To: National Desk & State Desks
Contact: Ron DeHaas, President, Covenant Eyes, 989-666-2143, ron@covenanteyes.com
NEWS ADVISORY, June 19 /Christian Newswire/ -- Covenant Eyes (www.covenanteyes.com), the pioneer of Internet Accountability, has released its program in a Mac version, compatible with Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) or later, including Intel versions.
Covenant Eyes pioneered Internet Accountability in June of 2000, by providing a complete report of all activity by a user on a PC (with any Windows version). The report lists all sites visited, and is scored specifically for pornography. All high-scoring sites are summarized in an easy-to read list at the top of the report. Timestamps of activity are also recorded, so the complete record of usage can be determined. The record is transmitted to Accountability Partners of the user's own choosing.
Uses of the program include parents who monitor their children's activity; men and women who have had a problem with pornography, and recognize the value of accountability; businesses which desire to monitor productivity of employees; churches which desire to demonstrate integrity through a policy of accountability; colleges which desire to have their students remain accountable; etc.
Features of the Mac version include all of the reporting capabilities of the Windows version. Covenant Eyes can be used on multiple computers at no extra charge, including a combination of Mac and PC computers. Multiple users on one computer can have different usernames, providing independent accountability. Reports are provided to Accountability Partners by email, or by web access at any time. The program is portable and independent of the type of Internet connection, so that a computer protected by Covenant Eyes can be carried from one location to another, even to a wireless hotspot.
Special Administrative Privileges allow easy monitoring of large accounts, even when mixtures of Mac and PC users involved. Simple LogOut allows security for a computer by blocking Internet access until a correct username/password is entered. Fast User Switching on Macs is supported, so different users can have their own reports.
Accountability Partners do not need to be Mac users.
Covenant Eyes President Ron DeHaas explains that "We have recognized from the beginning that it was essential to have a Mac version of Covenant Eyes. However, the difference in operating systems provided a challenge in making a program that was as difficult to bypass as our PC version. Nevertheless, more than three years ago, Covenant Eyes began research, and finally was able to overcome most of the difficulties. The result is a very stable, easy-to-use program that proactively monitors and scores all websites, including personals, blogs and searches like myspace.com, google images, and even the adult sections of sites like Ebay or Amazon.com."
The Covenant Eyes approach to scoring includes a general rule of thumb that if a site is inappropriate for an 8-year old, then that site should generally be considered as "somewhat mature" - therefore, DeHaas explains, "the myspace.com sites often score in the range of 10 to 14, which is the 'Somewhat Mature or Questionable' range on our reports. Sites which are clean and do not have any objectionable content still usually score low, and sites with objectionable content score in the 'Highly Mature or Highly Questionable' range." Covenant Eyes Accountability Reports display all the high-scoring sites at the top of the report, so viewing is easy. Reports can be viewed by Accountability Partners online at any time, or periodically by email as desired.
Time of viewing is also displayed, and a detailed report of all sites visited is also viewable, making it quite easy to discern motivation.
The program gets highest ratings for being virtually non-circumventable.
In addition to monitoring websites, Covenant Eyes is also the only program to monitor newsgroups (patent pending), a very significant source of pornography on the Internet. Filesharing and ftp is also detected and monitored in most cases.
Covenant Eyes is available for single users at $6.99 per month. Significant discounts are available for larger groups. Six family member, for instance, cost a total of $15.00 per month, and there are further discounts for large groups such as businesses, colleges, or churches.
For further information, visit the Covenant Eyes website at www.covenanteyes.com.
