MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - Feb. 07, 2012 - Norton by Symantec
(Nasdaq: SYMC) released today Norton Safety Minder: Mobile
Edition, a free app that allows parents to keep an eye on
their kids' smartphone activities. The application is used
as part of Norton Online
Family, the award-winning online family safety service
for PCs and Macs. Through the new app, parents can avail
themselves of several tools to teach kids safe and
age-appropriate digital habits on their mobile devices.
The application provides web monitoring and blocking
features for free, allowing parents to see what sites their
kids are visiting and block content they feel is
inappropriate. Applied through their Norton Online Family
account, parents can use the same set of web filtering
settings for the child's PC and apply them to the child's
Android phone. The service tracks up to seven days of
content for free, and up to 90 days for those with a paid
Norton Online Family Premier account.
Norton Online Family Premier¹ accounts, a paid and more
robust version of the basic Norton Online Family solution,
will unlock additional advanced features in the app,
including:
-
Text and MMS Message Monitoring: Shows parents who their
kids are texting with, what they say and whether they are
exchanging photo (MMS) messages. Additionally, parents
can provide input around who their kids can exchange
messages with, by designating whether certain contacts
are blocked, monitored or unmonitored.
-
App Monitoring: Gives parents the ability to see which
apps their child has installed and uninstalled, so that
they can keep it "kid-friendly" and also protect them
from malicious applications.
To get started, parents download the app on their child's
Android phone, login to their Norton Online Family account
(or create one from within the application) and can then
centrally manage the "House Rules" on that device through
the onlinefamily.norton.com website. More than a dozen
phones can be easily added to the same account at no
charge, with unique settings for each, allowing parents a
single point to manage varied settings for kids of
different ages.
"Parents know they need to be involved in their kids'
digital lives, and most actually set and discuss house
rules for computer use and Internet browsing" said Marian
Merritt, Norton Internet Safety Advocate. "But to make
those rules work, you need to extend them to your child's
mobile phone where so much web browsing takes place. With
Norton Safety Minder: Mobile Edition, parents can help
their kids stick to those rules, regardless of which device
they are on."
Screenshots
Pricing and Availability
Norton Safety Minder: Mobile Edition is available for free
in the Android Market at market.android.com, and can be
downloaded in English, Japanese, German and Polish. Android
version 2.2 or 2.3 is required on the device.
Parents must have a Norton Online Family account in order
to activate the application, which they must first install
on their child's device. A free, basic Norton Online Family
account will activate the mobile web-filtering and
monitoring within Norton Safety Minder for Android. A paid
subscription to Norton Online Family Premier, currently
only available in the US, will unlock the application's
additional advanced features, such as SMS text monitoring.
Norton Online Family Premier
Norton Online Family Premier is a web-based online family
safety service, available for purchase in the United States
at https://onlinefamily.norton.com/
in English only. The suggested retail price of Norton
Online Family Premier is $49.99 for a one year
subscription. But for a limited time, the service is being
offered at an introductory promotional price of $29.99.
To use Norton Online Family Premier on a Mac (Mac OS X 10.5
or later) or PC (Windows 7, Windows XP Home or
Professional, SP2 or later; Windows XP Media Center Edition
2005, Windows Vista 32-bit or 64-bit, SP1 or later) parents
simply sign up and create a family account at https://onlinefamily.norton.com.
About Norton
Norton protects the Stuff that matters to consumers, across
all aspects of their digital lives. Norton provides a range
of security solutions including technologies for PCs and
mobile devices, live tech support services and online
backup. Like Norton on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/norton.
About Symantec
Symantec is a global leader in providing security, storage
and systems management solutions to help consumers and
organizations secure and manage their information-driven
world. Our software and services protect against more risks
at more points, more completely and efficiently, enabling
confidence wherever information is used or stored. More
information is available at www.symantec.com.
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