- Monday, August 10th, 2009
- Written By Guest Author
- Categories: Accountability Software, Lust - Fighting the Battle, Member Testimonies, Pornography Addiction Back to Blog Home
Comparing X3watch and Covenant Eyes
This is a copy of an e-mail we received from our friend, Michael Leahy, author of Porn Nation.
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After spending 20+ years in the technology industry working for several software and web-based solutions companies, I’ve always been skeptical of free software. Especially when it’s coming from groups who aren’t really in the software business. That’s why it was an easy decision for me to start using Covenant Eyes way back around the ministry started—which just happened to be when I was starting my recovery from a devastating sexual addiction that cost me my 15 year marriage, my family of 2 boys, a business partnership, and most importantly, my closeness to God.
I can honestly say, next to my now fully surrendered walk with God, Covenant Eyes has easily been the #1 success factor for me and my now 11 year long recovery. It is by far the simplest, most effective, most fool-proof recovery tool out there, both for me and my accountability partners. (I have four accountability partners because of the intense spiritual warfare I face due to the nature of my work as a public figure and spokesperson for the 18-24 million Americans who struggle with sexual addiction.)
I could go on and on about all the times Covenant Eyes saved my butt. But let me get back to the point.
I never did try out X3watch, and after having so much success with Covenant Eyes, I never felt like I needed to (c’mon, under $10 a month for my LIFE . . . I just auto-pay the bills and don’t even pay attention to them). But a close friend of mine signed up for X3watch and asked me to be his accountability partner. So of course I agreed to help. That is, until I started getting his X3 accountability reports. They were AWFUL. I mean, not just bad or hard to read, but ridiculous. I struggled to interpret his reports: the info is so cryptic. (And no, I don’t want to go see those sites and their content and put my own recovery and ministry in jeopardy.) After a month of this, I finally told him that if he wasn’t willing over to switch to Covenant Eyes, I really needed him to remove me as his accountability partner.
Which brings me to what I think should be the #1 reason why people out there like me should bag their free X3 software, bite the bullet, and start using CE. Covenant Eyes accountability software was written by and is supported by a real live software company, not a porn ministry/church. For instance, I love my pastor Andy Stanley at North Point Community Church, but I’d never expect them to venture into the software business. And if they did, I certainly wouldn’t buy their product.
I’ve spent a lifelong career working for software companies, and I have to say, I wasn’t expecting a lot from Covenant Eyes when I first installed the software. I’m not only skeptical of free software, but very inexpensive software as well (like CE). But I’ve sat back and watched Covenant Eyes over the years continue to grow and innovate and develop your product into what is and always has been an outstanding software application. The best software out there always looks like the simplest, most transparent and easiest to use software. But as you well know, that doesn’t necessarily make it easy to continue supporting and developing. That takes a lot of talent and money and a real passion to please your customers. Covenant Eyes has earned a 10 out of 10 in my book for customer satisfaction, and I would never refer someone who needs Internet accountability to use anything else, even if it’s free.
Thank you, Covenant Eyes, for years of great work. Thank you for caring about guys like me who are trying to undo decades of the damage done by consuming porn.
And to all those people trying to justify compromising the quality of their recovery by considering or continuing to use sub-standard products like X3watch, you really don’t know what you’re missing. It breaks my heart to read about guys who are struggling trying to use their product, and as a result are questioning whether or not Internet accountability can really help them.
Coming from a guy who spent over half his life as a huge fan and consumer of porn, and who spent his entire career in the software industry, and who knows every way possible to circumvent filters and blockers – IT CAN WORK, AND IT DOES WORK – WITH Covenant Eyes.
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Michael is the author of Porn Nation, Porn University, and Porn@Work. He is also the founder and Executive Director of Bravehearts, an international social justice organization fighting to end global sexual exploitation. Michael has traveled the world telling the story of his past sex addiction, including hundreds of college campuses on his tour, “Porn Nation: The Naked Truth.”
I definitely understand where he’s coming from, but I know from personal experience the affectiveness of X3 Watch. I have close Christian men in my life for accountability purposes, but my wife gets my X3 Watch reports. I don’t watch porn anymore, and haven’t for over a year now, but if I did and she got the report, I wouldn’t be worried about her seing the names of the sites and whatnot because she doesn’t struggle with porn, ya know?
I think it depends on a person’s personal preference and their own personal committment. Let’s face it, if you have a moment of weakness and you decide that you’re going to fall into sin, or dive rather, NOTHING will stop you. If you’ve made up your mind you’re going to sin, then that’s what you’re going to do. Porn is so readily available through cable tv, netflix (“technically” doesn’t rent porn, but some of their selections are pretty close, and can serve the same purpose as porn so they might as well be), and video shops and whatnot that a perosn who wants to sin will find a way to sin. I made up my mind a long time ago that I will NEVER go back to that lifestyle and I stick to it.
