Parental control software is a type of software program for your home computers which monitors computer use, filters internet content, and allows parents to ensure a safe overall experience for their family online. StarReviews has reviewed all of the top Parental Control Software programs including Net Nanny 6.5, Safe Eyes 6, Webroot Parental Controls, My Nabyoo, PC Tattletale, CYBERsitter 11, iProtectYou, BrightFilter, and Cyber Patrol. This time around, Net Nanny 6.5 gets the Gold Star award for the best parental control software.

When you decide to use Parental Control Software for your family, there are important features you should look for. The first thing is that the program should be user friendly and easy to install & set up. Second, the program controls should be password protected and not easily turned off by internet savvy children and teens. As you get in to the program, you should look for it to block or filter anything you would deem inappropriate for your child. What we liked specifically about our Gold Star program, Net Nanny, is that it's newest features include profanity masking - even in emails and instant messages, a proxy guard to keep your child from using a proxy website to avert the parental controls, and social networking controls to block or control your child's behavior on popular sites such as Facebook and MySpace. Safe Eyes 6, our Silver Star Parental Control Software program, even provides Chat Monitoring. This feature is great for blocking inappropriate words and keeping detailed reports of live chat conversations so that you know exactly who your child is talking to and what they are talking about when you are not looking.

Other features which parents may find useful include time restricting, which allows you to set a schedule for your children's internet usage to certain times of the day and reporting features which will give you a detailed run down of all of the internet activity on your computer. Some of the programs also have pre-set profiles you can use based on age groups to create a very user friendly set-up for parents who are not as computer literate as they would like to be when it comes to protecting their children from some of the dangers associated with using the internet. The Bronze Star program from this category, Webroot Parental Controls, allows parents to use the program on a network of up to three computers in the home. This is a great feature to look for if you have multiple computers in the home or if your child has their own personal laptop.

While the programs are similar and they are all essentially designed to allow parents to monitor computer use and filter objectionable content on the internet, they have some differences in features that may make one or another work better for your family or situation. For example, some programs really work well with social networking sites while some do not, so if your child has a profile on any of these sites, you will want to choose a program that has those features. Each program has something different to offer, so take the time to read each Star Review carefully to find out which program is right for you.