BzzAgent Review: TrueCare - Awareness Online

I have recently become a BzzAgent. BzzAgent is an international network of consumers who voluntarily participate in word-of-mouth (WOM) programs for a variety of products and services. Basically, we're a community of communicators.  As a BzzAgent, I can receive services and products to try and then I'm supposed to 'Bzz' (buzz) about them. This basically means I get to share my thoughts on the products - in a variety of ways.  


The first thing I got to review was actually a service.  TrueCare is an online service that monitors your child's social media accounts and lets you know when s/he posts something objectionable, or when a friend does. It will also alert you when your child friends an adult. 


Since my son is only 8, he doesn't have any social media accounts to monitor. To test the program, I set it up on my own twitter & FB accounts. One thing you need to know is you must have access to your child's account - or your child must approve the applications on their social media accounts.  If your child isn't okay with this, that's probably a clue that you've already got a problem. 


After linking up my TrueCare account with my Twitter and Facebook accounts, I was immediately bombarded with alerts. The alerts are VERY thorough. I was warned every time a friend mentioned drinking (anything, not just alcohol), guns, fire, needles or even stupid (to warn of possible online bullying).  I was also alerted for every friend that I had that was an adult (Facebook) or was not in a circle with other friends (Twitter). 


There were a lot of alerts (I do have quite a few adult friends!). Although the alerts are the important part about the service, I wanted a way to turn off or condense the alerts - but I couldn't find that option. It would be very helpful to have the option to just receive one email at the end of the day letting me know what things TrueCare were alerted by and a link to view the report on their website.  It would also be helpful to be able choose on the specific words or actions you want them to email you about, and then you can view the rest of them online. 


On the TrueCare website, you can filter the alerts to specific days or to look for specific words (to view online, but not what gets emailed to you). This could be especially useful if you are looking for a specific thing in your child's communications. One helpful thing is the words they are alerting you about are shown in context. This makes it much easier to determine if it something to be concerned about. It also gives you links directly to the post/profile/etc so, you don't have to go wallowing on your child's profile to find the information. 


Over all, I would say TrueCare is a very good idea for those wanting a way to keep track of their child's social media accounts. It has some improvements it can make with it's alert system, but I will be looking into it more when my son gets to the point that he is doing a lot of social media. 


I can't wait to receive the next product I'm reviewing (it's in the mail)! 

Do your children have social media accounts? If they do, how do you monitor what they say and do on them?