There are levels of accountability in my life, but ultimately I answer to God. I have a Netflix account via Xbox live and I have digital cable (no premium channels). If I decided that I wanted to watch porn, I could without ever touching the internet, but I CHOOSE not to. I had a revelation a long time ago about what the filth was doing to me – how it affected my relationship with God and my relationship with my wife, and I decided I never wanted to go back to that place. That’s been more than enough to keep me on the right path. But, that approach may not work for everyone, so to each his own.
There is a HUGE difference between X3Watch and Covenant Eyes! We will never go back, it’s way worth the $10/month to be free of this horrible and painful problem. We had X3Watch for a long time and there were many, many times I didn’t receive my husband’s reports at all. He was also able to go in on the computer, disable the software and change my email address on the report sender so that I wouldn’t get a report that week and see what he had been doing on the computer. It took me a long time and a great deal of suspicion and distrust before I discovered what he had been doing and how he’d been getting it by me. With Covenant Eyes I have all the control and every single week I receive a very clear and easy-to-read report. We also now have our computer password protected, I am the only one who knows the password and no one is allowed on the computer without another ADULT in the room. This is an extra precaution our family has taken and we highly recommend. CE over X3 Watch… hands down!! Not that we don’t love and support the other ministries that Triple X does, but when it comes to filtering and accountability software… there is no question for us! BTW the filtering is awesome! We can’t get on anything that is not appropriate, love it!! Coming from a wife and mother of 2 boys.
I agree with my brother above.
It shameful that someone who has obviously struggled with something such as online porn, but who is free thanks to accountability software feels that they have to lay into another organisation which is also trying its best to help others in their own fight against this addiction.
It is clear to see that there is an agenda as this appears on a blog located on the covenanteyes.com website.
We do not all live in the US, it is impossible to sign up for Covenant Eyes unless one lives in, or has lived in the US and has a US credit card, address and phone number – at least it was when I initially tried to sign up for it.
I ended up signing up for, and being helped by XXXWatch – it is installed on all the three computers I use, and it works – I know that if I uninstall it, or try changing my accountability partners email address, he will know about it.
@Ian – I hear you on that. I don’t think Michael is questioning XXXchurch’s motives. Far from it. He questions whether someone should create and promote a software that is wrought with the kind of problems X3 has. I’m sure X3 has helped quite a few people, 10s of 1000s more than likely. I for one am happy any time I hear about how X3 has helped someone.
Hello to all, I’m willing to use ANY program that will make it so that I don’t go wandering alone. Right now CE doesn’t have a program for my Android Incredible, and it doesn’t look like it will out soon. I think this OS took off faster than expected so I can understand the lag. If 3Xwatch makes it possible for me to have the help of another, I’m going to use it for now.
May God bring the right person along side of me!!
Just received an e-mail saying that Covenant Eyes monthly charge will be increasing–with no mention of developing an app for Android phones. Therefore, I’m going to switch over to x3watch on both my PC and Android phone–and I’ll be glad to donate money so they can continue to improve their product and ministry.
@Kyle – Thanks for your time with us. I hope you find the accountability services you are looking for with X3watch.
i have x3watch on any of the computers that my kids use at our home more for preventative and instructional purposes. i agree that the reports are not easy to read. i end up having to click on some of them just to know what it is. it has allowed for discussions on which music videos are appropriate (no more katy perry) and very fortunately, no porn has been reported. it is also very nice that there is an app for the ipod touch. i just installed that one and we will see how it works. i appreciate a free app that works for our situation (actually, it cost me 99 cents to download). if the situation was different, such as recovery from porn addiction, i agree that $10 a month is nothing to really consider if it is so much more helpful.
I found the article really interesting and very hard hitting. Recently I have had relatively good success with K9 Web defender, which has a choice of downloading a free home package, or for a few quid, the business version. All you need is to fill your details, and request a licence (which you’d get by email) then download the program. Unfortunately, I had attempted to download an update, as with all human made things nothing is secure. I was finding images still getting through. This download screwed up my internet, and so I had to get in touch with K9 support (hat’s off to them they are very good at what they do, and very good at email response) who helped me uninstall the block (as you need an admin password to prevent it being deleted). This was because my accountability partner at the time lost all the details! Doh! But, compared to X3 watch, K9 is superior if you know what you are doing, and have a very good community ethos (look at their mission statement).
