A Big Thank You To Doris

When I agreed to take ICU from a personal project to something that would be available for other people to download one of the most important things in my mind was giving it a unique image. I really wanted the software to not appear daunting or "emotionless" and one of the ways I wanted to achieve this was through the use of comic strips rather than photographic images. It would have been really easy to use the usual "stern parent looking at computer screen" photographs that abound on the internet but luckily for me I had a secret weapon!

Doris, my artist friend agreed to create some comic strips for me with no more guidance than a brief explanation of what ICU was. I think she's done an excellent job and it's about time I gave her a plug! So if you're looking for somebody to create original comic art for whatever reason (Original birthday cards, posters etc) then please contact info at icu-software.co.uk and I'll pass it on. Her rates are very reasonable, the quality of work is excellent and besides Doris is a pleasure to deal with! The great thing is she's like an ideas factory as well so even if you're not 100% sure what you want I'm sure she can help.

One again Doris, thank you!

January 2008 Press Release

In this Facebook age of social networking websites and countless chatrooms and forums, one question hangs on the lips of every parent – what are our children doing on the computer, and who are they talking to?

It was that question, that same concern, which led Douglas man *** to create a new software application called ICU – ‘Insight into your Children’s Unaccompanied Activity’.

‘What started off as nothing more than a simple question from my wife – “What’s our daughter doing on her computer?” – resulted in seven months’ development and a software solution to a problem that most parents are going to have to face at some point,’ explained Paul, who was born and educated in Peel.

‘I didn’t know what our daughter was using her computer for. She was 10 at the time and had her own laptop in her bedroom. Although she had access to the family PC downstairs, she was getting to that age where she liked her own room far more than hanging downstairs with the “olds”!

‘But she was using a tool that would allow her to communicate with anybody in the world, and it didn’t seem right that I had no idea who she might be talking to. The switch had been flicked and I was curious – and nervous – about what she might be up to. I think if she had been a little younger she would have been happy to only use the computer when either my wife or I was with her. But all her friends were using their computers alone and so she wanted to.’

Paul researched the child monitoring program options, but wasn’t happy with what he found.

‘They all had at least two flaws – expensive and overly complex,’ said the 29-year-old self-employed software developer. ‘I wasn’t interested in our daughter’s passwords, what keys she’d been typing or restricting the websites and programs she was using, as she only wanted to use the social networking websites and instant chat, which presented the biggest danger as far as we were concerned. I didn’t want to block anything, just the ability to have simple screen shots of what she was looking at emailed to me.

‘To get this, I needed to buy all these extra features and install overly complex programs that wanted to take over my computer. So I decided to write my own software.

‘I had a very clear idea of what I wanted the program to do – and whilst running some tests on the screen-grab ability of the software, I had the misfortune of seeing some of the Bebo profiles that she had been browsing.

‘I have nothing against social networking. I’ve been using the internet since 1993 and have grown up with technology, but what I saw on the profiles of those 11 and 12-year-old girls gave me a massive wake-up call. There were comments such as “How sexy do you think I am?” and “What would you like to do to me?” – I was fairly sure that the parents of SuperHotAndSexy96XX had no idea what their daughter was up to online.’

When the program was completed, Paul installed it on his daughter’s laptop and the family PC and discussed it at length with her.

He said: ‘She completely accepted ICU, understood that I was only looking out for her, that I wasn’t interested in what she was discussing with her friends and that I wouldn’t ever mention what she was doing unless it was something that was worrying me. I made it a rule to delete the email of her online activity once I’ve checked it over.’

Paul then turned his attention to making the software easier to use for those parents who aren’t computer literate, reducing the number of options, making everything as intuitive as possible and creating a short demonstration video.

‘The most important thing is that it’s a solution to a problem that I’m happy to use,’ he said. ‘Our daughter is 12 now, using MSN Messenger to chat to her friends for hours at a time and she even has a webcam. Without having ICU, there is no way I’d be happy with this but now it’s not a problem because I know it’s easy for me to look out for her.’

