As much as I don’t like filtering software, I know that many parents, educators, and others need it as a simple way to keep unwanted online content from their kids’ computers.
But for the subset of a subset of Mac-owning parents and educators who run dual-boot installations of Windows and OS X, making sure that those same online rules are followed for both operating systems can be a bit of a pain. Enter the latest version of Intego’s filtering software, ContentBarrier X5 DP—the DP means “dual platform,” but we’re pretty sure the X in X5 stands for eXcellent, or eXtreme, or perhaps even eXistential. The new version, which was released on Thursday, is one of those programs that offers a very targeted way to filter Internet access on both the Mac and PC side.
As the press release says: “Parents choose which categories of content to block, and can block specific applications or protocols (peer-to-peer, instant messaging, e-mail, games, streaming audio and video, and more). Parents can also set up schedules with time limits so their children can only access the Internet at specific times.”
This new version has all that jazz on the Mac side, and serves up similar restrictions on the Windows side by incorporating Profil Technology’s Parental Filter 2. Seems like a no-brainer for households that use both Windows machines and Macs. Plus, buying the dual-platform solution costs $60—just $10 more than the Mac-only version.