Tucson tech: Parents can control kids' online activity with tool

The company's parental-control software, Action Alert, doesn't simply detect when a kid types in some raunchy or suspicious words on the computer. It also will send a text or email to the parent - who can then cut off Internet access with the press of a button on a mobile phone or other Internet device.

And kids can't deny what they've been up to: The program records up to 60 hours of activity in video fashion, showing every open window and mouse click.

Yikes.

"Just show them one time that you can see what they're doing, and for most kids, that's going to put an absolute stop to it," said Brian Lawson, who co-founded the company now known as Keyware with his brother, Mark.

There are perhaps hundreds of parental-control programs on the market, ranging from simple site-blocking and filtering tools to versions with online time restriction and activity recording.

But Lawson thinks Action Alert (www.actionalert.com) offers the most comprehensive package at a reasonable price.

"Where we differ is, we're big believers in the education of kids and teaching the responsible use of technology," said Lawson, a 45-year-old father of two preteen girls. "We give parents a heads up when kids are going off-track or when they're being misled."

Keyware's founders raised some interest, as well as investor cash, a few years ago with its rollout of PG Key, featuring the company's sophisticated parental-control software on a vaguely key-shaped USB drive that can be literally used as a key.

The company's product was featured on "The Today Show," won a Disney iParenting Award and wound up on electronics store shelves and on the QVC TV shopping channel.

The company subsequently attracted more than $2 million in private capital, and in mid-2011, the company formerly known as PG Key LLC became Keyware Inc. Brian and Mark Lawson, longtime information-technology experts, are vice presidents.

Last fall, the company retooled, dropping sales of the physical key for a new, online version, dubbed Action Alert (while still supporting PG Key).

Under a so-called "freemium" business model, customers can download the basic one-computer version of Action Alert for free, and later upgrade to a full-featured, multi-PC version - including remote parental control and social-media monitoring - for $29.99 a year.

Why the shift?

The PG Key had the advantage of a familiar object users could intuitively understand - pulling the key disables the user's computer.

But hardware distribution can be costly, and with parents seeking immediate help, the freemium model - widely used for anti-virus software - seemed like a better way, Lawson said.

"That's what released the flood of parents who were otherwise sitting on the sidelines," he said.

Since the new online version was launched in October, the company has signed up 54,318 customers - mostly non-paying freeware users - as of Monday morning, said Keyware CEO John Rooney, who keeps close tabs on the numbers.

"This company is now in a race to get a half-million customers," said Rooney, who sold a successful software company before joining Keyware last year.

The company is signing up some 650 new customers a day, thanks in part to an endorsement from the Child Safety Network, a longtime San Diego-based nonprofit that provides safety materials for parent-teacher organizations nationwide.

Ward Leber, who founded Child Safety Network in 1989, said the group doesn't accept review requests but instead monitors available programs. Action Alert was simply the best, he said.

"It's the only device that gives the parent 100 percent control over their kids' online experience," Leber said.

Perhaps more important are the educational tools Keyware gives parents - including the opportunity for frank conversations based on each kid's online wanderings, Leber said.

"One of the things Action Alert does is create that review between the parent and the child over their online usage, and it sort of forces that conversation," he said.

The company's next step, Rooney says, is to "monetize" those 54,000-plus customers - about 95 percent of which are using the free version of Action Alert.

Partly to fund the next marketing push, the company is in the process of raising another $1 million in private equity funding, Rooney said.

The company currently has about 30 investors, including lead venture-capital investor Jamie Keating of California-based Trailhead Ventures, Rooney said. (Keating is the son of Tom Keating, a longtime local businessman and investor who last year spun off his Catalina Mart convenience stores.)

Other Keyware investors include members of the Desert Angels, a group of individual investors that has been very active in recent years.

Not everyone is a fan of Action Alert, however.

Rooney cited the pointed email Lawson got from a 14-year-old girl, addressing "that guy who makes me go to bed at 10 o'clock."

"You can just replace the word 'guy' and use your imagination (for the word she really used)," Lawson said.

But in the end, it's not about punishing anyone, he added.

"It's about setting kids up for a lifetime of responsible computer use."

Contact Assistant Business Editor David Wichner at dwichner@azstarnet.com or 573-4181.