[Product Update] Bitdefender BOX adds new parental control feature to detect online predators and cyberbullying

A key challenge of modern parenting is to find a balance between allowing children to enjoy the internet as part of their education and social lives and keeping them safe online. Without parental control and supervision, the wonderful world of the internet can become a dangerous place.

Inspired by parents’ struggles, feedback, researches, and real-life situations, we’ve developed a new feature for our parental control app: detection of cyberbullying and online predators.

As promised, this new feature* is now available to Bitdefender BOX users. All English speaking ones.

 How it works

Parental Control app uses AI algorithms to scan online conversations for potential bullying, requests for meetings from strangers, and disclosure of personal information like a personal address or credit card details. You can also keep an eye on images your child receives or sends. We’ll flag anything suspicious for you in Bitdefender Central. It’s up to you to evaluate the situation, take action, read more about how to deal with a specific issue or talk to your child. Just like with the other parenting challenges.

Bitdefender Parental Control works on devices running iOS, Android, Windows and macOS. You have to install it on your children’s devices (see here how).

Once installed, Bitdefender Parental Control looks at messages children sent in WhatsApp (Android, Windows, and macOS), Facebook Messenger (Windows and macOS), Instagram (Android);

• images sent or received in WhatsApp (Android, iOS, Windows, and macOS), Facebook Messenger (Android, iOS, Windows, and macOS), Instagram (Android and iOS);

• images sent or received on any app – available on iOS.

What you get

In short, you get time to think and act – a heads up for a possibly bad situation that can also serve as a good starting point for a conversation with the kids. You’ll receive only notifications about their online activities together with one-click-away advice from psychologists about how to deal with specific sensitive situations. What you do (or don’t do) next is your decision, as with all other parenting challenges.

Parental Control app respects your family’s privacy.

You’ll only receive notifications about the content from online conversations, and not the content itself. This is scanned by machines and cannot be seen or accessed by anyone – not even the people in our labs.

What to expect

As parents and cybersecurity experts, we know that being a parent in the tech era is not simple – at all. Nobody is expected to be aware of every single new app children are using nowadays. Or to notice the very first signals that something or somebody is bothering their children online. Still, we must find a way to connect and protect them in a world we may not fully understand or accept. The Parental Control app can help. It is a tool we can use to make the online world safer and better for our children.

*The Detection of Cyberbullying and Online Predators functionality is no longer available in Bitdefender products.