Mobicip

Rick Broida, a technology writer for nearly 20 years, has written an article about Mobicip Kids-Safe Browser on CNET blog. Thank you Rick! Here is a link to the original article: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10462803-1.html

Here is the article: 

There are any number of ways to childproof your PC, to rope off the objectionable areas of the Internet. But what about the kids' iPhones and iPod Touches? Safari offers no parental controls to speak of, no filtering or monitoring or search guards.

Enter Mobicip Safe Browser ($4.99), which offers a familiar Web interface, but with a raft of protections designed to keep kids safe.

The app looks and functions almost exactly like Safari, so there's almost no learning curve for kids already accustomed to the built-in browser (which, FYI, you can lock out by venturing into Settings > General > Restrictions). One small gripe: it can't import any existing bookmarks.

Mobicip does, however, offer a convenient, kid-friendly home page with quick links to sites like Britannica, Google, HowStuffWorks, and Wikipedia.

The browser relies on Mobicip's servers to filter inappropriate URLs and search results. Parents can choose from three predefined filtering levels: elementary, middle, and high school.

If you want more granular control, consider signing up for a Premium account, which for $9.99 annually lets you blacklist/whitelist specific sites, block specific categories (chat, shopping, violence, etc.), view activity reports, and manage multiple users and devices.

Even with the free account, Mobicip offers more than enough protection that parents can rest easy. For a mere $5, you can keep your kids from accidentally (or intentionally) wandering into the Web's red-light districts. I'm sold.

Dynamic Internet Filtering Service Enables a Pioneering School District in Texas to Roll Out iPod Touch Devices to Every High School Student in the District, Putting Parents and Educators at Ease

Mobicip.com, the leading internet safety and parental control service for mobile devices like the iPhone and iPod Touch, partnered with Jim Ned Consolidated Independent School District in Tuscola, TX so they could safely send iPod Touch devices home with every high school student in the district.

Jim Ned CISD launched a 1:1 program where every High School student was given a school-provisioned iPod Touch. The unique program not only allows the students to use the iPod Touch in school, but allows the device to be taken home so that the students can learn anytime anywhere. The school district allows students to explore and experience the Internet, App Store, music, videos and podcasts, with safe school-generated and approved content so teens can learn and use technology they relate to.

Most schools do not allow iPods out of the schools due to fear of teens surfing the web without supervision. Mobicip’s internet safety and parental control service allows educators to embrace new technology while letting teens embrace new-rules learning, on safe, secure terms. "Children today are growing up in an era where they are exposed to technology and content that can transform their learning experience, and it is our responsibility to allow them to do so safely," says Dr. Brant Myers, Superintendent of Jim Ned CISD. “You wouldn’t give a hammer to someone and tell her that you can use it for anything except drive a nail in the wall. We feel the same way about the iPods and learning. Mobicip allows us to unleash the web on these devices, address parental control wishes and let our students learn in and out of school, both on their terms and parent/educator’s terms.”

After a careful review of all available online security options, the school board and administration selected Mobicip's Safe Browser app and web-based monitoring service due to the high quality of the app and Internet filter. Mobicip’s service ensures CIPA-compliance, supports the school’s acceptable use policy, and makes the program eligible for eRate funding.

"Mobicip.com is proud to be a part of pioneering educational programs using the iPod Touch and netbooks around the country. Personalized learning and mobility fundamentally transform how children learn and we are proud to play a significant role in the process," says Suren Ramasubbu, Founder and CEO of Mobicip.com. "Mobicip's service is being used by thousands of parents around the world, and the fact that it is being adopted by schools is a testament to its capabilities."

The Safe Browser app is available on the iPhone App Store, and the service is available at www.mobicip.com. The full press release is available at www.mobicip.com/press.

About Mobicip Web Filtering and Dynamic Parental Control Software

Mobicip is the most powerful internet filtering and parental control software designed specifically to work with mobile devices. Parents and Educators use Mobicip’s custom web filtering so kids and teens can use the Internet safely, securely and specific to their age, interests and parent/educator requirements. The Safe Browser iPhone app is the most popular parental control app on the iPhone App store. Learn more about Mobicip at www.mobicip.com.

Mobicip.com
Lorrie Thomas, 805-380-5687
pr@mobicip.com

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.

We are excited to announce that a new version of Mobicip Safe Browser is being reviewed by Apple. We have several users trying out the new version as part of a limited private beta and giving us some excellent feedback. Some of them even posted reviews on iTunes. We have tried really hard to address the critical issues and respond to top requests from our users.

At this time, we are expanding the beta program to all interested Mobicip users. If you can't wait to get your hands on the next version that includes a lot of the great features that you have been asking for, don't mind a little bit of hassle in setting it up, and would be happy to pass on your feedback to us, please let us know. Please include the device UDID in your request (instructions below).

