Free Parental Control Software

I took a big parenting step a fortnight ago and installed a pc in my 12 year old daughter's bedroom, with internet access. What could have been an unnerving relinquishing of power and control was made extremely easy when I found Crawler Parental Control.
This awesome, free, package allows you to protect your children in a number of ways. On a pc level you are able to restrict the applications they can use and install, the folders they can access and even dictate the websites they can access. It has a built in website filter that will block inappropriate content and even prevent your credit card details being used without your knowledge.
For me, the most powerful module is the time scheduling. You are able to set, when your children are able to use the computer, by time of the day, day of the week and maximum hours per day, week etc. The same can be done for time spent online.
All this plus details reports of usage emailed to you, for free.

Download here.

Wowturf - Parents take note

Wowturf has been around for a good couple of months. It's surprised me how little traction that it's got, so Eish!! is going to see if we can help them out.

What is Wowturf? Perhaps half the problem is in the name. I don't see the link between what it is and the name it's been given, perhaps it's just me. Nevertheless, I digress.
Wowturf is a resource for anyone who has ever needed to try and entertain children for anything longer than five minutes. In their own words " WowTurf is a virtual reality, educational locus where adults can explore exciting things to do with kids of all ages."
The idea is to help parents find activities they can do with their children. They have crafts(projects), restaurants that are kid-centric, birthday party venues and my favourite, but oddly named "To Do" category. The latter being venues and activities the whole family can enjoy, not things the webmaster still wants to add to the website.

While it is obviously focussed on South African venues (in fact seems to be dominated by Cape Town based activities, but Eish!! readers are going to change that right?!) the projects can be useful to any parent anywhere in the world, especially on those cold, wintery days when the children start getting irritated with being couped up inside. It could also be a great resource to those overseas visitors w to check out before coming to South Africa.

Anyone can add ideas and venues, so do your fellow parents, and the website hosts, a favour and add your foolproof ideas.

This could grow into a fantastic resource.

Link : http://www.wowturf.org