Action Alert is intended to be a simple to use, all in one Internet parenting solution. But it does not replace the parent. It can be used for any age of child that uses the internet.
The features of this program:
It has been granted the following award as well as been featured:
You may recall that I did a review of a security program last year by the name of PG Key. This is the same company but they have changed their features as well as the way the software is distributed. Feel free to have a look at the previous review I did (I’ll give you a hint: I thought it a good program).
This is an install that you can do instantly and it is always on the computer. The basics are the same but with this new Action Alert, there is also a free subscription that parents can sign up for to give them some peace of mind for when their kids are online. If you don’t know the online dangers, here is a page at their site to help you understand.
With the free version, you can install it fairly quickly, give it a trial run and see if you would like to upgrade to the maximum protection. What is the difference between the free install and the paid install? From the creators of Action Alert:
Free Version - Action Alert offers a 100% free version that many parents feel gives them the amount of protection and peace of mind they need - and for good reason! Our free version offers more protection than you would otherwise pay $40 per year for or more with other products. It includes a web filter to ensure safe searches, website blocking that prevents access to a constantly updated list of websites, time use controls – it even sends texts or e-mail alerts when dangers are detected. All of this PLUS free tech support where calls are taken at our Arizona based support center by our friendly staff.Maximum Protection – Action Alert sends a message to your cell phone or e-mail when an event occurs that you should be aware of. This message lets parents know they should take a look at the computer and probably have a talk with their young computer user.The Maximum Protection version simply gives parents a much more complete set of tools to see the details of the missteps their child or teen took online, or in some cases provides usable evidence of interactions when they were targeted by a wrong doer. From the moment our 100% free version is installed, our technology goes to work recording the computer activity of your protected user. If needed, you can activate Maximum Protection and watch everything that happened like watching a DVR.
We were given a maximum protection install for our review (which costs $29.99 per year). The install was very simple. I had no problems with that. I set up my account online and did some very basic things with the site blocking. It also allowed all of the favorites for users to be added to the safe websites list. I had to do this because my dd wanted to go to a site that she has visited in the past (which I actually made her aware of in the first place) but Action Alert blocked it. After allowing the favorites to be accessed, there was no problem with sites being blocked. I honestly did not block any sites because there aren’t any that I know of to block- and I certainly wasn’t going to go searching for any.
I received notifications at the email I included in my account. I found it to be somewhat amusing, though. The first notification let me know that a particular user had searched (that is what it said in the notification) in the letter x three times. I panicked! Why would my child be typing that in?! But what it doesn’t register or doesn’t tell is that whenever certain combinations of keystrokes are typed, in search or not, it counts it as being ‘searched’. In this instance it was for a game where the letters q, w, a, s, d, z, and x were used as controls. The letter x was hit three times consecutively. Another time the word “association” was typed but the notification only alerted me that the first three letters were typed.
Also the notification I received was hours later than the action occurred. If I had wanted to disable the computer at the time, I couldn’t have. I have since discovered that you can receive a text message and when you do you have the ability to disable the computer then. But it is still somewhat delayed.
The one thing that I appreciate the most about this program is the video playback of activity on the computer. It stores up to 60 hours of computer time. The parent can log into their account (on any computer) and view the latest activity. It can be set to record in second increments (like 2 seconds, 5 seconds, etc). This enables the parent to see things such as chat and instant messages that the child has engaged in. It also allows the parent to see the sites and things searched for, games played and such.
There is nothing supposedly that will harm your computer or your files while using this program but personally I did have problems while this was installed. My computer froze up quite often and perhaps the storing previous computer sessions took up too much space because my CPU usage was up to 100% on the occasions when it froze. I did uninstall the program and for some strange reason it uninstalled my antivirus program as well.
In regards to my experiences- it could have been a fluke. Perhaps my antivirus was incompatible and uninstalled itself. I did contact Action Alert pertaining to the issue and they were quite polite, professional and eager to help figure out and fix the problem.
When trying to use the User Manual that is available at the website is still geared toward the PG Key and therefore some things are not applicable. For instance, it talks about the USB port- which you don’t need to Action Alert because it is a downloadable software.
Bottom-line:It has potential. It is a great idea and I know that the thinking on the kids part that their parents can watch whatever they are doing- and cut their computer time- is a great protector in itself.
Personally, it isn’t going to work for our family (or perhaps it’s just my computer) because it causes too many issues and stressors. I know the sites my kids visit- I’m here majority of the time when they are online. Also, it adds stress to me to think that my kids are visiting or searching for inappropriate sites when in reality they are merely doing things they normally do but the software doesn’t know that hitting the x key so many times is part of a game and not what it is programed to think it is.
I encourage you to have a look at other reviews, including those by fellow TOS Crew members, to help decide if this is a program that would work for your family.
I wanted to let you know I had specifically asked the tech support if I could watch the security video from any computer and the answer was "No!" Apparently that could be done with the USB device, but not with the download that does not have that device. I just checked the manual; says the same thing. I was disappointed. I had hoped you were right.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your review.
I thought that we could install this on two computers; the first would be the monitored computer, the second was only to access the account and to preview the recorded sessions. Thanks for letting me (and others) know!
ReplyDelete