CompuGuardian is a computer monitoring and control service for schools and libraries. It consists of client software that runs on each computer being monitored and controlled; a server that receives and stores information generated by the computer users and transferred by the client software; and web hosting provided by a server that displays the user generated information along with the ability to send setting changes and commands back to the client software.

The service optionally records and displays websites visited, chatting, keystrokes typed, programs used, screenshots, installed software, social networking activities, web searches and online form submissions in activity logs or generated summary reports. It also has customizable controls to block programs, set time limits, send alerts and block websites. Through the web interface computers can be remotely controlled by changing settings, closing windows, sending messages, locking up the computer, logging off users or shutting down the computer.

The portion of the service that is eligible for Priority 1, Internet Access, Web Hosting E-Rate funding is the server cost associated with (1) bandwidth transferring user generated data to and from the server, (2) storage of user generated data on the server and (3) web hosting expenses displaying user generated information on websites. This portion of the service cost is itemized separately by the service provider and may optionally be provided by the customer’s own server or a third party provider of the customer’s choosing.

Activity Logging Features:

• Logs application usage (including when and what window the user has opened and has active). This is not limited to browser activity. Our software logs any open window or program as well as who is logged in.
• Logs keystrokes
• Logs browser activities
• Provides periodic screenshots of your students’ activities (CompuGuardian can send automatically for every 15 minutes of activity or anytime on demand)

Customer Testimonial

The biggest advantage we have seen is the ability to view a student’s laptop logs without pulling in the computer. This means we have the ability to do investigative work prior to interviewing a student or to retrieving the laptop for further review. This feature has also given parents the ability to log in and monitor their own student’s logs.

- Carl B.

Content Blocking Features:

• Block video games
• Block unsafe websites
• Block programs like file sharing, instant messenger and online gaming programs
• Block virtual tunneling

“…One day we found out that he had been accessing pornography from the school’s computer. He said it was easy to find. …Don’t assume that school computers are safe, because they are not!”

- Letter from a Concerned Parent

With CompuGuardian you’ll be able to send your students warning messages. You can remotely close programs and block them from ever being run. If you need to change the rules, you can unblock programs using your browser. It’s really that simple! With CompuGuardian, as long as you are able to access an Internet browser, you’ll be able to monitor your students’ computer activities and take control at anytime.

Remote Control Features:

• Send messages to your students remotely
• Close selected windows permanently from any remote computer
• Lock up the computer
• Log your students off at anytime
• Force a shutdown of the computer
• Change content blocking settings

Take Control of Your Students’ Online Safety!

Unfortunately, many schools fail to protect or monitor their students’ online activities. Unaware or unconcerned about the real dangers that lurk on the Internet, schools often leave their students’ safety up to chance.

With CompuGuardian you can finally take control of your students’ online and computer experience while better protecting your school from the dangers of the Internet.

CompuGuardian is a revolutionary new web-monitoring solution that allows you to monitor and control your students’ computer activities all with a few simple mouse clicks. You’ll be able to easily understand your students’ computer usage and make decisions about inappropriate content. Best of all, CompuGuardian will make sure your rules are always enforced – even when you aren’t around.

With CompuGuardian you can look over any student’s shoulder any time you want without leaving your desk.

Simply knowing that your invisible presence could be there would certainly make your students think twice before venturing into the dark corners of the Internet. By monitoring the Internet activity of your students, you’ll be better able to make decisions about what websites and programs they regularly use.

CompuGuardian allows you to monitor and control your students’ computer activities in real-time anywhere in the world from a browser with Internet access.

Even if your students take their laptops with them on a field trip, CompuGuardian will continue to work outside of the school firewall. With CompuGuardian, as long as you are able to access an Internet browser, even from a smart phone, you’ll be able to monitor your students’ computer activities and take control at anytime.

Monitoring Features:

• View live screenshots
• View what your children are typing in any program; including emails and instant messages
• View what programs are running
• View what window is currently active
• View logs and screenshots of past activity

CompuGuardian is a revolutionary new web-monitoring solution that allows you to monitor and control your students’ computer activities all with a few simple mouse clicks. You’ll be able to easily understand your students’ computer usage and make decisions about inappropriate content. Best of all, CompuGuardian will make sure your rules are always enforced – even when you aren’t monitoring them.

Sexting can ruin reputations and prevent future opportunities for a lifetime.  What happens on the Internet stays on the Internet… forever.  Once it propagates, it cannot be erased.  In many states, students involved in sexting can be arrested for three felony offenses: manufacturing, possession and distribution of child pornography.

