Blog entry November 2009

Wow! This was a Thanksgiving surprise for Mobicip!

It is certainly an honor to be recognized, especially when it is unexpected. Thank you iPhone Apps Plus team. See the original article and review here. 

To the thousands of Mobicip parents and users out there, thank you very much for choosing Mobicip and telling your friends about it, not to mention your continued support and feedback.

Mobicip crew

A recent survey publshed by C.S.Mott's Children's Hospital on Children's health reveals that parents are very concerned about internet safety for their kids. 62% of Parents monitor their kids’ internet and 48% use filtering services or tools to protect their kids from inappropriate material and online threat. Among parents with kids on the Internet, nearly 1 in 3 are “very concerned” about online sexual predators, and 1 in 5 are “very concerned” about the loss of privacy and with their children viewing pornographic material.

Parents were asked if they take specific actions to protect or monitor their children’s use of the Internet. Overall, parents report the following actions:

• 65% disable pop-ups

• 62% monitor social networking sites

• 61% check history of websites

• 49% block websites they don’t want kids to use

• 32% use child-safe software

68% of parents report taking 1 to 4 of the above actions, while 19% take all 5 the of the actions listed. However, 13% of parents whose children access the Internet report not taking any of these actions to protect or monitor that use. Although most parents are taking some actions to protect their kids online by using filtering services like Mobicip or similar, some are taking no action and many others may not be certain how effective different strategies are.

There are many resources available for parents to educate themselves about internet safety. Here are a few: www.fbi.gov/publications/pguide/pguidee.htm

www.wiredsafety.org

www.filteringfacts.org

www.netfamilynews.org

According to a recent survey by mobile advertising network Greystripe, mothers with iPhones regularly let their children use their phones, download games specifically for their children, and often use their phones at grocery stores to compare prices and check grocery lists. The conclusions are based on 1294 responses to their survey and offers detailed behavioral characteristics of moms in their iPhone ad network.

Not too long ago, mothers were still considered to be a hard group to reach through mobile applications because they tend to be late adopters. The iPhone's mainstream success has changed this, however, and iPhone moms have now become a desirable target demographic for marketers.
 
The report shows several interesting patterns. For example, over 59% of iPhone moms surveyed say they let their children use their iPhone. And 41% of moms who own iPhones download apps specifically for their children to use. Twenty percent also download educational content for their kids. Close to 60% of iPhone moms depend on their phone to locate the nearest store around them while 41.94% of moms use the iPhone to keep track of shopping lists.

Moms are looking to the iPhone as both a valuable organizational tool and an entertainment portal, making the iPhone a valuable advertising platform. While Greystripe says that this demographic have tended to be late adopters, I’m not so sure if this is true considering the rapid growth of “Mommy bloggers” over the past few years. There is a blog that’s devoted to iPhone Moms and offers recommendations for kid and baby-friendly iPhone apps for moms to download. Also, The iPhone Mom recommends Mobicip as one of the first applications that needs to be installed before handing over the phone to a kid.

Google has for long allowed parents a SafeSearch filtering setting that keeps kids from using the search engine to find inappropriate sites like those with explicit sexual images or text. Without additional protection, like the strict SafeSearch enforcement offered by Mobicip, the problem was that kids could easily change those settings.

Starting Wednesday, however, the company is allowing parents to lock those settings to make it harder (though not impossible) for kids to bypass the settings. To change the settings, the parent will have to log into his or her Google account and enter a password. Once the settings have been changed, the Google search engine will change in appearance to indicate that it’s locked. The new page will have large balls in the upper right corner so that parents can see from across the room that their kids are on the safe search page.

The settings, which places a cookie on the machine, must be configured for each browser the child uses. If you set them only for Internet Explorer, for example, they won’t restrict access from Firefox, Chrome, or other browsers. Also, according to a Google representative, the child can get around the settings by using the private browsing feature that is now built into the latest versions of Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Chrome. So, while this will keep kids from accidentally using Google for inappropriate searches, it will not deter tech-savvy kids who are determined to bypass the filters.

