Read Mumsnetters’ thoughts on Kaspersky Lab’s Safe Kids service - £300 voucher prize draw for feedback!NOW CLOSED

[ZaneMumsnet]

This thread is for the Mumsnetters who tried out Kaspersky Safe Kids software.

Here’s what Kaspersky Lab say “The Internet can be a powerful education tool for your children – but only if you can protect them from digital dangers. Kaspersky Safe Kids helps you find safer ways for your children to explore the digital world. With device usage scheduling, automatic notifications about suspicious activities, GPS safe zones and summaries of what they’re searching, seeing and sharing… you can stay connected with your kids and help keep them safe”

Testers, please answer the following few questions below on your impressions of Kaspersky Safe Kids. Please feel free to add any other comments you may have, we’d love to hear them:

1. How easy did you find Kaspersky Safe Kids easy to set up/install?
   
   
2. How helpful did you find Kaspersky Safe Kids in terms of monitoring your DCs online activity?
   
   
3. Did you feel Kaspersky Safe Kids made exploring the internet safer for your DC? If so, why? If not, why not?
   
   
4. What was your overall impression of Kaspersky Safe Kids?
   
   
5. Would you recommend Kaspersky Safe Kids to friends or relatives? If so, why? If not, why not?
   
   
6. Do you intend on continuing to use Kaspersky Safe Kids? If so, why? If not, why not?
   
   Each tester who adds feedback will be entered into a prize draw, where one lucky Mumsnetter will win a £300 Love2Shop voucher!
   
   Thanks and good luck!
   MNHQ

[anonooo]

This is interfering with other users too much on our shared laptop. Does anyone know how to uninstall? help!

[SnapCackleFlop]

Anonooo. I know it's a PITA isn't it!?

Hope this helps.... Windows Uninstall

[danmoore00]

1. How easy did you find Kaspersky Safe Kids easy to set up/install?
   
   Ok I started to do this last Saturday and gave up after 20 mins. the initial registration wasn't particularly easy and then I started to look at how to upgrade and become bored at looking!
   Tried again today (Thursday) and managed to find where to insert activation code after around 10 mins of trying. I am very computer literate so think anybody that wasn't too IT literate would struggle and maybe give up altogether
   
   
2. How helpful did you find Kaspersky Safe Kids in terms of monitoring your DCs online activity?
   
   Initially good - have reviewed latest usage over the days 5 days and clear and concise in telling me visited sites. I will continue to use and update this at a later stage
   
   
3. Did you feel Kaspersky Safe Kids made exploring the internet safer for your DC? If so, why? If not, why not?
   
   Intially again yes - only 5 days of use so again I will review at a later stage
   
   
4. What was your overall impression of Kaspersky Safe Kids?
   
   Apart from being hard to install and not really user friendly, the actual use of Safe Kids seems fairly straight-forward
   
   
5. Would you recommend Kaspersky Safe Kids to friends or relatives? If so, why? If not, why not?
   
   At the moment yes - I will review after further use from DD
   
   
6. Do you intend on continuing to use Kaspersky Safe Kids? If so, why? If not, why not?
   
   Yes, at present I have the month's subscription and will review, so far I have notice that it makes DD's tablet faster and not slowed up by apps running in background - watch this space for update!

[Angelbloomer]

1. How easy did you find Kaspersky Safe Kids easy to set up/install?
   It was relatively easy to set up and install. Although I didn’t realise I had to set up an account with Kaspersky in order to download it.
   
   
2. How helpful did you find Kaspersky Safe Kids in terms of monitoring your DCs online activity?
   It was very helpful. I was initially shocked when the first email came through notifying that my son had tried to enter a particular website. But the email also detailed the web address, so I could he was trying to go onto some online games site.
   
   
3. Did you feel Kaspersky Safe Kids made exploring the internet safer for your DC? If so, why? If not, why not?
   
   Yes, I found out that when he tried to go onto sites deemed unsuitable, he would be directed to a page that simply said was unsuitable. We have given our son an old laptop to do his homework on and I think having his own laptop with access to the internet was very exciting. But it is comforting to know that his activity are being monitored by this and not just us.
   
   
4. What was your overall impression of Kaspersky Safe Kids?
   It is very helpful, easy to install and use.
   
   
5. Would you recommend Kaspersky Safe Kids to friends or relatives? If so, why? If not, why not?
   Yes I would recommend. I feel that children are asked to do a lot more research and submitting their homework online. It is good that parents can do the monitoring without having to actually “hover” over the child.
   
   
6. Do you intend on continuing to use Kaspersky Safe Kids? If so, why? If not, why not?
   
   Yes, I will. I have noticed that my son will go onto games sites when he should be doing his homework (the email that comes through to me has the time and date of when he tried to access them.) Once he gets the message of unsuitability, he then goes back to doing his homework!