In terms of looking for a better program, I am going to look into getting covenant eyes, because this will help me address even more the attitude of my heart when temptation comes a knocking. By the way, the best ever reminder for me (thanks be to GOD!) is that he has blessed me with a beautiful fiancee who loves me and cherishes me…. so how dare I hurt her or share my water with the internet prostitute (Proverbs 2). An encoragement to all the guys (and women also) who deal with this issue – hang in their – your doing great actually acknowledging this as a potential problem. Much respect goes out to you if this is you. God bless
Just wondering what to do about the Netflix movies. Covenant Eyes does report them, but does not give the names of the movies. There are hundreds of erotica movies available, most are foreign, (unrated) ect…that can be accessed on Netflix. My husband watches every night when I am sleeping, but the reports only show that he has accessed Netflix which is rated E for everyone. The “detailed browsing logs” give a URL every few seconds in fifteen minute increments, but after clicking on the URL to see what is being watched, authorization is denied.
We do not have it in filter mode, only accountability because I do not want to stop my husband from going where ever he wants…plus he does not know that it is installed. I hid it from him, just the way he hides his browsing in “private mode” from me.
@Unearthed – Thanks for asking about the Netflix titles. Here’s how we can best help you with this. On the accountability report, if you could, please find the web addresses you think should be rated higher and have titles attached to them. As you find them, click on the web address and another box will open which will allow you to submit a rating change request. This will go directly to our rating team and they can find the source of the problem for you. If you aren’t sure which one’s you should tag, I know one of our customer account reps can help you out. If you want any help, please e-mail me directly at luke.gilkerson@covenanteyes.com or call our team at 877.479.1119.
As far as your situation is concerned, it breaks my heart to read your words. We get comments and phone calls from so many women in your shoes, women who feel they can’t trust their husbands at all, especially in the area of pornography and sexual media. I encourage you to look around our blog and read some of the testimonies from our authors. You’ll also find links to ministries that might be a help to you, if that is what you are looking for.
@Unearthed – I wanted to add a couple of things.
I completely understand why you are using Covenant Eyes to check on your husband’s Internet whereabouts, but I highly encourage you to be honest with him about the need for open accountability and transparency in your home. He needs to be giving to you access to his Internet history voluntarily. When people engage in voluntary accountability, this is when they experience life changing relationships.
Covenant Eyes was not designed as a tool to spy on others but to be the starting place for honest conversations. In fact our User Agreement specifically says, “You, as the user, agree that all users of your computer and user ID will be informed that monitoring/recording is being made.” From your comment it sounds like this is not what your husband would want to do (which is very sad), but I encourage you to take whatever steps you need to take to establish that atmosphere of voluntary accountability.
I won’t pretend for a minute to understand your situation, but I have seen firsthand how a marriage can be radically changed when a husband and wife are willing to be open and honest with each other about their temptations, struggles, and frustrations. We have a lot of stories on our blog from men who have learned how to do that. Here are a few links your husband might find helpful (if he’s willing to look at them):
1. Husbands Who Watch Porn: A message of hope to wives – Video testimony from one couple
2. Confessing Lust to Your Wife: How Detailed Should You Be? – Video from a Christian counselor
3. Should my wife be my accountability partner? The experts give their answer – One of our podcasts
I used Covenant Eyes before and found a lot of loopholes to view what wouldn’t be normally considered porn, but there are a lot of sites with scantily clad women that won’t be reported. I will not go into any further detail for fear of causing someone else to stumble.
What I like about x3Watch is that you can’t instantly bring up your own accountability report to give you an idea about what you can get away with and what you can’t. You could put yourself as an accountability partner, but you would only see the reports every couple of weeks, not instantly.
If you get x3Watch, don’t be a cheapskate! Buy the pro version. From what I’ve seen it works good so far. Don’t expect lightning fast searches if you use the filters though. The will slow down your connection big time.
@Jonathan – Perhaps our new rating system will make the “loopholes” a little clearer. Our reports have always shown a full log of all activity, but now the new rating system allows for easier browsing. For instance, the “scantily clad” women would probably be found in the MT (Mature Teen) and M (Mature) levels.
I was wrong about the reports for x3Watch. You can see them instantly; I just wasn’t that familiar with the program.
Hello everyone. We just posted a video giving you a sneak peek of our Android app. We interviewed some of our developers and our VP of Technology to give you the most up to date answers. Enjoy!
I use both because the x3 app is much better for the iPhone than the covenant eyes app. My entire family (8 people) all use CE but now seeing that the marketing plan for CE is to make x3 look bad gives me a bad taste in my mouth about CE now. Let’s start acting like christians and not like politicians trying to make more money. Not a good idea CE. I will probably start recommending x3 watch instead of CE now because of this article.
@David – I’m sure Michael Leahy would love to read your comment about this. I’ll pass it along to him.