Customer Reviews

CyberSitter

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

First off, we have a five user pack, with one installed on each of our kids computers (four kids w/computers at home). I have used it for 3 years. I chose this over some other software available because 3 years ago it had more features than the other companies out there.

Let me say a couple of things. Some of the features work well, and some don't. For example, we have put options in for the kids to be able to access their own personal pages on Myspace (which I monitor), but not the other pages. That doesn't seem to matter, Cybersitter won't let one of my kids on her page, but the other one CAN go. I followed the same procedure for both computers. My son is not allowed to play his war game online, even though I told it to let him online...put that game in the good list...it will let him onto the site...let him set up a game...but then freezes the loading...very frustrating for kids trying to play. The only way around this I have found is to suspend the program (that's easy to do for an administrator).

The snoop feature doesn't work on any of their computers...so I cannot see what they've been doing. Also, the report emails work fine, and have been useful from time to time. I know one of my kids had a friend who was trying to se profanity in chats and they were blocked regularly...the report shows who that was and the blocked messages. It is very difficult to read though....because it looks almost like a computer read out.

Some kids will try to work around CyberSitter by using proxy websites. CyberSitter really should block all proxy sites, but they don't.

At the same time CyberSitter has regularly not allowed sites that are supposed to be blocked. For example we have gambling sites checked as places we don't want our kids to go to. One of my teens was doing a research report on the recent James Bond movie "Casino Royale". Because it had the word Casino in it, she could see none of the hits until I suspended the program filtering temporarily. Even though that was irritating, I felt good that it was still blocking some things.

I am adding filters to my office computers and will try another brand-because I have become aware of another company that has a filter that is better in some respects, perhaps operating more smoothly than CyberSitter...but it does not have email/IM protection...and if kids do anything online they are probably on AOL IM..... So for kids this is number one because it is still the best one on the market that has instant message and email filtering...how can anyone say they are protecting kids without that?? It is absolutely amazing to me that there are products on the market that claim to protect kids from the junk out there...and they have NOTHING for chat/email. To me that is just not living in the real world. So even with it's flaws, I think CyberSitter is the best thing available for families and I recommend you get it.

CYBERsitter has been around since the Internet became available to personal users. The company is still there and still updating and supporting the product. I can always get answers to questions, plus I have never had to pay any update fees. I had one serious problem with a spyware program that caused my Internet to lock up. The CYBERsitter guys helped me get going again, even though it turned out the problem had nothing to do with CYBERsitter.

I wonder if some of the people reviewing this are reviewing a different version. The version that I have has the ability to block proxy sites. There is also the ability on a Windows XP install to disallow access to a DOS prompt, control panel, time changing, and a couple of other functions that kids were using to get around CYBERsitter. The documentation says that the ability to block those items is part of Vista, so on a Vista install those options are not available. I installed on a Windows XP computer, so I can't comment about a Vista install.

Since I was using OpenDNS filtering for filtering the outright bad websites, I was looking for a product that could handle the gray websites like wikipedia and YouTube.

The program has the ability to block social networking sites, chat sites, Instant Message, newsgroups, mail websites, etc. I just blocked those sites on my install, so I cannot comment on how CYBERsitter interacts with those types of websites or programs.

There is no ability to have accounts. It is an all or nothing deal. You can say that certain logins should not use filtering, but you can't say that child_A is a young child, so only let the child go on kids websites, while child_B is a teenager, so do content filtering.

My main concern was Wikipedia and YouTube type of sites. That is where most of my testing was done. There is an ability to add custom filter words. I just looked at certain wiki projects whose pages I had issues with and entered those words into the filter dialog box, and the content was filtered correctly. To help not filter general discussions about those topics, I used the detailed anatomical words.

The main problems is that there is no logic to the filtering. If I said to filter "apple", it would not filter "apples" or "apple.jpg".

The website says that there is custom code for filtering on and Facebook, but I could not find the settings in my install of CYBERsitter version 10.8.4.30. Actually, if one reads the website carefully it says something along the lines of feature is included or will be in the future. In other words, they are planning to add it, but it has not been added yet.

Would I recommend this product to somebody else? If you have very small children under the age of 8 (not able to type searches on their own), the Vista controls set to "high" should be fine. If you have children that are only in 1 age category (teens or children or seniors), this product should work fine. If you have mixed age groups, there is going to be issues due to the lack of logins integrated with windows.

If you are planning to test a bunch of different filtering programs, there will be problems, because they will conflict with each other. When CYBERsitter was installed, even though I told it to be deactivated, it caused problems with my testing of NetNanny.

Oh, I also did not like the way that if a user tried to access a page that was not allowed, it randomly goes to another page. That is good if you want to run the program in hidden mode, but if you want to run the program more openly, it causes problems. It would have been nicer if there was the ability to select different options: bring up your own webpage, custom message and custom icon (like OpenDNS has), a dialog asking the admin to give permission to access the page permanently or temporarily, etc.

