Home Halo - A New Guardian Angel of the Internet for Parents

A new internet security product launched onto the market last week, and is set to solve the headaches of parents everywhere.

In research carried out by Home Halo ,90% of British parents admitted that their children had used a phone or tablet before the age of 8 years old, and although that may not be surprising, it is a sad fact that over half of British parents (51%) have admitted that their young children are more likely to reach for a tablet or smartphone than a book when at home. 

Their research also showed how children's usage of devices causes many family quarrels, with a quarter of all British parents have admitted that their children’s technology and internet usage leads to family arguments on at least a weekly basis; with a further 8.5 million saying that tech disputes are a daily occurrence.

In addition to this, around half the parents surveyed admitted that they were worried about safety and a quarter of the respondents admitted to not being aware of the type of content their children were accessing online.

Since my own personal 'watergate' when my daughter accidentally spilt her drink over my laptop causing £600-worth of damage, I've banned her from using my computer.  However, common sense tells me that this is not sustainable, and actually more and more she's needing to go online to do research for school and complete homework.  I'm pretty sure we'll end up buying her a tablet of her own this Christmas.

Of course, having her own device comes with worries.  She'll sneak it up to her room and then I'll have no idea if she's really asleep, or basking in the glow from the screen under her covers.  Left to her own devices, she'd happily spend every waking moment surfing YouTube looking at videos of One Direction, funny cats, toy unboxings and make-up tutorials. Or googling images of cute puppies. Now we all know it's a tricky business searching online (as I memorably found out once when looking for a picture of a Rabbit!).  One double-meaning word in the search bar could very easily lead to things I don't want innocent little eyes seeing.

These were exactly the kind of concerns the makers of Home Halo had within their own families, which lead them to develop this product, and being parents themselves means they understand the challenges within families.

It's simple to set-up (I'm completely useless at technology but managed it in 10 minutes, which included several ferreting about in the tangle of leads under the desk to locate my router), and the unobtrusive box sits happily next to your wireless router.

The system costs only £35 (although there's currently an introductory offer on giving £10 off) and £3 per month subscription fee thereafter.  The subscription is on a rolling basis and can be cancelled at any time with no tie-in.  To run alongside, there's a free password-protected app allowing you complete control of the system from your mobile phone, meaning even if you're not home, you can still manage your family's internet usage and security.

Because each family is different, and each child is different, the system is completely flexible allowing you to set your own 'rules' for different members of the family.  You may want to lock down your teenager's access to the internet after 10pm on school nights because they should be sleeping.  You may want to occasionally extend your 8 year old child's access because they have a homework assignment to complete.  You might even want to set it to block access at mealtimes. Or switch your husband's off at 9pm so you can sit down and watch the telly together!

There are 6 different bands allowing you to set each family member's access accordingly - young child up to 6 years; child up to 11; adolescent (12-14); adolescent (15-16); adult and unlimited access.

Home Halo access a vast database of websites - over 500 million - which have been categorised based on their content, so when you tell the HomeHalo what you don't want accessed, you can be sure that it will be blocked. This will also protect you from scams & viruses from malicious websites. Categorisation is carried out by a software system and then all websites that are not considered innocuous are subsequently checked by humans to make sure that the categorisation is accurate or corrected. 

Within those bands, you can de-select some categories depending on whether you wish your user to have access.  These include things like 'relationships', online shopping, gay, lesbian and bisexual, sex education and dating.  As I said previously, every child is different, they have different maturity levels and different needs to it's great to be able to tailor individually.  If they try to access a site which is blocked, the site is whitelisted and you are sent a message instantly to choose whether you wish to allow it to be viewed or not. You can also view the browser history your child has been viewing which I can imagine would be great if you have worries about your teenager and allows you to open up conversations about the content and issues they've been searching for.

Each device in the household is allocated to a family member, with their individual rules.  This can quickly and easily be changed, so for example if Ruby wants to use her dad's iPad, I can re-allocate the settings from my phone so her access is restricted to suitable sites. It's worth noting of course that this oly applies to devices using your home wi-fi so the security and time settings won't apply if they are using a smartphone on 3G or 4G for example.

So far I'm finding it really easy to use and it has already put my mind at rest about my daughter's online safety.  As she gets used to the time perimeters I've set I'm hoping we won't have as many meltdown moments when I tell her it's time to switch off.

I also love that you can switch off access to social media - I might try that out on myself and see how much more work I get done without the distraction of Facebook!

I am a member of the Netmums Blogging Network, a unique community of parent bloggers from around the UK who have been handpicked by the Netmums team to review products and brands on their behalf. I may have been paid expenses, and have been supplied with a product sample for this review, but retain all editorial control. All my Netmums Reviews will display the Netmums logo within the post.   

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