PG Key Review

As part of my responsibilities as a member of The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew, I recently reviewed PG Key.  As many parents would agree, diligent and constant vigilance regarding children's online computer time is crucial to keeping them protected from damaging online content and online predators.  While I feel active supervision, clear guidelines for computer use, and open lines of communication are the most important factors in protecting our children online, PG Key may be a useful tool for parents as well in our efforts to protect our children online.

PG Key was developed with input from many groups concerned about children and online safety - Internet security experts, law enforcement, educators, family psychologists, and parents.  PG Key requires no annual fee and offers all of the following features:

• The ability to control when the computer is used and for how long
• The SafeKey Safe Search home page blocks hundreds of thousands of inappropriate websites.  As well, you have the option of only allowing access to websites that you have approved.
• E-mail notifications can be sent if an inappropriate keyword search is conducted.  You may choose any words or phrases for which you would like to receive notifications.
• All computer activity (both online and offline) are recorded so that you can easily view EXACTLY what your child has been doing on the computer.

I did find PG Key incredibly easy to install.  All I had to do was to insert PG Key into a USB port on my computer and follow the simple instructions on my computer screen.

After installation, my home page on my computer changed to the SafeKey Safe Search home page.  While I did not run a wide variety of inappropriate key word searches simply because I did not feel comfortable doing so, I did type in the word "pornography."  In looking over the sites that came up, they did seem to be of an academic nature.  Again, I did not click on all of the links so I can not verify that no inappropriate images or websites would be accessed.

Since I had requested that "pornography" be a key word search of which I wanted to be notified in my initial installation, I was pleased to see that I received an e-mail later in the day letting me know that a "pornography" key word search was conducted.

The aspect of PG Key that I thought was the most interesting, though, was that everything a child (or anybody) was doing on the protected computer was recorded.  At the end of the day, I watched the online and offline activity of my family just like I was watching a movie.  I saw the math curriculum that my boys use for math class being completed, my quick pop-ins to check my e-mail a few times during the day, and my youngest son's visit to the Mythbusters site.  My children all know that they must check with me before visiting a new website so Duncan's visit to the Mythbusters site did not come as a surprise.

While watching the movie of the day's computer use, the viewer did freeze up on me and refused to play any more footage.  I received an "error uncompressing image data."  In complete fairness, I did not contact technical support to resolve the issue due to time constraints.  I know they have been very helpful to other reviewers.  I feel confident that my minor issue could be easily resolved.

PG Key is available both online and at many major retailers.  PG Key can be purchased online for $49.99.  As well, you can call 1-800-301-8698 to find a retailer in your area that sells PG Key.

I received PG Key free in exchange for providing my opinions in a review.  No other compensation of any kind was given in exchange for this review.