Internet Controller

This application places parents in the driver's seat, at least where surfing is concerned, though some features aren't exactly appealing. From the moment you launch the program's interface, you'll see misspelled words and grossly poor grammar. If you can get past that, you'll find that it's password-protected and offers parents a configurable browser that can block e-mails, downloads, and sites with uncommon extensions for safer surfing. The ultimate in parental control, the whitelisting of allowable sites, is also given and proved effective during our tests. Parents will also appreciate that, when active, Internet Controller blocks the launching of all other Web browsers. However, most kids won't want to use the program's e-mail facets. For one thing, it doesn't allow you to enter your name as the sender and you can't change the subject line. The e-mail is delivered with an unknown name and is quickly identified as spam. Most embarrassingly, the standard subject line has a grammatical boo-boo. Although free and effective, we feel most users will want the errors cleaned up before downloading this program for their children.