[exLtEveDallas]

1. How easy did you find Kaspersky Safe Kids easy to set up/install?
   
   A pain in the arse. Realising half way through that I didn't want to install it on our family computer probably didn't help, but the instructions were confusing and setting up the account / working out where the activation code was input was nowhere near as straightforward as it should have been. Someone without an incentive (thanks MN) would have given up and moved on to a different seller.
   
   
2. How helpful did you find Kaspersky Safe Kids in terms of monitoring your DCs online activity?
   
   OK. No better than that. Most of DDs favourite apps disappeared as I was getting roundly P'd off with all the notifications.
   
   
3. Did you feel Kaspersky Safe Kids made exploring the internet safer for your DC? If so, why? If not, why not?
   
   Only in that after a day of it she decided she's had enough and wouldn't bother using the IPad again until I got rid of it!
   
   
4. What was your overall impression of Kaspersky Safe Kids?
   
   OK for younger kids, but DD is 10 and I feel it was 'too safe' (IYSWIM).
   
   
5. Would you recommend Kaspersky Safe Kids to friends or relatives? If so, why? If not, why not?
   
   Yes for younger kids, no for 10 and above. It is too strict.
   
   
6. Do you intend on continuing to use Kaspersky Safe Kids? If so, why? If not, why not?
   
   No. It does not suit our family/our internet usage/our way of parenting. It does not allow for relaxed rules and safe personal monitoring. It single handedly decides that all children are the same and cannot be trusted.
   
   And it was a pain in the arse to uninstall, so hey, at least it was consistent
   
   Sorry. Really not for us.

[Goodnamesalltaken]

1. How easy did you find Kaspersky Safe Kids easy to set up/install?
   Very easy to install. I put it on both the DD's iMac and 9yr old DD iPad
   
   
2. How helpful did you find Kaspersky Safe Kids in terms of monitoring your DCs online activity?
   It was ok although with DD2 who is 4yrs old I found that one day when she was home sick from nursery and I was at work I got about 400 emails about her trying to access restricted sites or the were apps on her desktop that she wasn't allowed to access.
   I found this comforting as I wasn't at home but when I actually looked at what she was trying to access it seem a bit OTT. Sites like Disney which she enjoys playing games on weren't allowed. I already put restrictions on websites they are allowed to visit via my ISP so this seem a little excessive. DD1 didn't have the same restrictions and she still had all her apps including minecraft.
   
   
3. Did you feel Kaspersky Safe Kids made exploring the internet safer for your DC? If so, why? If not, why not?
   Yes I felt a bit safer with the DCs using the internet purely because I know they couldn't access certain sites. But if DD1 left her desktop open DD2 could go on a log on to the sites her sister was allowed on.
   
   
4. What was your overall impression of Kaspersky Safe Kids?
   Overall it appears to be a good program if not a little OTT as mentioned above. I could however do with fewer emails. Because if the program stops them from going on the site then I don't need to worry and an end of day report would work better maybe?
   
   
5. Would you recommend Kaspersky Safe Kids to friends or relatives? If so, why? If not, why not?
   I would recommend Kaspersky safe kids, especially to parents who are not very technically minded because you install it and away you go. Whereas I already put restrictions on my DCs computers and iPad and I'm always supervising their limited usage.
   
   
6. Do you intend on continuing to use Kaspersky Safe Kids? If so, why? If not, why not?
   For the reasons I mentioned above I already put restrictions in place and don't allow unsupervised access to the internet so at this stage I probably wouldn't go out and buy this program. I may however when DC get older and are using with less supervision I would probably get it.

[Gazelda]

I'm afraid I'm going to give up with trying to install. I've had a good few goes, and I suspect my DD's tablet being a hudl might be part of the problem.
In order to fulfil my agreement to take part in this trial, I'll install it on my iPad and let dd use that for 1 week.
Very frustrated though ....

[NunoBettencourt]

1. How easy did you find Kaspersky Safe Kids easy to set up/install?
   
   After reading a lot of others reviews I decided not to bother putting it on our PC. We already have a kaspersky product on there and didn't want to have any hassle with it. Went onto the iPads without too much bother
   
   
2. How helpful did you find Kaspersky Safe Kids in terms of monitoring your DCs online activity?
   
   Smaller DC like to go on YouTube so it was great to be know I could relax a little. But it's my iPad that they sometimes borrow it wasn't that great for me after they'd finished. Older DC have own devices and this was really useful. I trust my DC but to have this as backup provided piece of mind. Lots (and lots) of emails. Like someone else said an end of day report might be better?
   
   
3. Did you feel Kaspersky Safe Kids made exploring the internet safer for your DC? If so, why? If not, why not?
   
   To a certain extent. they do need to be able to learn Internet safety for themselves as well.
   
