I'm a few decades older than its targeted audience, but I was delighted by the clean interface and effective use of Web-based media. Yes, there are some long load times, even when I accessed it with my cable modem, but that's inevitable with any media-rich online activity site. The site allows you to download a free safety bar that works with Microsoft Internet Explorer to keep kids out of harm's way. Rather than installing its filtering files on your PC, the safety bar intercepts any URL and checks it against the Surfwatch filtering data that resides on SurfMonkey's servers. The process doesn't seem to slow you down noticeably and is pretty good at blocking inappropriate sites.
Adults can easily turn it off for unfiltered surfing.
There is, however, one catch. It only works while your children are using Internet Explorer. All bets and blocking are off if they run Netscape, AOL or any other Internet application. While all of these sites have useful content, none is as rich or easy to use as Your Own World and other good PC-based children's software. The Net has come a long way since the days of text-based screens and an interface that required users to master obscure Unix commands but it still has a long way to go.