What Network Dragon IS and what it IS NOT

Network Dragon is a software application that enables you to control the access of several people to a single computer, and to monitor their activities on that computer. It has been designed especially for families - where children's access to the family computer (and particularly their access to the internet via that computer) is an important issue. Computers have in the 21st century become the televisions of the 20th century. Access to a computer, and access to the Internet needs to be understood and controlled.
Although Network Dragon has been designed specifically for families, it can also be used in other circumstances - in offices, schools, community centers, commune living, etc.

Network Dragon gives you control over many aspects of a child's access to the computer, including:

• how much time they spend on the computer
• when they are allowed to be on the computer
• how much data they are allowed to transfer to the internet (teenagers downloading music and videos can severely deplete your monthly data allocation!)
• what they are doing on the computer (playing games; doing homework; accessing the internet) - both in terms of how much of each of these activities every day, and a timetable of when they are allowed to be doing each activity (no games during the week?; half-an-hour of games, and the rest of the time must be homework ...)
• which internet sites they visit, issuing warnings if a site's URL contains words that are unsuitable.

Network Dragon's approach is very different from the approach of other computer or internet monitoring software, because of its organic and intuitive style of monitoring a user's activity, which you can adapt to suit your style of parenting.

Friendly Interface: Unlike other applications in this genre of software Network Dragon does not "spy" on your child, or do inexplicable and harsh things which would only serve to alienate them. Network Dragon is friendly and interactive - it greets your child (and you!) when they log in, and at any time will tell them how much time or data they have left for the day, week or month.

Warnings or Action: According to the settings you choose if your child exceeds a limit (they stay on the computer for too long, play games longer than they should, etc.) Network Dragon will at first warn them in a friendly manner that they are over their limits - only after they have ignored several warnings (again according to the settings you choose) will Network Dragon actually force an action such as closing all games, all internet applications or actually logging them off the computer. You can adjust Network Dragon to reflect you own style of parenting - it can give them the leeway to be responsible themselves for monitoring their time on a computer, or it has the power to be firm and actually shut your computer down if they overstep the mark.

Extending Limits: Children are wonderfully adept at finding reasons to extend the limits you have imposed on them, and are particularly skilled at choosing the moments at which they ask your permission. Most applications in this genre of software suffer the fate of being uninstalled after a brief test phase for exactly this reason: just when your child really has to use the computer beyond their limited time because of a homework project, and you happen to be in the middle of an important business meeting - the software blocks them, and as soon as you return home you find yourself uninstalling the software you thought would help to solve your family's computer issues! Fortunately with Network Dragon that need never happen. If your child has a legitimate reason for extending their limits, you can give them a time-limited password that will lift their restrictions temporarily. You don't have to be at the computer, and they cannot use that same password tomorrow, or even next week because it is time limited.