Parental Control Review 2025 – Fortinet FortiClient for Windows
Parental Control Review 2025 for Windows
| Release date | 2025-05-20 |
| Revision date | 2025-05-11 |
| Test Period | May 2025 |
| Number of Testcases | 1000 |
| Online with cloud connectivity |  |
| Update allowed | |
| False Alarm Test included | |
| Platform/OS | Microsoft Windows |
Introduction
AV-Comparatives provides certification for parental control software. In order to be certified, a product must block at least 95% of pornographic websites, have zero false alarms on child-friendly websites, and have no severe unresolved bugs (or design flaws) discovered during the review. A certification is valid for one year and vendors can apply for certification once a year. Only products which were submitted for the Parental Control Test, and which passed the test, are published. Five vendors submitted their products for certification in 2025, of which only two reached the requirements.
Parental Control Test
We tested the effectiveness of the parental control software against 1,000 websites with inappropriate content for children, such as sites displaying pornographic images and text. We chose the appropriate settings for blocking pornography. We additionally tested 200 obviously child-friendly websites, such as lego.com, to check for false positives.
Review
We have included a short review of the product in this report, so that administrators have an idea of what the product is like to use and what other features it has.
Tested Products
Test Results
| Block Rate | |
| Adult | 95.2% |
| False-Positives | 0 |
Fortinet FortiClient for Windows blocked 95.2% of pornographic websites.
Product Reviews
Fortinet FortiClient
Summary
The Fortinet FortiClient includes a straightforward means of blocking specific website categories in business networks.
About the product
Fortinet FortiClient is a security client for businesses using Fortinet security services. The product is managed using the FortiClient Endpoint Management Server console.
What parental control features does it have?
FortiClient includes a web filter, which allows the administrator to block or allow specific web pages and broad categories of website.
Which versions of Windows are supported?
Windows 7, 8.1, 10, 11
Which Windows browsers are supported?
Microsoft Edge; Google Chrome; Mozilla Firefox.
How are restrictions applied to different computer users?
One configuration is used for all users of the computer.
What categories of material can be blocked?
There are seven broad groups for filtering, these are: Adult/Mature Content; Bandwidth Consuming; General Interest – Business; General Interest – Personal; Potentially Liable; Security Risk; Unrated.
Each of these includes further sub-categories to fine tune the filtering. The Potentially Liable group includes the categories Drug Abuse, Explicit Violence, Extremist Groups and Child Sexual Abuse, among others.
The Adult/Mature Content group includes the sub-categories shown in the screenshot below.
Installing the product
To install FortiClient download the deployment package from the web console and then run the installer file. After installation, the program needs to connect to the management server. Once connected you can assign an endpoint profile for the filtering to take effect.
Configuring web-content filtering
Web-filtering options are configured via the web filter endpoint profile, which can then be applied to an endpoint policy, making it easy to apply filtering to a large group of endpoints at once. The filtering options are accessed by clicking Endpoint Profiles\Web Filter. Selecting a profile and clicking Edit. Here each category or sub-category can be set to Allow, Block, Monitor or Warn.
Blacklisting/whitelisting individual sites
Specific URLs can be excluded from the filtering, by adding them to the Exclusion List at the bottom of the configuration page:
What does the user when a page is blocked?
Award levels reached in this Parental Control Review
| Fortinet | APPROVED |
General advice to parents on choosing and installing parental control software
When choosing and installing parental control software, remember that no program can replace the value of talking to your children about adult or disturbing topics they may encounter. Even with parental control software installed, children might access inappropriate content through mobile devices borrowed from friends or by using technical workarounds like proxy servers. Parental control software is most effective in preventing accidental exposure to inappropriate content for younger children.
Selecting the Right Software
Before purchasing parental control software, ensure it meets your specific needs. Standard features include web content filtering that blocks categories of websites such as pornography or weapons. Other features to consider are setting time limits on device usage or Internet access. You may want to restrict usage to certain hours or empower your child to manage their usage themselves. For a shared family computer, check that the program allows unrestricted use for adults. To be sure the program meets your requirements, try a trial version first. Don’t hesitate to seek expert assistance if needed. We recommend using parental control software which is regularly tested and certified by independent third-party labs. This ensures that the software meets high standards for effectiveness and security without causing false alarms.
Installing the Software
When installing parental control software on a Windows or macOS computer, it’s crucial to prevent children from easily disabling or uninstalling the software. You can achieve this in two ways: use parental control software with password protection or ensure your child’s account does not have administrator rights. In either case, use a password your child cannot guess. To properly configure the software for your child, log in to their account during installation and use your administrator credentials to authorize the installation. After installation, test the software with various browsers and websites to ensure it works as expected. Verify that it prevents computer usage outside of permitted hours and cannot be uninstalled without a password. If you encounter any issues, contact the vendor’s support service. Finally, remember not to save the password when configuring the software via a web browser.
Copyright and Disclaimer
This publication is Copyright © 2025 by AV-Comparatives ®. Any use of the results, etc. in whole or in part, is ONLY permitted after the explicit written agreement of the management board of AV-Comparatives prior to any publication. AV-Comparatives and its testers cannot be held liable for any damage or loss, which might occur as result of, or in connection with, the use of the information provided in this paper. We take every possible care to ensure the correctness of the basic data, but a liability for the correctness of the test results cannot be taken by any representative of AV-Comparatives. We do not give any guarantee of the correctness, completeness, or suitability for a specific purpose of any of the information/content provided at any given time. No one else involved in creating, producing or delivering test results shall be liable for any indirect, special or consequential damage, or loss of profits, arising out of, or related to, the use or inability to use, the services provided by the website, test documents or any related data.
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AV-Comparatives
(May 2025)