For a number of years Circle Home Plus has been Knights’ Quest Ministries’ #1 recommendation for parents due to it’s features, simplicity, and price. Not only were phones and tablets filterable, but EVERYTHING in the home that used the Web was filtered at the network level. And the price was not bad at all! As with all things, there have been some major changes so I have published this important update for Circle Home Plus!
Circle Has Been Sold
Internet security firm, AURA, acquired CIRCLE, the company. Aura has it’s own parental control app. So, I thought I should post an important status update for Circle Home Plus users!
This purchase of CIRCLE has brought about some changes:
- The Circle Home Plus production has stopped.
- The Circle app remains available. It is still recommended for phones & tablets.
- Aura may offer a hardware solution in the future but the details are not available. The Aura App can be used along side the Circle Home Plus hardware with no problem.
Options
So, where does that leave parents who are using Circle Home Plus, or who wish to use Circle Home Plus?
- Your Circle hardware and software will continue to function. I do not know if that will change in the future.
- Circle Home Plus is still available for purchase from eBay. There are both new and used units available as of 7/14/2023. If you get a used/refurbished unit make sure you reset it to factory conditions. Used units, obviously, will not have the 3-months or 1-year of the Premium Services included.
- BARK HOME is a relatively inexpensive alternative to CIRCLE HOME PLUS. The main thing is that the Bark unit does not have internal batteries nor does it have WIFI. These are useful to counter children just unplugging the power or network cords to disable the parental controls. This product is also in testing.
- There are a number of routers that have Parental Controls included. Knights’ Quest is testing the Gryphon Tower router, their mid-range device, and will publish reviews in the very near future. If you need such a device now, our recommendation is to use one of the GRYPHON GUARDIAN routers. These come with an app as well as the hardware parental controls system built into the router, itself.
I am also investigating the offerings by Aura, and monitoring for new developments.
In the meantime, I have scheduled Back-Too-School presentations of THE TECH-SAFE HOMEⓇ Webinar. You can find the schedule and register on the WEBINARS page of my web site: www.knightsquest.org.
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