Advanced parental controls and other online safety features in MSN® 8 have won high marks from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and Internet Mom Robin Raskin. MSN 8, which launches Oct. 24 in the United States, offers parental controls that will allow parents to place customized restrictions on where their kids surf on the Web and whom they interact with via e-mail and instant messaging. The newest version of MSN also provides online activities appropriate for different ages of kids and allows parents to monitor their children's online activity. In addition, MSN 8 helps protect the family PC with e-mail virus protection.

Although Internet safety is a primary concern for parents, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) has found that two-thirds of families don't have filtering or blocking software. To help rectify this, NCMEC has launched NetSmartz, an online safety education campaign designed to give parents guidelines to help keep kids safe online. The organization also recommends the enhanced online safety tools from MSN 8 as an important instrument for parents to help protect their kids online.