. The software works with Netscape, Opera and Mozilla, as well as Internet Explorer. Like McAfee, it also blocks the use of proxies.

Net Nanny allows you to create multiple user profiles, specifying what each user can see and what elements of the Internet they can use. You can block all or specific Web sites, newsgroups or chat rooms. You can also block particular words or phrases, and turn off all graphics. Personal information, such as names, addresses, e-mail addresses, school details and financial information can also be kept secure.

Net Nanny recognises rude words in a range of languages, and also copes well with embedded rude words. It recognises when they form part of perfectly harmless ones - 'Scunthorpe', 'Middlesex' or 'Swanky', for instance. It's also intelligent enough to block only pages where unacceptable words occur several times, so innocent pages don't end up being blocked. It allows you to create lists of acceptable chat rooms and newsgroups, then block all the rest - really the only safe way to proceed. Net Nanny also has an option to record all conversations held in chat sessions. It lets you define the times at which users may access the Internet, and can be set to use an Internet atomic clock to prevent time tampering.

Net Nanny may be twice the price of its nearest rival, McAfee Parental Controls - but when the safety of your children is at stake, we think the extra twenty quid is worth paying. A deserved Best Buy.