- Quick specs
- Price: Free to try (10-day trial); $39.95 to buy
- Operating system: Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP/NT
- Date added: November 16, 2003
- Total Downloads: 53,940
- Downloads last week: 102
- See full specifications
- CNET editors' rating: stars
- Average user rating: stars out of 24 votes
See all user reviews
CNET editors' review
Reviewed by: CNET Staff
This application offers fairly decent parental filters for online access, but some competitive features are overlooked. Cybersitter only works with Internet Explorer and Netscape to block access to objectionable material on the Web, P2P file sharing, FTP sites, instant messages, and if necessary, all access to the Internet. You can configure the program to use Cybersitter's search engine and schedule allowable access times. The program filters search attempts and Web sites according to a default list or user-defined keywords. You'll also appreciate the blacklist that effectively shuns both URLs and phrases listed. What's more, it includes a whitelist of sorts, with one simple click, the only sites accessible are the ones you've specified. Though you won't find application blocking, screen captures, or a full keylogger feature, Cybersitter can log chats, sites visited, and any violation attempts, all of which can be sent to your e-mail. Its user-friendly interface is password-protected though the 10-day trial disables this feature. While it isn't exactly feature-rich, this software will provide parents a fractional set of parental-control tools.Publisher's description
From Solid Oak Software :Cybersitter gives adults the ability to limit children's access to objectionable material on the Internet. Parents can choose to block, block and alert, or simply alert them when access to these areas is attempted. Working secretly in the background, Cybersitter analyzes all Internet activity. Whenever it detects activity that the parent has elected to restrict, Cybersitter takes over and blocks the activity before it takes place. The program's intelligent "content recognition" system even recognizes and filters brand new sites that contain objectionable material. Cybersitter also offers selectable blocking of WWW, Newsgroups, Chat, Mail, and ICQ. If desired, Cybersitter will maintain a complete history of all Internet activity, including attempts to access blocked material. Password-protected, Cybersitter is easy to deactivate or reconfigure by the parent, and virtually impossible for the child to detect or defeat.
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User reviews
- Average user rating: 2.1 stars out of 24 votes
- My rating: 0 stars Write review
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Showing 5 of 24 user reviewsSee all 24 user reviews
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2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
Version: Cybersitter 9
Pros: It blocks some things.
Cons: It doesn't block easy to access porn sites and others it is told to block.
Much worse, it blocks portal sites like MSN.com, Yahoo.com and others based on their changing content (about 50 percent of the time). Blocks most webmail access dispite being whitelisted. Worse yet, is that sites with heavy use of Javascript, like airline reservation sites, cause Cyber to randomly block the page or crash IE. XP Pro, two computers have the same problems. Even with different builds and hours of work attempting to white-list these sites, it still blocks and crashes on them.
Why anyone would use, much less pay for this software is beyond me. Worthless!
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2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
Version: Cybersitter 9
Pros: When it is not causing Internet Explorer crashes, it works well.
Cons: Constant IE crashes that they are aware of that causes you to have to shut down IE several times an hour. Customer service response to this was to say "see what adware caused the crash and add it to permitted pages". That is crap...I don't have time to manually add thousands of adware that cause their substandard software to crash my browser. Microsoft is also aware and blames it on CyberSitter...don't buy this software!!
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1 out of 1 people found this review helpful
Version: Cybersitter 9
"Worked OK with some issues for Windows XP users"
Pros: I have been using this product for 3 years. Does what it's supposed to do, with a little tweaking. Works better with Windows 98.
Cons: A mess using Windows XP. It doesn't handle the user accounts well. If child account is logged on. And I go to my account, I am filtered. And nothing you can do about it.With XP Cybersitter crashes atleast once a week. But it's better than nothing. I am going to try some other products to see if I get better compatability with Windows XP.
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2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
Version: Cybersitter 9
"Excellent!!! Best One I've Ever Used."
Pros: It works, and does so behind the scenes. We use it on a three computer wireless network, and works great. I hate the filth that messes up people's lives. This is the best software I have every installed.
Cons: The company doesn't advertise enough.
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2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
Version: Cybersitter 9
Summary: Lots of controversy out there about Cybersitter's secret block list. But what the angry mobs DON'T tell you is that you can configure Cybersitter to NOT block those sites - just don't check the checkbox next to whatever category you actually want t... read more >>
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