Safety Minder Disabled, Kinda and what is 'Quiet Time'?

I've been using Safety Minder now since the beta....And ran it as part of the beta test long ago.  It's always had problems with the timer being disabled, and usually I was told that my kids disabled it or they had admin rights or something like that, whey they haven't.  I have just lived with it and recently just chalked it up to at least it's filtering websites and I will just have to manually watch their time.  Lately, I have never been asked the famous question, "I need more time please dad" and now something new has come up. 

 

First off, I get email messages saying that the minder has been disabled on a daily basis.  Today, I had some extra time and decided to get more info.  On the web portal login, under ALERTS, I get the following message, which is similar to the email I always get:

"Norton Safety Minder's web browser monitoring component is either disconnected or disabled. Please restart the web browser or restart your computer."

 

I restart the computer daily and get this message daily.

 

I had my kid log in and watched them. They did nothing to the safety minder program. I had them go on the internet and use it as n ormal. I looked in the web portal under ACTIVITY, it shows all the websites visited for today, up to the current minute. I know for a fact that this child has used up all her time for today, yet she is still able to access the web and the web portal Activity is logging it - so the safety minder is working...kinda....It's just not kicking her off due to time being used up. 

 

So I had her click on the paw and check to see the remaining time. And it says this: "Your quiet time has begun. If you choose to contine, your parents may be notifed."

 

What is quiet time? And I have never gotten any notifications. 

 

So, I get emails saying the safety minder has been disabled, yet it's still logging websites and activity, the paw shows up, but says quiet time has started and continues to let the child use the computer.

 

I have done searches for "quiet time" and find anything on it.

 

The computer is running Minder version 2.0.0.48  and this has been going on for at least a month or more. I just never looked into it more until now.

I've been using Safety Minder now since the beta....And ran it as part of the beta test long ago.  It's always had problems with the timer being disabled, and usually I was told that my kids disabled it or they had admin rights or something like that, whey they haven't.  I have just lived with it and recently just chalked it up to at least it's filtering websites and I will just have to manually watch their time.  Lately, I have never been asked the famous question, "I need more time please dad" and now something new has come up. 

 

First off, I get email messages saying that the minder has been disabled on a daily basis.  Today, I had some extra time and decided to get more info.  On the web portal login, under ALERTS, I get the following message, which is similar to the email I always get:

"Norton Safety Minder's web browser monitoring component is either disconnected or disabled. Please restart the web browser or restart your computer."

 

I restart the computer daily and get this message daily.

 

I had my kid log in and watched them. They did nothing to the safety minder program. I had them go on the internet and use it as n ormal. I looked in the web portal under ACTIVITY, it shows all the websites visited for today, up to the current minute. I know for a fact that this child has used up all her time for today, yet she is still able to access the web and the web portal Activity is logging it - so the safety minder is working...kinda....It's just not kicking her off due to time being used up. 

 

So I had her click on the paw and check to see the remaining time. And it says this: "Your quiet time has begun. If you choose to contine, your parents may be notifed."

 

What is quiet time? And I have never gotten any notifications. 

 

So, I get emails saying the safety minder has been disabled, yet it's still logging websites and activity, the paw shows up, but says quiet time has started and continues to let the child use the computer.

 

I have done searches for "quiet time" and find anything on it.

 

The computer is running Minder version 2.0.0.48  and this has been going on for at least a month or more. I just never looked into it more until now.

So Quiet Time is now when curfew time is past? And it still lets them use the computer?  It said it would notify the parents, which it did not. It used to not let them log in when the curfew time was past, I liked it better that way.

Hi gwilliamhouse,

 

The program shouldn't allow the kid to stay on the PC anymore when it's curfew time.  Since we haven't been able to reproduce it in house, I would be more than happy to setup a remote desktop access and work together with you on this.  You're welcome to send me a private message or an email for details.

 

Thanks,

Katie

Ditto on the problem for the "Norton Safety Minder's web browser monitoring component is either disconnected or disabled. Please restart the web browser or restart your computer" message.

 

I have Vista32, and it has a range of hours (via Vista Parental controls) that that kids are allowed to log on. I use Norton Safety Minder to limit the total hours they can log in within that timeframe... however... I am getting that email every day, and from the logs, they are logged in way, way longer than the time limit... I also have never had the kids ask for more time...

 

The logs do show that they have exceeded the time limits, but it also shows them still going to various web sites (between the messages about "time limit execeeded").

 

First few times I got it, I rebooted the PC, as I was thinking something might have crashed... but it still happens every day. The kids are not admins on this PC, either. Not sure where to look or what step(s) to follow next.

 

Thanks for any help in advance,

Mike

Hi gwilliamhouse and ironmikep,

 

What antivirus program(s) and version do you have on the PC?

 

 

Thanks,

Katie

quiet time is allowing my daughter to stay using her PC after the time limit has run out. Can i disable this quiet time?

Hi 16s, gwilliamhouse and iconmikep,

 

Do you know what you children do next after they receive the warning message that 60 seconds left, then they are able to stay on the PC at quite time? 

 

 

Thanks,

Katie

my daughter told me that when her time runs out it prompts her if she wants to continue but "your parents will be notified".

Hi 16s,

 

Thanks for the update.  After she receives the message, what does she do next that allows her to continue to use the PC?

 

 

Thanks,

Katie

When time is about to expire (curfew about to start) the Norton Safety Minder says '60 seconds until the end of the session' or something like that, my kid just clicks OK.

It then orderly locks her out of the computer.

She then clicks on her user icon and goes right back in back in.

Norton Safety Minder then gives her another minute and says again '60 seconds until the end of the session' or something like that.

My kid again  just clicks OK inside Norton Safety Minder windw. It then orderly locks her out of the computer.

She then again clicks on her user icon and goes right back in back.

This second time Norton Safety Minder doesn't say that only one minute is left but that the 'quiet time has started and that she can continue but that the parents will be notified'. I get no notification of her 'quiet time' whatsoever.

 

I just see that my kid uses computer for 2 more hours. If I have to monitor her manually that is ridiculous

 

This looks like some back door bug that one of your programmers built in to let kids abuse the parental controls.

Hi mdunjic,

 

You mentioned "Norton Safety Minder then gives her another minute and says again '60 seconds until the end of the session' or something like that. My kid again  just clicks OK inside Norton Safety Minder windw. It then orderly locks her out of the computer"

 

What you described above worked the way as designed.  When a kid reaches his/her curfew time, the kid would receive a message indicating there are 60 seconds left.  After 60 seconds, the kid is allowed to log back to the PC for another 60 seconds to finish whatever he/she was doing.  The behavior can be repeated for three times.  That means the kid gets a total of extra 6 minutes.  Then he/she wouldn't be able to log back to the PC without a parental email address and password.

 

If you're able to reproduce the time issue that "she can continue but that the parents will be notified'" consistently, I'd be glad to setup a remote access session with you.  Please let me know.

 

Thanks,

Katie