- To find your iPod Touch's UDID, just plug it into your computer and wait until iTunes recognizes it.
- Select your iPod Touch from the Devices list in iTunes.
- Click the "Summary" tab.
- To see your UDID, click on the word "serial number" beside the picture of the iPod Touch.
- You should see the word "identifer" and an alphanumeric string – this is your UDID.
- To copy it, just press command + C on your Mac's keyboard (or control + C in Windows).
Paste the UDID in your email.

This from an article on Chic Mom Magazine:

Today's children have sophisticated desires for high tech "toys" such as mobile phones, iPods and netbooks. These mobile devices offer the convenience of full Internet browsing capabilities from anywhere, but they also open the door to a number of dangers. Unsuspecting children may be exposed to inappropriate content, cyber bullying and online predators. With mobile technologies changing as quickly as the minds of children, parents can hardly keep up with what the devices do, let alone know how to protect their children using them.

Luckily, there are parental control solutions available to help parents safeguard all of their children's devices to provide a secure, enjoyable online experience. One solution developed by Mobicip, a provider of Internet child safety products for mobile devices, allows parents to regulate and track their child's Internet usage of any of their mobile devices from the convenience of a single Internet site.

With the company's Mobicip.com Premium service, parents simply download the application onto each device and create an online account to customize the parental controls. Parents can choose from pre-defined age appropriate content filtering levels, build their own list of allowed/disallowed Websites and track their child's Internet surfing history.

Leveraging four stages of content filtering technology, the service blocks inappropriate content and tagged photos even on allowed Websites, putting parents at ease when their children are browsing. Because Mobicip.com is an Internet-based service, changes and updates are effective immediately with no need for parents to download software updates.

With parental controls in place, parents can rest assured that their children are protected when surfing the Internet, no matter where they are or what device they're using.

A federal investigation in Tennessee has revealed the ease at which a home WiFi network can be hacked. A resident from Clarksville, Tennessee has received and attempted to distribute more than 1,700 images of child pornography through the unsecured wireless network of another Clarksville resident.

Reading this story makes us wonder how safe our home wireless networks are. A news release from the Middle Tennessee district US Attorney’s office said “The fact Olivas (the accused) was using a third party’s unsecured wireless access point to download images of children being victimized highlights the danger to citizens of failing to secure their wireless networks”. With an open wireless network, it is not only easy for anybody to hack into the network, but they can access confidential information on home computers if they are not secure.

Another way for hackers to get our confidential information is when we use our mobile devices like laptops, netbooks or smartphones in public WiFi hotspots. Most of the publicly available WiFi spots like libraries do not have secure wireless connections. If we use these connections and access our personal information like bank accounts from our personal devices, hackers can break into the communication path and get our confidential information.

Services like Mobicip www.mobicip.com prevents such intrusion on mobile devices in WiFi hotspots. Through their inherently-built secure channels, they create a secure tunnel which makes our communications safe even with unsecured websites. Mobicip services are currently available for iPhone, iPod Touch and Netbooks.

From predators and cyberbullies to any and all kinds of other inappropriate content, the dangers present on the Internet today are numerous.  How do you keep your kids safe online?  Furthermore, with the number of Internet-capable mobile devices, how do you monitor your kids' online activities when you can't be present?

To help parents combat these issues Mobicip.com is sponsoring a contest for mom bloggers and parents in general to find the best advice on how to fight this growing Internet safety and mobile Internet safety problem. The winner gets a new iPod Touch and four other winners get a free subscription to Mobicip.com Premium Internet Filtering service to protect their kids’ iPhone, iPod Touch or Netbooks.

To participate, please describe a technique you have used or seen used to keep kids safe while they are surfing on the Internet in between 25-50 words and post it to your blog or Facebook page, and then post a link in the comments section of the Mobicip.com official contest page [[http://content.mobicip.com/content/Internet-Safety-Parents-Advice-Contest]].  Note that advice that references specific product or brand names is not eligible for the prize.

A panel of parents will select the top 15 entries based on originality and practicality.  These will be posted on the contest site and be open to voting by the general public. After one week of voting, the top vote getter will win the iPod Touch and the next four top vote getters will get free Mobicip.com Premium service for 1 year.

To follow along with the advice from other parents, subscribe to the Mobicip.com blog or our Facebook or Twitter pages.  

Please note:  Advice submissions become property of Mobicip and may be used on the Mobicip site or in follow-on press releases, but your name will not be used without your permission.  In the event we have two submissions of the same advice, we will choose the first entry – so be fast!

If you have any questions, please contact contest@mobicip.com.

Jennifer Martinez at GigaOm comments on a study conducted by MTV's Nickelodeon. You can find the original article here, but here is an excerpt. We feel good that we are solving an important problem that parents worry about!

