For technical help view the Knowledge Base or contact Tech Support.

Just click on a question to find the answer below.

Q: Is e-safety really important?
Q: I’ve seen other web sites offering to protect my children. Why are they so shocking?
Q: Why is CyberSentinel unique? Aren’t there other similar services out there?
Q: CyberSentinel is a new product. Does that mean it’s reliable and been tested properly?
Q: How do I get started?
Q: My teenager knows much more about the Internet then me. Can I use CyberSentinel?
Q: I’ve got three children and two PCs. How will CyberSentinel protect each child?
Q: My child is 3 I don’t know where to start! What should I do?
Q: How much does CyberSentinel cost?
Q: Is there any way for my child to ‘crack’ CyberSentinel and get around the software?
Q: Do you store information about my credit card? Is that a risk?
Q: How will I know if my child has found my password – or is using another PC to go online?
Q: Will CyberSentinel record what my partner and I do online?
Q: It all sounds a bit ‘Big Brother’ to me, like I’m spying on my children?
Q: Should I be worried that you’ve collected masses of information about my child’s habits?
Q: Should I be worried if I find CyberSentinel has taken some screen captures of my child’s Internet activity?
Q: Using CyberSentinel, I can see that my teenager has developed a habit I’m worried about, what shall I do?
Q: I get too many emails already. I don’t want loads arriving from CyberSentinel too!
Q: I’m going to be away from home. How can I be sure my child is safe online?
Q: Does CyberSentinel work offline too?
Q: I want to know what my child is getting into – if it’s suitable or not?
Q: My teenager keeps buying things with my credit card or auction sites, can I do anything to stop them?
Q: My teenager is visiting gambling web sites, can I do anything to stop them?
Q: Do you provide telephone support?
Q: How do I remove CyberSentinel from my PC?
Q: How can I recommend CyberSentinel to a friend or relative?
Q: Where do I find answers to more technical questions?

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Q: Is e-Safety really important?
A: Yes. You protect your PC from viruses. But your children are more valuable – and vulnerable.
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Q: I’ve seen other web sites offering to protect my children. Why are they so shocking?
A: There are many web sites that use shock tactics to spread fear and alarm. Real dangers do exist (see about your child) but we want to reassure parents rather than terrify them.
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Q: Why is CyberSentinel unique? Aren’t there other similar services out there?

A: There are many packages that will filter out unwanted web sites. What’s different is that CyberSentinel combines this with "danger word" scanning which detects the use or receipt of inappropriate words and content.

A good example would be setting it to warn you if ever your child gave out their mobile phone number online or anyone ever started chatting to them about the school they go to or what clothes they were wearing. Any such events trigger a screen shot (capture) which is stored in your web account. The idea is that you can look at these periodically online and then decide what action you want to take with your child. You can discuss it and help educate them or just ban it.

This is all pretty horrible stuff, but it is an area of e-Safety and modern parenting that few people appreciate is a risk. CyberSentinel is unique in this approach as all psychological research suggests education and discussion of inappropriate sites or behaviour online is better than the frankly difficult task of trying to ban everything.

With the prevalence of the internet, kids are going to get to be exposed to inappropriate content at some point in their development, so giving them the tools to recognise and deal with it is (we believe) a good strategy. » Return to FAQs index

Q: Is CyberSentinel reliable? Has it been tested properly?
A: Yes. The software behind CyberSentinel has been used for years by over 1500 schools, colleges and education authorities across the UK and throughout the world. In fact, more than one million children are being protected by this technology every day – without any major problems or security breaches.
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Q: How do I get started?
A: Getting going with CyberSentinel is easy, just register an online account and download and install the home software on your child's PC (here).

Once installed, we'd recommend you don't do anything for a day or so. Just let it log web activity so you can get an idea of what your child is doing online and then devise a a strategy to protect them. The default e-Safety configuration will stop a large number of inappropriate sites and monitor for some predadatory words and phrases. It won't disturb normal use, but what it reports may surprise you. Read the Quick Start Guide (download) and have an explore around the admin console to look at the options.

You've got 14 days to trial the software for free, so don't just turn all the security options on - otherwise it'll be far too restrictive and become far too intrusive.