If you need additional protection where kids are not allowed to turn off SafeSearch, Mobicip is a good option for you. Mobicip adds an additional layer of protection by enforcing the SafeSearch feature always, regardless of the user selection or setting.

With all filters and controls, it’s important for parents think about how you use them to help teach your child to exercise self-control and critical thinking so that, eventually, they can safely use the Web without filters or adult supervision.

The iPhone Mom is a popular app review blog run by a real iPhone Mom. The blog was featured recently in ABC News and Tech Crunch and has a big fan following.

The iPhone Mom has published an excellent review of the Mobicip Safe Browser and Premium parental control service. Excerpts below. Read the full article here.

I’m impressed with what they’ve done and the resources they’re using to filter out all the icky stuff. Plus, they’ve done it in a way that doesn’t really slow down the internet access. When I was browsing and using Mobicip I didn’t find much of a noticeable delay in the internet speed.

The app comes with preset bookmarks and the kids can also add their own. They’ll be able to create and use bookmark folders just like you do in Safari. The Google search is also still present at the top of the screen, only when they use it in Mobicip it’s subject to their search restrictions.  I was surprised to find that it offers search suggestions. I tried a search for Hannah Montana and by the time I’d typed in Hannah it had pulled up a list of suggestions for what I might be searching for. Another really cool feature is the ability to use multiple tabs, just like in Safari. The iPhone’s copy/paste feature will also work.

About the Premium service.

The user interface on the parental account is extremely straightforward and user friendly. Exactly what I needed. I haven’t the faintest idea how all the technical voodoo works to block/allow websites so I’m grateful they’ve kept the parental account features simple.

In conclusion

The icky possibilities of the internet are endless and if Santa manages to put an iPod Touch on his sleigh for my kids this will be one of the first apps that I install.

Thanks iPhone Mom, for an excellent and thorough review!

Here is a great review by Hayden Wreyford at AppAdvice.com. You can see that the Hayden has not only used Mobicip extensively, but also understands the pain points experienced by users. Some excerpts below, and original article here.

Mobicip is a content-filtered browser that looks and behaves very, very close to that of Safari.

In using Mobicip, I was very impressed with how quickly pages loaded. Navigating tabs and setting/using bookmarks is nearly identical to Safari and as I have used Mobicip, it’s been easy to forget I am not actually using Safari. That is, until you hit a site that contains inappropriate content, at which point you get to talk to the proverbial hand. It’s great that Mobicip blocks websites that contain content with obviously questionable content.

The Verdict

I sought out reviewing this app because I know a lot of people in my social circles who love the concept of the iPhone and iPod Touch, but who are understandably nervous about putting these devices in the hands of their kids…or husbands, for that matter. Yeah, I think adults will benefit as much from Mobicip as any child would. Content filtering is not just for the kiddies.

Now, I totally understand that many users wouldn’t dare use an app like this because the concept of content filtering doesn’t appeal to them. But for those whom the concept does appeal to, Mobicip is a lifesaver, and for a paltry $5, it’s an absolute must-have. And for what it’s worth, it has completely replaced Safari on my iPhone.

Mobicip Safe Browser for iPhone and iPod Touch is listed among the top paid applications in Apple iTunes Store. We value our customers' feedback and we work hard to continuously improve their experience with Mobicip. Mobicip's latest version is attracting rave reviews from our customers.

Here are some excerpts from the Mobicip reviews on iTunes:

"I can't recommend this enough to my friends. The app itself is great and they keep rolling out better updates all the time. Remote monitoring is an extra option you purchase from their website, and it is totally worth it. " 

" Very well done browser that works exactly like Safari. It gives my kids what they want- access to web- and enough controls for me to monitor what is going on. I personally feel Apple should have built this in to the product. When I called Apple iTunes customer support about this, they repointed me to Mobicip. Thanks for the excellent product." 

"The best I've seen so far for the iPhone! Mobicip in my book is a definite "buy"!"

"Great speed and fantastic interface"

"This app is almost like Safari with builtin web filter. My teen used this to make me buy the itouch. I was not so sure, now he's happy and so am I. "

Mobicip patrons, Thank you for your support and encouraging words. We will continue to make your experience better everyday.