Safaricom Home Fibre was launched more than two years ago. Its popularity has grown expeditiously, although it is not without controversy that has never really been settled to date. Nonetheless, Home Fibre’s growth has been marked the introduction of new features such as the Plus option that added voice minutes for an extra, and an insurance option that went live in Q4 2018.
The carrier has quietly introduced security feature for the product that includes parental controls and basic security tools. Dubbed Secure Net, the service is available for free in the first 30 days. Afterward, customers can choose to pay an extra KES 200 to be protected, and manage how their children use Home Fibre without accessing harmful or dangerous content because, let’s face it, children are impressionable and the internet is not a good place for people who do not what it entails and how to use it.
Set up
Setting up the service is very easy. Dial *400# from your device (and from the SIM card linked to your Home Fibre account, obviously). Then choose option 5 and follow the commands.
You will receive an SMS with a username (your account number) and a newly generated password. Afterward, use the credentials to log into the Secure Net platform from your PC.
The site will prompt you to change the password to something you can remember. It also queries for an email address. Save and that is it.
Features
Safaricom Secure Net is packed with very useful tools, most of which will appeal to parents. Upon activation, three tools are activated: parental control, antiphishing and antivirus. These are straightforward features that most of us have interacted with before.
Now, account owners have an option to edit parental controls as they fit.
- They can block certain sites from their rogue kids. Some of these websites can be accessed at a time account holder see fit thanks to the inclusion of a scheduling tool.
- You can block browsing completely. At the same time, users can choose to enable safe search.
- Several categories of sites and search terms can be blocked too. These include pornography websites, social media sites, drugs, bomb-related stuff, spyware tools, violence-related content, alcohol and gambling sites, to mention a few.
- You can contribute or add unsafe websites to expand Secure Net’s options.
- Lastly, there is a Reporter option that serves as a dashboard to check parental control reports such as the most blocked categories and, antiphishing reports and antivirus activities.
Summary
For KES 200 a month after the trial month, Secure Net is an invaluable tool that we have not seen from other internet service providers in the country. It will unquestionably appeal to a lot of parents (if Safaricom does a good job at passing its offerings to them), primarily because of what it brings to the table.
