Suggestion About Our Panic Button
I recently received this email in my inbox from one of our Covenant Eyes members:
Hello,
My name is Brian and I have been using covenant eyes for about 3 years now. I have found the program to be invaluable for protecting my integrity online. It was so freeing to know that I was being held accountable. It worked so well for me that I started encouraging others in my life to use it. I currently am held accountable by and keep accountable 4 different guys.
From your last news letter you promoted your panic button. I think the panic button is a great idea. The suggestion I have is to create a way for a “super” accountability partner to have the ability to hit the panic button remotely. I personally would value and use a such a feature. I would want one of the trusted partners to be able to shut down my internet when the circumstances proved necessary. (determined by the “super” partner and user). It would provide an extra level of accountability and deterrent with out a filter. Which in my experiences are more head aches than help sometimes.
I have really appreciated the service you provide and am a big proponent of what your doing!
thank you - Brian
Any thoughts on this suggestion about the Panic Button from our readers? We want to hear your comments.
A remote panic button sounds interesting and may be a good idea. I am not sure how it would work in practice though. In what circumstances would the “super” partner use it? CE doesn’t offer real time accountability reports so how would the “super” partner know when to hit the switch? However, an idea I had a while back might go hand in hand with this idea. If there is a repeat of hits on highly scored pages in a short space of time (for example 5+ highly scored pages in a row, or in 2 or 3 minutes) the accountability partner gets sent an email notifying them of this. This could mean they could hit the panic button or at least phone you. Even better would be for the partner to be sent a text message to their mobile/cell phone. 3rd party services such as Twitter could be used for free by CE to send this message to a partner by SMS.
Woops, I meant to say something in my last comment, but forgot! I have to say I have never used the panic button myself, as it’s hidden away in the CE icon on the bottom right of my screen. I have to right click and then hit panic button. If I am tempted I never think of the panic button because it is quite out of the way. What I would like would be for a shortcut icon on my desktop to trigger the panic button. Better still a button on my browser (I use Firefox, but one could be made for IE and Safari).
Another problem that I have (and I expect for quite a few users outside the US- I live in the UK), is that if you do hit the panic button, you can’t reinstate it until the technical support lines open. If you live in a different time zone, this can be a bit of a pain. It’s a difficult one- as it’s better to not slipped up and have no internet connection than the other way round! It’s just difficult for me since I make my living from my computer.
I think the panic button is way overdue (not to suggest that it should have been there before, but only that it could have been of great value). For the individual to be able to monitor themselves and shut it down as well as a super partner to be able to do it is a nice combination. Thanks
I think the remote panic button would be useful in some circumstances. But Like was mentioned in an above post I don’t see how a super partener would be able to know when there is a mess up happening. If there were a way for him to be alerted, and then have the option to shut off internet access for you and give you a call, that would be great!!