Parental Control Review 2015 – Kaspersky Internet Security

Product Reviews

System requirements

All 32 and 64-bit versions of Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 and 10.

Nature of the program

Kaspersky Internet Security is a full security suite, which includes antimalware, antispam and a firewall in addition to the parental control component.

Parental control features

Kaspersky Internet Security includes web content filtering, Internet usage times/total time, computer usage times/total time, program control, monitoring, plus communication and content control (see “Additional features” below).

Installation and configuration

The setup wizard can be completed with a few clicks, the only decision being whether to participate in the Kaspersky Security Network. The user then has to enter an activation code or opt for the 30-day free trial. To configure the Parental Control component, the user clicks the tile of the same name on the home page of the program. A prompt to create a password then appears. Once the password has been set, the program asks which elements it should protect:

We note that by default, there is nothing to prevent the child exiting the entire application, or even uninstalling it; we would recommend parents to apply password protection to both of these functions. In the next step, the parent can configure the child’s settings and activate the protection. The configuration page lists the Windows user accounts and allows the parent to activate and configure the protection for each one:

Clicking Configure restrictions for a particular account opens the dialog box shown below:

To configure web filtering, the parent clicks on Internet, Select categories of websites.

Web filtering Categories

Categories of material that can be blocked are shown below:

Browser Test

We found that the software worked identically with Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer and Windows 10’s Edge browser.

Web-filtering test results

In our web-filtering test, Kaspersky Internet Security blocked 99.1% of pornography sites, and 73% of other sites.
It scored well in most subcategories, with abortion and especially cults being the exceptions.

• Abortion 47%
• Alcohol 89%
• Cults 10%
• Drugs 100%
• Gambling 95%
• Hate 72%
• Proxies 80%
• Suicide 63%
• Tobacco 100%
• Weapons 89%

Its rate of false positives was low, with only 4 out of 50 child-friendly websites blocked.

Using Google as a bypass

Kaspersky Internet Security prevented either the Google cache or Google Translate being used to bypass the filter.

What does the child see when a page is blocked?

The page is completely blanked out, and the following message is displayed in the web browser:

Clicking Allow access to this website prompts the user to enter the password to change settings. In addition to the browser alert, a pop-up message appears for a few seconds in the top right-hand corner of the screen:

Blacklisting/whitelisting

By clicking on Internet, Add exclusions the parent can block or allow specific websites, regardless of whether the site’s category is allowed or blocked:

Time limits

On the Computer tab the parent can set times of day, and total time each day, for all use of the computer (see earlier screenshot). We tested this function by logging on as the child at a time when we had prohibited computer use. The message below was shown, and the screen was locked at the time stated:

The Internet tab allows Internet access to be restricted to a certain number of hours per day, with different settings for weekdays and weekends:

We tested this by setting the hours per day to 0, and found that any and all Internet sites were blocked and the following message displayed:

Program control

Under Applications the parent can block specific programs:

We tested this by blocking Microsoft Edge. When we tried to open the program from the child’s account, the message below was displayed: 

Monitoring

Under View Report the parent can see a record of the child’s computer use:

Additional features

Kaspersky Lab have included two additional features. Communication allows parents to restrict their child’s in social networks and instant messengers, using a blacklist or whitelist. Content Control consists of Private data transfer control, which can block the sending of private information (such as name, address and phone number), and Keyword Control, which can block the use of freely definable keywords in messages and web forms.

Help

When the ? symbol in the top right-hand corner of the program window is clicked, the Windows Help window for the current page of Kaspersky Internet Security is opened. This provides comprehensive instructions, with some screenshots, for all the functions of the suite. A comprehensive 125-page manual, with some illustrations, is also provided; this can be conveniently downloaded from the same page as the application installer. Finally, there is an online knowledge base with instructions for common tasks. At the time of writing (August 2015), the Parental Control section was limited to a description of the content categories:

Verdict

Kaspersky Internet Security 2016 provides a comprehensive feature set, including web filtering, time limitations and program control. The Communication and Content Control features strike us as particularly useful. The program’s performance in our web-filtering test was good overall, with weaker results in only two sub-categories. We found the parental controls to be well designed, with a very intuitive user interface that makes configuration quick and easy. For parents who nonetheless require some assistance with setting the program up, the help functions are comprehensive and good.