In recent posts on Raising Boys and Girls, a respected parenting blog, we made the case for an approach to family internet safety that involves both content filters and accountability software to both prevent kids and teens from accessing objectionable content and facilitate healthy parent-child conversations about internet safety.

Now, we’d like to introduce Zabra, a new solution that expands the net of protection to your child’s interactions over social media and SMS (texting). Because content filters don’t apply to SMS and have limited reach on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, these can be avenues for undesirable content and dangerous activity. That’s where our friends at Zabra come in.

Zabra is a service that monitors your child’s activity on social media and SMS and alerts you to potentially inappropriate or dangerous interactions by sending reports based on customizable filters. Zabra isn’t an app you have to install. It works completely in the background, connecting directly to your child’s Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter profile and/or mobile carrier (currently, SMS monitoring is only available on the AT&T network, but Zabra is working to add others). This means that Zabra is always monitoring, regardless of how your child accesses social media profiles, on any mobile device or computer.

Zabra alerts parents to any objectionable content—from vulgarity to sexuality to bullying—that appears in conversations in which the child is involved. Plus, Zabra also includes videos and other content from psychologists and other experts on how to discuss difficult issues with children, which it serves up along with its alerts. This feature arms parents with strategies for dealing with issues as they arise.

And this is why Zabra is a preferred solution for us. While content filters have limited scope in shielding children from dangerous activity over social media and texting, Zabra has stepped in to provide parents with a platform that notifies them of undesirable or dangerous interactions online and facilitates meaningful parent-to-child conversation.

Plus, it’s affordable. Monitoring of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram costs $9.95 per family per month, and there is no limit on the number of accounts that can be added. SMS monitoring is available for an additional $5.95 per line per month. Plus, if you use promo code “3n1,” you’ll get 2 months free!

Need help setting Zabra up or integrating it into a comprehensive family internet safety plan? Contact us today to schedule a visit from one of our systems engineers. Schedule a visit on a Friday now through November to take advantage of our “Fabulous Fridays” promotion and get 20% off our home IT services!​