The software is available to buy online at www.icu-software.co.uk. However, Paul has just teamed up with a company called TrialPay, which allows him to offer ICU free to parents.

‘This is a giant leap forward in child monitoring, as at last the ICU solution is totally affordable to all parents, no matter where they live,’ Paul explained. ‘ICU is now the first commercial-quality child monitoring program available for free download.

‘There is more detail on how TrialPay works on the ICU website, but in summary it allows us to offer our software for free, if customers accept an offer from one of a huge number of big name partners, a large percentage of which are also free. Of course, as you’d expect, all the offers are totally reversible. Having used TrialPay in the past to get other products for free, we’re sure it is the best way forward for ICU.’

ICU Software, You Can Pay If You Like?

Following on from the announcement 2 weeks ago that we were moving ICU over to the TrialPay download method a small number of people have requested that a paid option be made available. I think the reason for this being that although TrialPay has huge coverage there are a few geographical areas where the offers are not of mass appeal.

With this in mind we have reinstated a Paypal payment option that allows you to buy the software at a much reduced price of only £5.99 (originally £12.99). The only reason we can offer the software at this price is because of great take-up we've seen through TrialPay. Because of this paid option we have now also made the free "try before you buy" trial available again.

We hope that the options available for getting your copy of ICU Software will suite most people however if you have any suggestions please feel free to get in touch.

St Trinians Being Advertised On Nickelodeon

This has nothing to do with internet monitoring but I just had to vent!

We're all sat as a family doing various things, Drake and Josh are on Nickelodeon when during the adverts the new St Trinians film appears. My wife and I look at each other in amazement, has the world gone mad? Of course we've had the pleasure of watching some of the more "adult" trailers for this film which is basically about a bunch of (20 somethings dressed as) school girls that slag around taking drugs. Where better to advertise then than on a children's channel? Of course our daughter now wants to watch it after all in her eyes it's just a film about some school girls that do funny things. Well done Nickelodeon.

If it's not bad enough that they pick the (pregnant at 16) teenage sister of a bloody mentalist to play one of their most influential roles (Zoe 101) it's now OK to advertise slagdom to 8-9 year olds. One of the little 6 year old girls who lives near us loves Zoe 101, dresses like her, acts like her, wants to be like her when she grows up. Again, well done Nickelodeon.

ICU Becomes Free Software

Happy New Year! Some great news to start the new year with, the ICU Child Monitoring software solution is now available for free!

We've teamed up with a company called TrialPay which allows us to offer the full version of the software at absolutely no cost to the end user. This is a giant leap forward in child monitoring as at last the ICU solution to totally affordable to all parents, no matter where they live. ICU is now the first commercial quality child monitoring program available for free download. There is much more detail on how TrialPay works on the ICU website but in summary it allows us to give you our software for free if you accept an offer from one of a huge number of big name partners, a large percentage of these offers are completely free. Also, as you would expect all offers are totally reversable giving you peace of mind.

Having used TrialPay in the past to get other products for free we are sure it is the best way forward for ICU, it's simple and quick so why not join the thousands of other people that are using TrialPay daily to get their software for free?

Merry Christmas

On behalf of the team behind ICU Software I'd like to wish you all a very happy and safe Christmas and all the best for the new year!

Child Internet Monitoring Software

Welcome to the official ICU Software blog, over time this will build up to include the latest software updates as well as all the latest child Internet safety news. ICU (an Insight into your Child's Unaccompanied activity) is an application designed for only 1 purpose, to help you keep your children safe as they use the computer. It does this by allowing you to review what they've been doing. ICU allows you to see exactly what they have been looking at, all delivered via simple e-mail reports at a time interval that you choose. This is not designed for network administrators but rather parents, there is no going through large log files or complex traces, just simple images of what your children have been looking at (both online and offline). Our Internet monitoring software has been designed in consultation with parents for parents, this is not only reflected in the ease of use but also the price.

In this modern Internet age of cyber bullying, child grooming, cyber stalking, illegal downloads and the many other dangers that come from open social networking with a global audience ICU can be your very own babysitter allowing you to not only keep you kids safe but also on the right side of the law.