The frightening reality of the Internet is that on-line predators rarely give it a rest. It falls on the shoulders of wise parents to both monitor their children’s on-line activities and keep enough distance so that they can have the privacy they deserve.

United Parents represents a major technological advance over today’s predominant online child-safety tools, which only filter the web or block certain sites.  United Parents is an Israeli startup that has developed what was originally anti-fraud software used by credit card companies and banks in order to monitor kids where they really live online – their personal social network and I.M. connections.  Yet, it does it in a way that respects them and keeps their privacy intact.


The free, downloadable software runs in the background on the family’s computers. Parents don’t see their child’s Facebook messages or I.M.’s – nor does anyone else.  But at the first sign of trouble – if they begin talking about suicide or drugs, become part of an escalating cyberbullying situation with another child, or begin an online relationship with someone whose registered details elsewhere on the web reveal them to be an adult – a computer algorithm sends parents an alert.  They can then initiate a dialogue with their children offline, making sure they stay safe.