The World Wide Web is chock-full of sites on every possible topic, and quite a few cover specialised and disturbing subjects. We're talking extreme political views, anarchy, drugs and lots and lots of porn.

It makes little sense to tell your kids that they can't use the Internet and it is quite impractical to watch them every moment they are online. McAfee has realised there is a huge market for software that responds to the content of Web sites and Internet traffic (e-mail clients and instant messengers, for example), so here it is, new for 2003; McAfee Parental Controls.

The system requirements are quite undemanding; Windows 98/Me/2000/XP and a 100MHz CPU. We were amused to see that "Internet Access is required for some features" as that is the whole point of this software. Once it's been installed, you create user profiles for anyone who uses your PC and then set passwords, with an administrator who has complete control of the PC. That would be you, of course.

Then you set the permission rights for each profile, which can be very quick if you select one of the McAfee templates such as 'Young child' or 'Pre Teen'. If you choose to define exactly which words or types of image are unacceptable then you could spend quite some time on the job and you'll find that morals and ethics are quite hard to tie down to precise wording.

McAfee warns you that the dictionary of profane and bad language may cause offence, and it is certainly detailed and extensive. Unfortunately it is American English and there is no specific British English dictionary, so age-old Anglo Saxon expressions are outside its remit.

The software also allows you to prevent specific information from being sent over instant messaging, such as credit card numbers, names and phone numbers, although this reviewer feels it is far better to get the notion of security across through discussion. The software approach will never be 100 percent safe.

Parental Controls adds a log-on screen to Windows so that the PC loads the correct profile at start-up, although there is no icon in the system tray and the process doesn't appear when you use CTRL-ALT-DEL. Essentially the software is invisible until the user tries to do something forbidden, whether accidentally or deliberately, at which point it blocks the action.

McAfee has done a good job in trying circumstances and the software works well, preventing unauthorised users accessing undesirable Web sites, disabling the software or uninstalling it. However, we did manage to prevent it running at start-up by tinkering with msconfig, which seems like a major flaw as we do not feel we are terribly cunning compared with a typical teenager.

McAfee Parental Controls is potentially a good idea, especially if you feel that your family is beyond education and/or reason on the potential threat posed by the Internet. The software can at least help to prevent children accessing dodgy content at home. However, determined amateur hackers will be able to bypass it.