The sheer variety and amount of sites on the internet – along with the addictive quality of modern games – make monitoring your children's computer use a demanding job.

If your computer is running Windows Vista you'll already have some reasonably sophisticated built-in options to help you, but Webroot Parental Controls takes this further by supporting multiple computers and offering more sophisticated control.

Parental Controls makes it simple to monitor and restrict all aspects of PC use: the user can decide not only which websites can be accessed, but also which programs can be run, for how long, at what time of day and on what days of the week.

Once it has been set up, you can be confident that access to the PC is kept within reasonable limits and is equally shared out between family members.

The software integrates itself seamlessly with Windows. This means all computers users log in to the PC with their usual password without having to log in specially to the Webroot system. In fact, they won’t even know it’s running until they’re prevented for doing something inappropriate or provided with an alert.

Having a consistent set of rules is important when it comes to teaching discipline, but occasionally parents need to be flexible. Your child may need extra time to complete a vital piece of school work, for instance, or you may want to allow them temporary access to a restricted website or program while they're surfing under your supervision. Parental Controls allows you to create temporary passwords which the child can use as a ticket to gain extra time or access on the PC as you see fit.

The program can be installed on up to three PCs, each supporting as many users as you like. The parents can manage all of the PCs remotely over the network too, so it's not necessary to walk around to each one to perform setup tasks.

Webroot has gone to considerably lengths to make the system resilient to attempts by computer-savvy teenagers to disarm it. Tricks such as changing the computer’s date and time are thwarted, as are any attempts to stop the program. You can also restrict access to the Windows Task Manager or the ability to install or remove software applications.

Furthermore, the built-in email reporting system can provide you with daily, weekly or monthly reports of every user’s activity. So you can see exactly how and for how long they’ve been using the PC along with a full list of websites visited and programs run.

Webroot Parental Controls isn’t difficult to set up, but you must be prepared to follow the instructions. Once up and running, it’s immensely powerful and flexible without being unnecessarily intrusive and is sure to bring you peace of mind.

Vista compatible: Yes