If I could, I would give this item "0" stars. I was not even able to load it on my computer, and the vendor would not give me a refund. They stated that "downloadable" items can not be refunded. Buyer beware! Technical support was absolutely NO help.

I ended up downloading Net Nanny from the Contentwatch website, and it works great.

DO NOT BUY CYBERSITTER!

I bought one and installed it on my kid's windows XP, but my kid can easily disable it even just with his ordinary "User" account/privilege. I am an IT professional, but I can not believe this product is so vulnerable! It shows one file is not accessible once got disabled by my kid. Now I am looking for other and better parental control s/w.

I have no idea what some of these people are talking about. I've tried all the most popular filters, and cybersitter is the best I have found. I got version 11 in December, and I love it! It seems "smart", and is really easy to use. Not too many features, not too few. It does everything it should do. I have great control over how much I want filtered for EACH of my kids! There is an optional configuration for EACH user. Love it! It's new in this version.

Other programs gave me a headache with all the bells and whistles they tried to pack in, and you need to be an expert to figure them out...(cough...Netnanny...cough cough) AND they still accidentally block good sites.

I used version 10 before I upgraded, and it accidentally blocked sites too. That was better than accidentally NOT blocking a porn site, but the new version has never blocked anything I needed to get to, and blocks everything you shouldn't get to.

Sure, they don't list all their numbers on their site, but that's not uncommon. When I had a question, I just wrote an email. Helloooooo, you're on the computer now. Welcome to technology, and don't rely on a phone number. They got right back to me, and I liked that someone actually read my question and responded without sending out some automated response that doesn't have anything to do with the info I needed.

I'll have kids in my house for 10+ years. I think I'll stick with cybersitter!

doesn't block any foreign language sites (languages other than english). kids can easily figure this out, then you have no blocker at all.

First, we have used cyber sitter for over 13 years, since the earlier versions including V 10, which now no longer functions.

I can understand the need for yearly renewal, as updates is constantly needed for any "cyber" monitoring to work with anti-spam, anti-malware, and anti-virus softwared.

If you are to install this product, first, shut down windows firewall and antivirus first. Otherwise installation can not work. Cybersitter will conflict with many programs which access the internet, which includes online back up softwares, online hard drives, etc. Cybersitter will conflict with some windows updates, and you might want to manually do the updates after shutting cybersitter and your antivirus off.

Next, you probably should only pick "I'll check windows update on my own" feature. Basically, anyone who shuts down their computer or own a laptop should chose self initiated windows update..... Otherwise you'll risk crashing your computer, especially with Vista. You should not do windows update unless you shut down cybersitter, and also shut down antivirus. I know, update will work 99% of the times, but that 1% will give you more grief than you want.

As far as children able to disable it... yes... anyone can.... But that's why you are the parent. Most children knows more about operating system and system files than most parents do. But cybersitter is not a parent replacement. Don't blame the product if you have stopped being a parent.

It is too bad that there is no perfect way to use cybersitter. If you have a teenager, they are too smart, and will change time and date, and tweak CY to work at any time they want. They have removed the manual word search blocking, which could make the program more powerful. The "always allower" sites, don't always work, as they are dependent on too many sub sites that CY will block. I think the older version with manual word blocking availability is better for parents.

DON'T BUY CYBERSITTER SOFTWARE UNLESS YOU WANT HEADACHES. I recently downloaded the Cybersitter 11 demo version. After it prevented me from getting to the evil (LOL) Honda Motorcycle homepage, I understood that the software was not ready for prime-time and I then attempted to uninstall Cybersitter 11 using their prescribed uninstall method. At first glance the uninstall seemed to have completed properly. Cycbersitter 11 folders and icons had been deleted. However, there remained and remains one big problem. Namely, Cybersitter 11 is still running on my PC (after the uninstall) as evidenced by cybersitter windows popping up preventing me from seeing innocuous pages. I've emailed Cybersitter support numerous times but they've not offered any real solution to cleansing my PC of their software. Bottom line: Cybersitter 11 uninstall did not work on my PC. The default settings of Cybersitter 11 prevented me from seeing what a normal person would consider innocuous (safe) pages. Cybersitter customer service lacks expertise and they are difficult to contact. Just an aside - earlier versions of Cybersitter (which I owned and used) were infamous for crashing browsers. Repeated calls to patch their software went unheeded. I would not recommend any Cybersitter product.

I installed this on 2-netbooks, Toshibas with Atom 270 processors. It seems to be working well. But after installing this I found that Microsoft Live and the Kaspersky Anti-virus also offered parental controls. I don't know how well they would have protected. But I did like that the MS LIVE provided a pop-up stating that it was preventing my kids from going to a specific website. Often it seems that when Cybersitter blocks a website the computer just freezes with no indication of what is going on.