- Cost: $29.95 With an Additional Charge for Internet Accessibility (Total Cost: $149.95)
- Easy Installation
- Captures POP3 Email through Microsoft Outlook
- Simple, Easy to Use Interface
- 15 Day Money-Back Guarantee
What It Does
IAmBigBrother, with its comparably low price tag, offers parents the option to monitor their children’s online activities, including social networking. IAmBigBrother records both sides of the conversation for all major Instant Messaging applications. This parental control content monitoring application is easy to install and the administrative interface is easy to use.
Extra
When the web-based access is purchased for an additional price, parents are able to view their child’s computer usage from any Internet connected computer. IAmBigBrother is easy to install, and the application installs in Stealth mode by default.
Automation
IAmBigBrother may be configure to automatically snap screenshots based on typed words. This is a unique feature of the software. IAmBigBrother includes keylogging functionality and, for the price, is a decent parental control product
Drawbacks
With the inexpensive price tag comes some disappointing faults with IAmBigBrother. The most noticeable is the lack of search functionality. Parents must sift through an entire session of computer usage recorded data to view certain aspects of usage. For example, the keylogger logs keystrokes in one large, continuous block, tagged only by session date and time, instead of separating the data by application. This, in combination with the lack of search functionality, makes monitoring a child’s online behavior a time consuming experience for the parent.
Another con of IAmBigBrother is the additional, quite significant charge for Internet access to recorded monitoring data. Where many parental control programs provide Internet-based access by default, this package must be purchased separately for IAmBigBrother.
Support for IAmBigBrother is reported to be considerably lacking. No technical support number is provided, and when the “Support” link is accessed from within the administrative interface, only a web-based form opens. The user is then required to fill out the form and send it to technical support, opening a support ticket. No indication is provided to the user that the form was received, or when the request will be answered.
Screenshots are only captured based on the keywords provided when the program is configured. No continuous monitoring functionality is included with IAmBigBrother.
In addition, IAmBigBrother was found to be easily detected and disabled by several anti-malware programs and when the automatic screenshot feature is enabled, taking of screenshots slows down the monitored computer.
Though the price is affordable for the basic installation of IAmBigBrother, this parental control content monitoring application lacks several of the features that are standard with the other products reviewed. The lack of these features earned IAmBigBrother the #5 spot on our list.
Recommendation
Again, we found WebWatcher to be the most effective and easy to use parental control software on the market today. With its user-friendly administrative control panel, and the fact that parents are able to try the software prior to purchase, WebWatcher is our choice for the #1 monitoring application.