Take your time to try the different e-Safety settings individually to see how they work. Discuss the system with your children - tell them its just supervision software and you're not spying on them. CyberSentinel only lets you know if it detects something you define as inappropriate - it dos not take regular screen shots or report everything they do online.

After a while you may want to turn on some of the word libraries. These will capture a screen shot if any of our inappropriate words or phrases are detected. You may at this point want to add in your own keywords - such as your child's mobile phone number, their school name, your street name, the last 4 digits of yor credit card etc...

Leave it a while and see what turns up - you may be surprised!

Any screen captures will be sent to and stored on our secure server. You can view these and modify the e-Safety configuration online at any time by logging in to the web console

Configure internet time restrictions or set a computer usage quota if thats an issue with your child.

Lastly, look at the web site restrictions. This is the hardest part to implement, as it's sometimes difficult for the system to differentiate between good and bad sites. You will get "false positives", which are sites that are blocked when they shouldn't be. We're constantly improving our site databases, so let us know if things are being banned when they shouldn't be. You can also add your own sites into the custom ban list or easily block sites that your child has been going to by blocking them in via the web site list in the admin console.

CyberSentinel's job is to help you supervise your children when you're not around. Monitoring and e-Safety are tricky areas though, and need a bit of thought. We can't (or wouldn't want to) impose a standard policy on all your children, as its a personal thing. Different families have different needs and requirements, so take your time and don't try to impose a restrictive strategy overnight - otherwise you'll just alienate your children and they'll just take the problem elsewhere.
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Q: My teenager knows much more about the Internet then me. Can I still use CyberSentinel?
A: Yes. You don’t need to be a geek or know everything about the internet or it's dangers. All you need to know is how to prevent them. CyberSentinel makes it easy. If you have an email address and /or you’ve shopped online, then you’ve got the skills to use CyberSentinel with just a few mouse clicks. It’s that simple to download right now.
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Q: I’ve got three children and two PCs. How will CyberSentinel protect each child?
A: You can customise e-Safety settings individually for each of your children. CyberSentinel automatically recognises each of your children when they log on and applies the right e-Safety protection. You can install CyberSentinel on up to five machines at the same time.
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Q: My child is only three and I don’t know where to start! What should I do?
A: Rather than blacklist sites, CyberSentinel also lets you create a ‘white list’ of web sites that they can only visit. For example, you may want to add some fun sites just for them – and add more sites when you want.
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Q: How much does CyberSentinel cost?
A: It’s free for up to 14 days. Then it costs £25 / US$39 / €30 per year, which works out at less than 50p per week – less than the price of a chocolate bar.
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Q: Is there any way for my child to ‘crack’ CyberSentinel and get around the software?
A: Not easily. They can only do this by using your account Id and password, so keep it safe. If you have an older child, you'll have to make sure they don't have the computer's administrator password - otherwise they could disable it. Our weekly summary email will also notify you if no communuication has been received for over 7 days - so you'll know if its stopped working for some reason.
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Q: Do you store information about my credit card? Is that a risk?
A: No. All payments are handled by the reliable and highly-secure payment service Sage Pay. We don’t see your card details, only Sage Pay does. You can pay by credit card or directly via PayPal.
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Q: How will I know if my child has found my password – or is using another PC to go online?
A: Easy. When you log in to the CyberSentinel management console, you can see what your child has been doing online – and when. If there’s a big gap in activity, then you need to find out more from them. The summary email will also highlight this.
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Q: Will CyberSentinel monitor what my partner and I do online?
A: No, You can just make CyberSentinel apply to your children, not to you or anyone else.
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Q: It all sounds a bit ‘Big Brother’ to me, like I’m spying on my children?
A: This is a genuine concern that applies to any monitoring software. However, CyberSentinel addresses this important issue in a number of ways.

• Firstly, children do have rights. But what’s most important is their right to be protected by you. CyberSentinel provides this but maximises their freedom within safe boundaries set by you. CyberSentinel lets you supervise them without having to actually be there looking over their shoulde all the time.
• Secondly, openness is important. We strongly recommend that you run CyberSentinel in ‘visible mode’ and talk to your children first, so there’s nothing sneaky about what you’re doing.
• Thirdly, CyberSentinel only tells you IF there’s a potential problem. If your child stays safe, then you can assure them you won’t be looking into everything they do – or looking over their shoulder every five minutes.