While most kids are using their parents’ iPhones or iPod touches at home, parents are also forking them over while they’re waiting for appointments or sitting in the car. More often than not, kids are using them to play games — a usage for which parents, the study found, are “willing or eager” to pay for. We wonder whether this will cut into the market share of handheld video game devices, such as Nintendo’s DS or Sony’s PSP. More importantly, what’s the appropriate age at which to buy your kids an iPhone or iPod touch of their own? Parents, please weigh in with your thoughts.

Some other interesting facts from the study:

• A whopping 98 percent of parents find the iPod touch kid-friendly, while 84 percent said the same for the iPhone.

• Most parents supervise their kids’ use of the iPod touch and iPhone.

• Parents’ biggest concern with their kids using the iPhone or iPod touch is they may view “inappropriate or unsafe content.”

 Parents, Mobicip has a clean and reliable solution that you should definitely try out.

Here is a step-by-step guide to setup parental control restrictions on the iPhone or iPod Touch with OS 3.0. Though this page is long, the steps are generally intuitive and easy to follow. This article was also published as part of a popular Google Knol collection. 

General Parental Control Restrictions Setup

• From the home screen, touch the Settings icon, and select General.

• Select Restrictions

• Enter a 4-digit passcode. Make sure you remember this passcode, in case you need to change these settings later on.

• You will see the restrictions screen. Set Safari, YouTube, and Installing Apps to OFF on this screen.

• Scroll down the screen to the Allowed Content area.

• Set In-App Purchases to OFF.

• Select Music & Podcasts. Set Explicit to OFF.

• Select Movies. Select the rating you would like to allow.

• Select TV Shows. Select the rating you would like to allow.

• Select Apps. Select age-based filtering for apps you would like to allow.

• Select Ratings For to change your location if necessary.

• Hit the Home button to return the home screen.

Mobicip Safe Browser Setup

Mobicip™ offers a best-selling alternate browser for Safari that enables parental controls on your child's iPhone or iPod Touch. It is simple to setup and works anytime anywhere! The Mobicip Safe Browser is protected by a mobicip.com account setup by the parent. 

• From the home screen on the device, touch the App Store icon.

• Touch the search tab, and search for "mobicip"

• Select the Mobicip Safe Browser from the search results.

• Touch the price button, it will turn into BUY NOW. Touch this button and enter your iTunes username and password.

NOTE: Please make sure you purchase the app from the iTunes account that will be synced with the device. Your child may have a separate iTunes account to which the device is synced. Please purchase through that account instead of yours. If you have already purchased the app from your account, call iTunes Customer Support and they can cancel and refund the purchase.

• One purchased, the app will be installed on your screen.

• When installation is done, touch the Mobicip icon to launch the app.

• If you don't have a Mobicip.com account already, touch the Create New Account button.

• Once the account is created, login into the app. You should see the browser open up like this.

• Visit www.mobicip.com from your PC to upgrade to the Mobicip.com Premium web application. Mobicip.com Premium is a web-based parental control application that can be accessed from any browser. The Premium application allows you to setup custom Internet filtering settings and policy, and monitor Internet usage on the iPhone and iPod Touch that uses Mobicip as the primary browser.
•  

That is it! You can be rest assured that your child will have a safe and secure Internet enabled device that he/she can use anytime anywhere!

iPhone 3.0 COMMENT: Age Controls Don’t Cover Internet Surfing

Apple has announced new iPhone/iPodTouch parental control features available in version 3 of the iPhone and in iTunes 8.2 that allow parents to choose the age of the user and whether or not to allow app downloads and allow parents to shut off Internet browsing capability to protect their kids safe from inappropriate Internet content. While these are steps in the right direction, it’s important for consumers to know that these new features do not allow parents to monitor the Internet browsers—short of blocking it completely.
 
Suren Ramasubbu, President and CEO of Mobicip, explains:
 
“Apple’s new parental controls are too extreme for many parents because they only allow parents to completely disable Internet browsing to keep their children safe from inappropriate content and online predators.  But parents also have the option of third party content filtering solution that works with the age controls on the iPhone and iPodTouch to allow their children to surf the Internet safely.”
 
One parental control solution on the market comes from Mobicip a company that is to helping parents protect their children from a new wave of Internet hazards stemming from mobility. Available for $4.99 from the iPhone App Store on iTunes, Mobicip Safe Browser and Mobicip.com service for the iPhone and iPod Touch that defines filtering levels based on U.S. education system recommendations for in-school Internet filtering.  Parents enable it by registering for the free account on the Mobicip Web site and setting content restrictions at one of three levels: elementary, middle or high school. More information is available at http://www.mobicip.com.

Now you can follow Mobicip on MySpace.com, if that is where your social network preference lies.

We are finally on YouTube as well.

It took forever to make this happen, but our iPhone demo video is now on YouTube.

Click the link: Mobicip Safe Browser Demo - iPhone and iPod Touch

Or play the video below: