Kids Have a New Computer? Protect Them with this Free Software

The Paulding County Sheriff’s Office wants to protect the county’s youth who travel along a major highway—the information superhighway.

The PCSO and Sheriff Gary Gulledge are giving away copies of a computer monitoring program known as ComputerCOP at the PCSO’s Crimes Against Children office, 1387 Industrial Blvd. in Dallas.

The software’s goal is to inform parents every time their children encounters something online about sex, drugs, crime and cyber bullying. The discs were bought by the Georgia Bureau of Investigations Internet Crimes Against Children unit using federal grant funding and were provided to the Paulding County Sheriff’s Office.

The software can be installed on a home computer and used to scan for keywords such as “porn” or “marijuana.” The software also reviews pictures and videos as well as saves emails and chats.

“The program is very easy to use,” Gulledge said on the PCSO’s website.
Officials say the software should initiate conversation between parents and children about what is appropriate Internet use. By combining that communication with the use of the software, authorities hope to help parents protect their children from the hidden dangers of the Internet.

See Sheriff Gary Gulledge share more about the program by watching the attached YouTube video.

Gulledge added that the software does not block any content from the computer. “It simply finds it so parents can review what their children see online, and then report any potentially illegal communications to law enforcement. ComputerCOP looks for things that we don’t want our kids to see or do,” he said.
The software has more than 5,000 keywords in its database that it will search and allows parents to add additional keywords. It also has a reporting feature that allows you to send any inappropriate chat or image directly to your local law enforcement agency.