Overview
iShield is a product from the company Guardware that is designed to encourage safe and responsible use of the internet by children and teens. It is specifically focused on preventing children from viewing pornography and other harmful content while they use the internet so that you can keep your family safe and protected.
Pros
One of the most unique features of iShield is that it lets you determine what happens when someone tries to access blocked material. You can block the material, or you can have the program send a report to your email address. This gives you flexibility in how you handle your children’s internet use, and lets you determine the best course of action for raising your kids.
iShield is fully customizable, so you can set different profiles for different types of users. Therefore, you won’t be restricted to the same level of scrutiny as your children if you don’t want to be. Moreover, you can define custom lists of safe and unsafe sites and prevent your children from accessing sites that might not be pornographic but run contrary to your values.
iShield also lets you restrict internet use to certain times of the day so you can be confident your kids aren’t spending all of their time online. The program works within your web browser, so it doesn’t slow down browsing or internet speeds.
Finally, iShield records activity on any banned sites that you’ve listed, so you can see how often your children are trying to view inappropriate material and make a decision about how to handle the situation. This gives parents added flexibility and more control when it comes to teaching your children about safe internet use.
Cons
iShield seems to be a neglected product. The system requirements and list of compatible browsers reads like the program hasn’t been updated in years. This gives us tremendous doubt that it will be an effective application in the modern day. Moreover, the lack of updates means that it doesn’t have protection from many of the most common circumvention methods that children have figured out. As a result, it’s likely not going to be as effective as you want an internet filtering and monitoring program to be.
Verdict
Most users should look elsewhere for internet accountability and monitoring programs. iShield doesn’t seem to be updated anymore and so it doesn’t have the ability to deal with modern computer setups. The program doesn’t have any kind of mobile application or compatibility, so most devices that children use can’t run it.