“Sentry At Home” now includes monitoring of MySpace chat

SearchHelp announced that, beginning this week, it will provide an important update to all users of its “Sentry At Home” Internet content filtering and blocking software.

This update features several timely enhancements including the ability to monitor and block MySpace Chat, where young people have been signing up by the millions. MySpace.com and other social networking sites have become a hangout for kids, criminals and even sexual predators.

With children spending increasing amounts of time online, protecting them is emerging as a major national concern. Membership on social networking sites is booming around the country. MySpace says its popular site now attracts 54 million visitors very month. According to studies by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, one in seven 10-to-17-year-olds using the Internet has received some kind of a sexual invitation. Other key data:

” 45% of children in the United States — more than 30 million of them younger than 18 — use the Internet. The majority of which, use it alone and unsupervised.
” 71% of teens report receiving messages online from someone they don’t know.
” 45% have been asked for personal information by someone they don’t know.