By setting up an online walled garden or virtual sandbox, it allows children to play and learn online without danger from the dark alleys of cyberspace. The service, aimed at children 4 to 12 years old, does have a built-in set of filters that keep your kids away from porn sites, unmoderated chat rooms and other places that could bring them harm. Parents can also allow children to participate in public chat rooms that are moderated by contractors who, according SurfMonkey senior vice president Cynthia Money, have gone through background checks. If a child says anything inappropriate or if the monitor has any reason to believe that an inappropriate adult visitor is lurking, the monitor is empowered to kick the person out and, if necessary, suspend the individual's online privileges. So just because your kids are on a machine protected by SurfMonkey doesn't mean they're 100 percent safe.
Parental guidance is still essential.
In addition to the walled garden, SurfMonkey blocks access to the usual cast of adult sites that Internet filtering programs block. That makes it easier for the company to update the list of inappropriate sites. Another advantage to server-based filtering is that a parent can control a child's access privileges by visiting SurfMonkey's Web site from any browser on any computer. So, while you're at work, you can control what your kid can do at your home PC or any PC that is running the SurfMonkey software. So if your kid were at a friend's house or a school running SurfMonkey, he or she would log on with the same privileges and restrictions as at home.