eBlaster does quite a good job of website monitoring.

It tracks each and every site that your child views, and sends you reports detailing Internet use at intervals set by parents.

These can be as often as every few minutes, or just once a day.

Parents can even see how much time their child spends on a particular site and how frequently they visit.

However, without screenshots parents can't see the site itself, so less obvious sites can still sneak past those who don't know what a website, or a page in that site, might contain.

eBlaster records all instant messages and chats, on both sides, and through their "instant notification" program sends parents alerts to their email when keyword triggers reflect a potentially dangerous conversation.

Parents can then block specific IM contacts once they decide that that contact isn't safe.

In the age of IMs/chats and social media sites like Twitter, email may seem to some parents to be second fiddle to the more immediate forms of communication.

While that may be true for some kids and perhaps for some conversations, rest assured that kids still use email. A lot.

The ability to see these emails, what they say, and who they're emailing is one of the cornerstones of eBlaster.

In addition to capturing the complete contents of emails sent or received, eBlaster also grabs any email attachments and forwards those along to you for your review, too.

eBlaster's invisible keylogger records every key typed on your child's PC, online or offline. It even offers a feature that records "true keystrokes" like CTRL, ALT, or the Delete button.

However, we think this feature won't be necessary for parents interested in standard parental control software features, and who don't want to spend their time digging through long and tedious keystroke logs.

When it comes to understanding what a kid is doing on a PC, seeing is believing.

In many cases, seeing an actual screen shot of a chat conversation, a web site they're visiting (and know fully they shouldn't be), or other activity can give a parent what they need to take appropriate action.

It's little wonder then why we put such emphasis on parental control software being able to take screenshots.

Without screenshots, it's sometimes hard to see what they saw, since you weren't there at the time.

This is one of the things eBlaster gets partly right in our opinion.

It's terrific that eBlaster offers automatic, keyword-based screenshots. It's also terrific that they're instantly emailed to you.

What we're disappointed about is that the screenshots are only keyword based, which means you can't automatically schedule a screenshot to be taken at preset intervals.

It also means that you'll have to pre-define a list of keywords for eBlaster to monitor for, which can be a more daunting task than you might imagine once you get down to actually doing the task.

That said, we're glad to see the screenshot feature and glad the screen captures are instantly sent to your inbox for your review.

Perhaps not a perfect solution for all parents but a decent solution for many.

eBlaster doesn't have Time / Usage Controls

Here is where eBlaster departs from Spector Pro, and offers parents sophisticated remote viewing that makes parental control a lot easier to manage.

Using eBlaster parents can monitor their kids' online activity from anywhere in the world, whether that be at work, from another room of their home, or while traveling. This is a crucial tool of modern parental control software that makes it possible for busy and working parents to watch over their children whenever the kids log-on to the Internet.

eBlaster settings can even be adjusted online if parents want to receive more or fewer reports, or see different aspects of those reports more often.

eBlaster is invisible when parents need it to be, another "must-have" when parents are dealing with older kids who either don't understand the dangers of the Internet or who're trying to get away with something they shouldn't be.

It won't show up as an icon or in Task Manager when tech-savvy kids check for it, and can't be uninstalled without the password parents specify in advance.

eBlaster offers users free tech support via email or phone, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. Extended support can be purchased at a higher price.

Overall eBlaster is a solid product that ranks well among the best parental control software programs; however, we do have a few concerns.

First, eBlaster doesn't offer proactive website blocking.

Don't get us wrong, eBlaster does have a means by which parents can block websites.

With their fairly sophisticated reporting system, parents can choose to block sites they think are inappropriate with just the click of a button.

But first their kids have to access those sites, which are then reported to parents, who must then decide to block the site.

Spector Soft, maker of eBlaster and Spector Pro, subscribes to the notion that parents should monitor their kids first, and block later.

However, we know that many parents prefer a more proactive form of website blocking to keep kids from accessing certain websites - such as pornographic sites and those that feature violent images - from the start.

Furthermore, many busy parents rely on more proactive forms of website blocking to help them prevent their kids from accessing or engaging in inappropriate behaviors online.

Next, the mechanism for getting reports in eBlaster is exclusively via email.

At times, you may find yourself, as we did, getting absolutely inundated with emails. Also, email does go down. If your email is temporarily inaccessible, so are your child's computer monitoring reports.

Lastly, because they are delivered via email, it can be a cumbersome task to try to sift through emails later to dig out the important ones with the information you need to make decisions about your child's online activities.

Another major concern of ours is the lack of screenshots.

eBlaster just doesn't offer them, leaving parents unable to actually view the pages that may or may not be objectionable.

Once again, busy parents might find this omission to be more than they care to handle.

Finally, eBlaster doesn't offer computer usage time limits.

A lot of parents like to keep their kids offline when they're not at home, or perhaps asleep. Strangely, this is another feature offered by Spector Pro, but not eBlaster.

For parents who have the time to investigate those websites reported, and who don't mind blocking access to inappropriate materials after the fact, eBlaster could be a great fit.

For parents who want a more streamlined, pro-active form of parental control software, we recommend WebWatcher and Spector Pro.