Action Alert
action alert.com
Action Alert is an award winning program which provides a kid safe environment for computers and online activity. Action Alert assists parents in controlling youngsters computer usage by several means: site blocking, content monitoring, logs user names and passwords, logs both sides of conversations in email and chat sessions, records 60 hours of PC usage, allows the parent to set times when the computer can be used, sends notification of activity via email or text to parent, and allows for remote shutdown of the computer, even from a phone. 
Action Alert is available in two versions: one is free and provides protection for young computer users. A second version provides protection for several users as well as monitoring social network usage and is fully customizable. This version costs $29.99. Both are downloads.
My Thoughts
Unfortunately Action Alert was not a product I really liked. First of all I had problems downloading it. My antivirus program viewed it as malware and thus did not want to allow me to put it on my computer. My husband temporarily deactivated the antivirus program and installed ActionAlert. The computer would not boot normally after that. We tried it on Windows XP with an entry-level PC from 2005 that the children use. I do not know if this might be a problem because I could not find any information regarding OS and hardware compatibility on the Action Alerts website.
We were able to get the Action Alert search engine to work only once. I was very disappointed with what I saw there. Two of the three highlighted stories I would not want my children viewing: one was discussing how two entertainment personalities are not sure if they are done having children and the other was promoting something a child did even though it was against a parents wishes.
Action Alert also did not stop or block some sites where questionable material is easily seen.
I did receive an email showing what sites were accessed, but there was a delay of several days.
Because Action Alert slowed this old, lower-end PC to the point where it was barely usable, as well as the fact that some questionable material still got through the filtered search, we decided to remove Action Alert from the computer. One must boot the computer in safe mode, run the uninstaller, then use regedit to manually scrub the registry of some leftover keys. The program installs in a nonstandard way in order to prevent average users from removing it.
After removing the program and restarting the computer, the machine booted normally and functioned normally, with CPU usage at a usual 6% instead of being pinned at 100%.
Read what other Crew Members had to say at the Crew Blog.
Disclaimer: I received a free download of this program to use and to allow me to write this review. All opinions expressed here are solely my own and I have not been compensated in any other manner.
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