New CYBERsitter Features Help Protect Seniors from Online Dangers
Computer use by seniors living independently is the new challenge for family and caregivers. CYBERsitter helps protect seniors from scams and financial missteps.
Santa Barbara, CA (PRWEB) November 11, 2008 -- Computer use by seniors living independently is the new challenge for family and caregivers. As our growing senior population ages, some families are thinking about pulling the plug, on the computer. For many seniors, the computer has become an important part of their daily lives. It allows them to communicate frequently with children and grandchildren, see the latest family photos, and keep them connected to distant family members and friends.
Because most seniors today are comfortable using email and browsing the web, they are easy targets for scammers and purveyors of worthless products and services. Those with dementia, Alzheimer's and other age related cognitive disorders are even more easily duped by many of these well crafted scams.
CYBERsitter, CYBERsitter.com, has been well known for almost 14 years as a leading Internet filter product designed to protect kids from adult oriented and other objectionable content. What is not well known is that CYBERsitter is also becoming a tool for helping to protect seniors from being duped into making decisions that could have serious financial consequences.
CYBERsitter provides a couple of very useful features that help concerned family members and caregivers provide non-intrusive protection that will allow seniors to have full use of their computers while limiting access to things that may cause them financial harm.
Some seniors with more advanced cognitive impairments may no longer be able to competently handle their finances. This is a difficult issue for caregivers because they do not want to deny use of the computer, but at the same time they want to be able to block access to sites where any type of financial transaction could take place. These might include banks, stock brokerages, online shopping, etc. CYBERsitter provides a one click option to block all secure sites where any type of financial transaction can be performed.
CYBERsitter also provides a special blocking category, unique in the industry, which blocks access to web sites that are advertised by spam. Many users, especially less savvy seniors, cannot easily differentiate spam advertised web sites from legitimate ones. These might include fake pharmacies, debt relief, lotteries, contests, useless health aids, fake charities, etc. Seniors also frequently fall victim to schemes involving automatic monthly shipments of useless vitamins or other health products and it sometimes takes months until anyone notices that $40 or $50 a month is being debited from their checking or savings accounts.
According to Brian Milburn, President and founder of Solid Oak Software, the company has seen a significant number of new customers that are purchasing CYBERsitter to protect their elderly relatives. "This is a little surprising to me. For 14 years we have focused on protecting kids. We never really considered that this might be useful for seniors."
CYBERsitter receives over 500,000 reports of verified spam advertised web sites per day. These sites are analyzed and updated every hour, 24/7, to ensure that all users are protected from the latest scams. Please visit http://www.cybersitterlists.com/Top100.htm for an example of the latest top 100 spam advertised web sites. The list averages about 65,000 active sites. By blocking sites on this list, CYBERsitter offers near real-time protection not available from any other Internet filtering product or Internet security suite.
CYBERsitter is not just for kids anymore. It can be an invaluable tool in helping to protect the elderly from online dangers, while allowing them to enjoy using the Internet without any significant restrictions.
Solid Oak Software has been a leading publisher of Internet content management software since 1995. Its flagship product, CYBERsitter has been available for almost 14 years, and is the recipient of five PC Magazine Editors' Choice Awards. CYBERsitter is available at CYBERsitter.com for $39.95 and requires no subscription fees.
Contact Information:
Jenna DiPasquale
jenna @ solidoak.com
1-800-388-2761 x4256
Brian Milburn, President
bmilburn @ solidoak.com
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