   
4. What was your overall impression of Kaspersky Safe Kids?
   
   I liked it on the whole, but felt a little intrusive of my 12yo at times who has been used to having me check through her history and checking things with me first rather than monitoring in this way.
   
   
5. Would you recommend Kaspersky Safe Kids to friends or relatives? If so, why? If not, why not?
   
   Possibly - dependent on kid age and how savvy they were already with their kids' devices and the Internet. Or if they worry and just want a bit of piece of mind.
   
   
6. Do you intend on continuing to use Kaspersky Safe Kids? If so, why? If not, why not?
   
   I'll probably keep it on for a bit longer and then see how we all feel about it.

[regularbutpanickingabit]

OK, back to this after another week

1. How easy did you find Kaspersky Safe Kids easy to set up/install?
   It was a nightmare. The additional PDF instructions did not reflect what happened on the screen and the website itself didn't seem to want you to enrol. That was just on the laptop. I also had to set up new accounts on my laptop because it wouldn't go on an existing account. That's fine, but it was another faff.
   
   
2. How helpful did you find Kaspersky Safe Kids in terms of monitoring your DCs online activity?
   Not great, to be honest. It seemed to send emails for some things but with quite a random summation of why that particular site was not appropriate.
   
   
3. Did you feel Kaspersky Safe Kids made exploring the internet safer for your DC? If so, why? If not, why not?
   It certainly blocked some things, including Amazon, which actually wasn't helpful. I was given the option to override that by logging in but then clicking on that option just took me back to the banned site link. Useless.
   
   
4. What was your overall impression of Kaspersky Safe Kids?
   Nice idea but no added value compared to the existing controls I can get from my internet provider.
   
   
5. Would you recommend Kaspersky Safe Kids to friends or relatives? If so, why? If not, why not?
   Probably not, it was too complicated to install and not consistent in how it behaved.
   
   
6. Do you intend on continuing to use Kaspersky Safe Kids? If so, why? If not, why not?
   No, for the above reasons.

[nippey]

Placemarking, will put feedback up tomorrow.

[Christmaspanties]

Another one place marking

[SouthWesterlyWinds]

1. How easy did you find Kaspersky Safe Kids easy to set up/install?
   
   Relatively easy. We only really use lock down and firewalls to protect our iPads so there was no previous monitoring software to interfere with the installation.
   
   
2. How helpful did you find Kaspersky Safe Kids in terms of monitoring your DCs online activity?
   
   It gave us emails whenever the DC accessed websites that weren't advised. However it then still let them bypass.
   
   
3. Did you feel Kaspersky Safe Kids made exploring the internet safer for your DC? If so, why? If not, why not?
   
   It certainly limited their ability to browse website we didn't approve of, it also disabled their complete ability to navigate Google. They tried to access using kaspersky safe kids, typed in their key words within the search bar, Kaspersky declined and took them to the kaspersky banned page which advised using Google to search. Click on that link and it doesn't work.
   
   Type in Google.co.uk and it does.
   
   Also, whilst it was very good in locking down certain websites and recognising what type of websites were being attempted, eg tinypop flashed a warning but still allowed them in. The major flaw with this softwear/app is that if you allow part of a website eg bbc.co.uk/CBeebies, then the softwear allowed the child to access any subset within that domain, eg bbc.co.uk/sports, bbc.co.uk/news. With other websites, this could cause a problem.
   
   
4. What was your overall impression of Kaspersky Safe Kids?
   
   Does what it says it would do however needs more refinement.
   
   
5. Would you recommend Kaspersky Safe Kids to friends or relatives? If so, why? If not, why not?
   
   Not until it's made more effective.
   
   
6. Do you intend on continuing to use Kaspersky Safe Kids?
   
   Not until it's made more effective. Plus I would want discount for multiple license as we have more than one device that would need it installed on.

[3girlsunder3]

1, Ease of installation. This was hideous to install, very complicated and counter intuitive. Took a long time and caused a lot of frustration, not helped by the fact my children use my iPad which seems to cause problems when choosing profiles/settings. I was unable to install the software on my phone via play store as it is apparently incompatible due to running the latest version of Android.

2, How helpful in monitoring. Helpful with detailed reports -but- my children access the web a lot via my phone and as I couldn't install the product on there it really wasn't anywhere near as useful as I had hoped. Many children's apps were blocked and issues arose from sharing iPads etc.

3, Did you find the product made exploring the Internet safer? Yes, but only on the iPad and in a fairly random way. Because it isn't compatible with my phone then definitely not as safe as it could have been.

4, Overall impression? That it has the potential to be a brilliant product but at the moment isn't living up to that potential. It's helpful in specific areas but could be so much better.

5, Would I recommend it? Currently, no. The installation process is a nightmare and had I not signed up for a product trial then I would have given up and gone elsewhere. The issues mentioned above re shared parent/child devices are a pain and I would expect the product to be compatible with current phones and os.

