Covenant Eyes is both an internet accountability program which monitors online activity and an internet filtering service for an extra layer of protection.

The Covenant Eyes account setup begins with a welcome email followed by a telephone conference. As they advised how to begin, they shared "We are your partner." Another term they used was internet safety consultant. They also have online guides available.

After choosing an administrator and primary email, a maturity level is chosen for each user. Each user/profile has their name on every device. As a mobile program, Covenant Eyes isn't just limited to computers at home. Accountability reports are shared with the admins and accountability partner about websites visited by each user based on the settings called sensitivity levels that admins set for each user.

There are four Sensitivity Levels for Accountability Reports.

• T (Teen) reports show all web addresses and Internet searches rated Teen and above.
• MT (Mature Teen) reports show all web addresses and searches rated Mature Teen and above.
• M (Mature) reports show all web addresses and searches rated Mature and above.
• HM (Highly Mature) reports show all web addresses and searches rated Highly Mature.

Their filtering feature is currently in beta form. "Like training wheels on their bike, eventually they learn to use the internet safely without it." They are developing tunnel monitoring for filtering through apps on the phone.

We set up Covenant Eyes on my phone, our shared iPad, and one family computer. Setup has options of either accessing it through an app (our choice on Apple products) or requiring specific users to log in through the program to access the internet by disabling all other options. Our family also uses Apple TV, and we did not include it in the program as our setup consultant shared filtering could possibly be too restricted and completely block it. On the computer, a password (chosen during setup) is entered by each user, and sensitivity levels can vary by user.

Once setup, a weekly summary is sent to admin emails. If there are concerns, contact can be more frequent. You may also adjust the frequency of email notifications as well as the sensitivity setting for each user. Accessing the internet through their channels seemed to slow down our internet which was an inconvenience at times when it was already slow.

Covenant Eyes is available on a month to month basis, and can be set up as an individual or as a family account. 

-Product review by Jennifer Miller, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, November, 2016