14 DAY TRIAL // These days, the Internet is practically all over the place and children can easily gain access to all the information floating on the network. They can very well access lots of educative sites or download useful programs, but they can also browse with the same ease sites inappropriate for their age that can influence their behavior in a bad way. So, in order to keep them safe, every responsible parent must consider installing programs on their computer, that will ensure their children are safe from any application that is not appropriate for their age.
One of the programs that can offer all the security you need is Gubble Family Edition from Glaxstar, Inc. Glubble is a free parental control extension for Mozilla Firefox that extends the appeal and usefulness of Firefox to families with school age children. In order to use this extension, you have to install Mozilla Firefox first and then you can install Glubble extension.
The Looks
After Glubble Family edition installation is complete, you will see a brand new interface for Firefox in which you and all your family members have your own user-tab. Being the parent, you will have a multi-user copy of Firefox protected by a password and your browsing history will be kept separate from your children's. To access their tabs, children do not need passwords, so one click on their tab name and they enter on their own Firefox page. It's a neat blue page, where children can access their favorite pages or some Glubbles.
The Works
As a parent, you have your own Firefox homepage that can be updated live from the web, guaranteed by Glubble for you. It gives you information about who installed new Glubbles, and who sent new messages from among your family members. Even if you are a parent or a child there is a messaging facility between family members named The Family Wall. You can send messages to your kids or vice-versa in complete safety.
On the top of the Glubble homepage you will see a user bar where every member of your family has his own user-tab. Userbar tabs in Glubble provide an easy way for your children and you to enjoy surfing the web with the same copy of Firefox. You can set a picture for every family member for easier recognition.
Next to the Homepage button, there is My Glubble library where any parent may add, remove or edit any glubble they want. After that, children can look inside their Glubbles too, or they can search them by name, letters or keywords.
As a parent, you have complete control over the websites your children can access. If you access an interesting website that may benefit your children, just press the ADD button next to your Address bar and your kids can access that website any time they want.
The children's homepage is going to be in Full Screen mode all the time. Unfortunately, you can't change that so you have to work with it. Next to the Address bar there is a button with four small squares named Open My Glubble page. With one click, every child can access his Glubble library where all the Glubbles approved by the parent are listed. Each Glubble is easy to identify by its unique picture, so your kids will easily remember them and their link to the featured website. Usually, these Glubbles are linked to websites containing coloring games, dress-up doll games, language exercises or educational materials for school. These websites are safe for your children and can stimulate their creativity as well.
In front of the Address bar, there is a star button that allows your child to bookmark any website they can access as favorite. Just press the star button and that website is added to their favorites section.
On the upper right section, there is a search bar linked to Google. Instantly, you might think that they can access everything from there and there is no way you can stop them from accessing things they are not allowed to see. But you would be wrong in thinking so. Even though they can access Google, the only websites they can find on this famous search engine are the ones you have already checked. If your child tries to access any link or submit any URL to a website that you haven't approved, Glubble will block that request and will open a message panel where your child can ask the parent for approval to access that website. Your kid can also write a message to you, were he can explain why he wants access to that website. If you are one of the two parents the child comes to with the request, you can reply to that message right away or you can do that later. The most important thing is that you have complete control over what your child can access on the web.
The Good
As a parent, Glubble Family Edition successfully gives you complete control over what your child has access to. In this way, you can be sure that he will not access websites that are not appropriate for his age or could interfere with his education. With this Firefox extension, your child is safe.
The Bad
I haven't found anything bad about this program. There is only one thing that may be a problem for a parent. Glubble Family Edition gives you complete control over Firefox, but it hasn't any kind of power over the other browsers, such as Safari. If your child has access to Safari, he can access any website he wants or even doesn't want to.
The Truth
If you are interested in your child's education and you want to be sure that your child does not have access to other browsers than Firefox, Gubble is the perfect program for you. It's easy to use, has a nice interface and gives you complete control over your child's surfing experience.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