Sexting can pose a serious threat to school administrators.  An assistant principal was recently accused of child pornography after confiscating a cell phone from a student with an indecent picture of a minor on it and downloading the image as evidence against this student. ²  Sexting is not limited to cell phones.  Images can be emailed or uploaded onto school computers.

Having a monitoring service like CompuGuardian not only helps schools prevent this problem, but it can provide a clear record of who sent which picture to whom so that administrators are not falsely accused of inappropriate actions when disciplining students involved in this activity.

Portal filters are effective at URL-based blocking as well as monitoring where Internet traffic is going and who is using it.  Content analysis however, such as keyword filtering and keystroke logging, is limited to unsecured web sites.  Portal monitoring cannot tell which applications are running on clients or track non-Internet related activities.  Portal monitors are useless if computers are able to connect to an outside network such as a neighboring wi-fi signal, a virtual tunnel connection through the portal or to an off-campus Internet connection when computers, especially laptops, are taken home, on travel or stolen.

Client filtering and monitoring can control and record many things that portal software cannot.  For example, video games, pornographic images, pirated media and hacker software can be brought into the school on USB sticks or CDs and would never be detected, let alone filtered, by portal software.  Client-based CompuGuardian takes screenshots, logs keystrokes and monitors application usage.  It blocks unauthorized application usage even when it does not connect to the Internet.  Reports can be run to identify problem students based on activity logs or to reduce wasted software license costs by identifying who uses which software how much.  Computers can be tracked even when they connect to an outside network.

CompuGuardian gives you the best of both worlds.  Centralized web-based administration with the power of client-based monitoring and filtering.  It is the only monitoring and filtering solution with patent-pending Teenagerproof technology that prevents it from being disabled or bypassed.

First of all, with hundreds of new pornography and other inappropriate sites surfacing everyday, it is a losing battle to try to create a database of every bad web site on the Internet.  Keyword-based filters like CompuGuardian can be used to provide a second layer of protection, but even these do not block all improper web sites.  Predators, pornographers and drug dealers are actively reaching out to students, using every technique at their disposal to trap young computer users.  Filters are just not sophisticated enough to thwart all the actions of online criminals in their quest for new victims.

Second, while filters help prevent accidental exposure to adult content online, they typically block valid educational web content as well, more often than not throwing out the proverbial baby with the bath water.  A recent study showed that “filters overstep their bounds in many cases … and teachers simply are too busy to follow up with technology staff to request access to legitimate sites, or–worse–technology staff aren’t responsive enough to the needs of classroom teachers, too often educationally useful sites aren’t removed from these filters’ block lists, despite the ability of administrators to remove them at the local level.” ¹

So how do you relax the censorship of Internet filters that are frustrating and preventing students from doing online research, while protecting them from online dangers?  The answer lies in teaching students, at a level appropriate to their age, to learn how to deal with improper web content and follow up on this training with monitoring software that can catch problem situations where students are actively seeking pornography, violence and drugs online.  CompuGuardian provides powerful reporting tools to examine millions of activity log entries in a matter of minutes and raise red flags that warrant investigation and disciplinary actions.

One study showed that online messages posted by middle and high school students in the Los Angeles area were found to be:

“…full of sexual innuendo aimed at individual students and focusing on topics such as ‘the weirdest people at your school.’  …prompting a sense of despair among scores of teenagers disparaged on the site, and frustration among parents and school administrators.… One crying student, whose address and phone number were published on the site, was barraged with calls from people calling her a slut and a prostitute.” ¹

As psychologist Kelly Dedel told the Los Angeles Times about cyberbullying:

“It’s not just a few of the kids at school; it’s the whole world.…Anybody could log on and see what they said about you…. What’s written remains, haunting, torturing these kids.”

Just as schools have been sued for not protecting students from traditional bullying, cyberbullying is becoming a real legal liability for schools.  Providing a safe environment for students is just as important in the computer lab as it is everywhere else on campus. 

CompuGuardian provides powerful logging and reporting tools to schools to proactively prevent cyberbullying before it escalates into a serious problem.

In March, a teacher was caught viewing pornography on his computer while he was teaching a class of 13-years olds¹.

Just two months ago, at another school a class of eight and nine year-olds were watching a computer presentation when a pornographic video “accidentally” began playing². What was it doing on the teacher’s computer to start with?

Protect your school from legal threats and protect your students from “accidental” exposure with CompuGuardian. Know what your teachers are doing with school computers, even outside of the school firewall. Prevent incidents before they happen.