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Q: Should I be worried that you’ve collected masses of information about my child’s habits?
A: No. We cannot identify you, your child, their name or address. CyberSentinel only knows them as a ‘user’ associated with your email address and a vague idea of your location. Also, any details of web sites and data is kept securely – and any screen captures are stored on a completely different system with no links that a hacker could decipher. Even your payment details are stored separately (by Sage Pay not CyberSentinel). However, at all times, your CyberSentinel password should be kept secret by you. We don't know this and can't reset it for you. If you lose it you have to reset it yourself by using your secret question and answer. This should be somehting only you know and your children can't guess.
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Q: Should I be worried if I find CyberSentinel has taken some captures of my child’s Internet activity?
A: Don’t be too alarmed. Just take a look at these sample screen photos (example1, example2). For instance, you may find a capture from a biology homework web site because it mentions a certain word. CyberSentinel errs on the side of caution – just in case there’s a problem, so you may get some ‘false positives’ that are nothing to worry about.

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Q: Using CyberSentinel, I can see that my teenager has developed a habit I’m worried about, what shall I do?
A: Firstly, talk to them and discuss the problem to see if it can be solved. Secondly, you can use CyberSentinel to raise the protection settings, for example, banning some web sites, adding new danger keywords, or restricting the hours they can spend online. And thirdly, contact advice agencies if you need more help.
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Q: I get too many emails already. I don’t want loads arriving from CyberSentinel too!
A: We understand. That’s why we’ll only send you a maximum of one summary email per week, showing what your child has done online over the past week. You’ll only receive an email before then if the number of suspicious ‘events’ is very high and may need an urgent check by you.
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Q: I’m going to be away from home. How can I be sure my child is safe online?
A: You can always raise or lower the protection settings at any time. Also, you can log into your web console from any web eanbled device, anywhere in the world, and see what your child is doing, minute by minute.
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Q: Does CyberSentinel work offline too?
A: Yes. Once installed on a computer, CyberSentinel monitors everything that appears on the screen. If it sees a danger word or phrase appear, it’ll take a screen capture and store it securely on the machine and upload it the next time the PC is online.
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Q: I want to know what my child is getting into – if it’s suitable or not?
A: CyberSentinel will help you to spot habits and trends. For example, you can see whether they’ve become too obsessed with social networks or simply spending too long studying and getting stressed over revision for exams. CyberSentinel will tell you which sites they visit – and for how long.

If you want to know whether he/she is in contact with a certain person or is looking at certain types of web sites, simply add their name or topic into the "My Monitored Words" library -you'll quickly be able to see what they are doing.
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Q: My teenager keeps buying things with my credit card or auction sites, can I do anything to stop them?
A: Yes. You can add your login names and even a few digits of your credit card numbers to CyberSentinel as ‘danger keywords’. CyberSentinel will alert whenever they have been used. Of course, changing your logins to auction sites and even getting a new credit card number (from your card provider) may be part of the solution – and then storing the card where your child cannot find it.
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Q: My teenager is visiting gambling web sites, can I do anything to stop them?
A: Yes. You can add these sites to the list of banned ones – to block them from entering. You can also add your credit card numbers to CyberSentinel as a ‘danger keyword’.
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Q: Do you provide telephone support?
A: No. Rather than employ a large call centre team, we’ve decided to make CyberSentinel very affordable instead by offering online support. Our comprehensive knowledge base will help you resolve most issues, and you can ask us anything else via email, our support pages or by using the live chat system. Also, many of the protection agencies that we recommend will provide hotline support for a number of issues affecting children if you need more help.
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Q: How do I remove CyberSentinel from my PC??
A: Removal is simple, but we take steps to ensure that the person removing the software is you and not your child or someone else! Before removal, you will have to verify it is you by entering your CyberSentinel Account Id and password that you set up when first installing the software. (more details).
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Q: How can I recommend CyberSentinel to a friend or relative?
A: Just click here and you can send them a link.
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Q: Where do I find answers to more technical questions?
A: Our online knowledge base and support area contains answers to most technical questions, if you need to ask something specific, contact us via email, our support pages or by using the live chat system.
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