6, Will I continue to use Kaspersky safe kids? sadly, no. It has not been as helpful for me as I was hoping - my issues are really Google searches especially verbal ones, and use of my phone. My children are too young for social media which is where I feel this product might excel. However I still feel this product has the potential to become excellent and may well revisit it once the problems have been ironed out.

[ooerrmissus]

Coming very late to this because:

1. How easy did you find Kaspersky Safe Kids easy to set up/install?
   
   Ridiculous- it took ages, until I finally realised that the fact that I had set restrictions on DS1s Ipad was causing the problem. Once I'd got rid of that it installed the profile okay. The instructions just kept sending me round in circles. Then when I had got it installed the app wasn't acting like it should do, didn't block safari etc. But that's okay, cos I reactivated Apple's restrictions so that sorted that out. Then the app, I thought, was supposed to act like a browzer, but it kept reverting to the installation bit and giving out details on how to uninstall. Not helpful.
   
   
   
2. How helpful did you find Kaspersky Safe Kids in terms of monitoring your DCs online activity?
   I'd need to come back on this one. As the kids can't access anything hideous anyway due to restrictions on devices/ family settings on router etc etc I'm not sure I care how long they have spent googling their geography homework.
   
   
   
3. Did you feel Kaspersky Safe Kids made exploring the internet safer for your DC? If so, why? If not, why not?
   
   There's nothing in this in terms of restricting sites etc that isn't included in the apple settings for free. The only possible benefit would be if you want to know if your kids are looking up stuff they shouldn't be.
   
   
   
4. What was your overall impression of Kaspersky Safe Kids?
   I was really interested in the advertised ability to set time restrictions- but as ever look at the small print and this doesn't apply to Apple devices. So we reverted back to using Ourpact, which can hide apps after a certain length of time. If anyone could come up with a way to do this for apple devices, you'd make a fortune.
   
   
   
5. Would you recommend Kaspersky Safe Kids to friends or relatives? If so, why? If not, why not?
   
   No probably not. It doesn't do anything it terms of making the internet a safer place that other free apps can't do. The time restrictions would have been good but don't work on Apple, and there are other apps that do a good job for that on android.
   
   
6. Do you intend on continuing to use Kaspersky Safe Kids? If so, why? If not, why not?
   Unlikely. I really wanted the time restrictions to help control screen time for my IT obsessed 10 year old. It doesn't do that.

[kzedii]

1. How easy did you find Kaspersky Safe Kids easy to set up/install? not very easy instructions were a little confusing
   
   
2. How helpful did you find Kaspersky Safe Kids in terms of monitoring your DCs online activity?
   did not receive any information but may have been different if was using a mobile phone.
   
   
3. Did you feel Kaspersky Safe Kids made exploring the internet safer for your DC? If so, why? If not, why not? not really as was expecting something different, it kept crashing on a game my child had installed, was hoping that would get feedback his use on it as it has facility for chats with other participants.
   
   
4. What was your overall impression of Kaspersky Safe Kids? idea is very good but needs to be more user friendly and may be better for older kids
   
   
5. Would you recommend Kaspersky Safe Kids to friends or relatives? If so, why? If not, why not? maybe if kids were older and using a mobile phone but only tested on the home tablet which they primarily use at home
   
   
6. Do you intend on continuing to use Kaspersky Safe Kids? If so, why? If not, why not? i might use in future when my child has their own phone and if it is eaasier to use. Also website could be more user friendly and option to go website and check their activity instead of waiting for email.

[Generation1979]

How easy did you find Kaspersky Safe Kids easy to set up/install?

No I found it really difficult. I'm good at technology but found it so hard.
2) How helpful did you find Kaspersky Safe Kids in terms of monitoring your DCs online activity?

Interestingly helpful. I could see everything. Surprised me how many times that my son tried an application before he asked for help!

3) Did you feel Kaspersky Safe Kids made exploring the internet safer for your DC? If so, why? If not, why not?

My son mainly looks at Lego etc on browser and clicks on all sorts so yes made it safer.

4) What was your overall impression of Kaspersky Safe Kids?

Good idea. Found finding the portal hard. No link on main kapersky page?

5) Would you recommend Kaspersky Safe Kids to friends or relatives? If so, why? If not, why not?

Yes if they were concerned.
6) Do you intend on continuing to use Kaspersky Safe Kids? If so, why? If not, why not?

Need to look at costs. I'm not sure.

[ZaneMumsnet]

Thank you all for your comments. The winner of the prize draw is Ebayaholic :)

[Generation1979]

Well we've had an awful time over Christmas. I can't get this off my sons device and the as licence has expired can't allow certain games.

[Generation1979]

After doing a factory reset it now appears to be working.