- You can control what areas of the Web your child has access to without having to pay a fee.
- Content on the child's home page is easy to navigate and is customized toward their age and gender.
- Family messaging and site approval request mechanisms encourage parent and child interaction.
- Signup, configuration, and administration tools are very user-friendly.
- Parent accounts have the ability to remove sites that were approved by Glubble's editorial team.
- Firefox needs to be completely restarted each time you switch from a parent to a child account.
- At the moment, Glubble is only ideal for elementary school children.
- Some pre-approved content can be considered questionable.
- Each pre-selected or user-created group of approved Web pages and sites is referred to as a Glubble.
- A parent account can add a page or site to an approved Glubble by pressing the ADD button in the browser's address bar.
- A site gets listed on the Glubble network when it is discovered and approved by the company's Editor in Chief or his team.
- The Family Wall feature allows all family & friends within a specific Glubble to post messages to the entire group.
- When a parent account adds a new site to a Glubble, a notification and link are posted within that group's Family Wall.
- Pre-defined Glubbles are included with the add-on, tailoring their content based on a child's age and gender.
- If a child attempts to reach an unapproved site, they can send an approval request and accompanying note to a parent account.
- Up to 5 children can be added to a parent account, each with their own unique Glubble name.
- A parent or child must click on his or her user tab when Firefox is launched in order to unlock the browser for use.
- A parent account's private home page lets you administer your account by configuring users in your Family & Friends Network.
As the seedier side of the Web continues to grow, so does the amount of products available to protect children from inappropriate content. Many of these applications and services have tried in earnest to maintain the perfect balance between not enough supervision and too much control, all the while attempting to make things easy for both parent and child. Glubble Family Edition, a free add-on for the Firefox browser, does a good job of both. The parent administration features are powerful enough to give you full control without requiring you to be a computer expert. The child interface is not only easy to use, but it is also bright and fun. The Family Wall allows everyone in your personal Glubble to stay in the loop, and new site additions by the parent are made known to everyone immediately. Also, the pre-approved sites are, for the most part, safe to view. Automatically tailoring home page content based on a child's age and gender is one of the many areas where this extension shines.
One of the additional features that I found intriguing about Glubble Family Edition was the customized Google search, which gives kids the experience of using search engines without taking the chance that they may stumble upon something that they shouldn't be seeing. Although Google is the only search engine that has its results altered by Glubble at the moment, the company has stated that they are currently developing similar functionality for both Yahoo and Ask. You have many ways to ensure a safe browsing experience for your kids, and Glubble may appear at first like just another face in the crowd. However, it integrates very well with Firefox and is free to use. If there are things about your current parental control service that you are not satisfied with or if you just aren't using one at all, then giving this add-on a test run is a great move.
