Internet Version of Parental Control

Sassy

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Has anyone had any luck with any internet version of parental control? Other than parents themselves, I don't know of any.

Some friends and I were discussing this subject, and none of us knew of any.
 

Pendlum

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Schools block sites and connections through firewalls and router tricks. They use firewalls specifically designed for 'parental control', similar to OpenDNS. These can be susceptible to tunneling sites and proxies. But that is usually where the other router tricks come in. Blocking ports, using ip tables, etc. Make sure you have a strong password on your router so your kid just doesn't guess/figure it out and change things. OpenDNS is a very good option though, so it is worth checking out.
 

ManlyBanisters

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I find the only way to be total sure what your child is seeing online is to be sitting beside your child. I will never completely trust software to protect my offspring from what's out there.

If your child just wants to look at one specific site (online game, whatever) you can create an account for your child and only allow that one site* - i.e. the default is everything blocked and then you allow one domain. That doesn't work if your child needs to research a school project.

* Of course you have to spend some time on the site first yourself - to see what the hell it is - especially if it is an interactive game. If it is I recommend not leaving the child alone to play it. You just never know.

The internet is not a safe place for children - you should no more let them wander round it unaccompanied than you would let them wander round Amsterdam at night unaccompanied.
 
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Sassy

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I find the only way to be total sure what your child is seeing online is to be sitting beside your child. I will never completely trust software to protect my offspring from what's out there.

If your child just wants to look at one specific site (online game, whatever) you can create an account for your child and only allow that one site* - i.e. the default is everything blocked and then you allow one domain. That doesn't work if your child needs to research a school project.

* Of course you have to spend some time on the site first yourself - to see what the hell it is - especially if it is an interactive game. If it is I recommend not leaving the child alone to play it. You just never know.

The internet is not a safe place for children - you should no more let them wander round it unaccompanied than you would let them wander round Amsterdam at night unaccompanied.

Agreed! I was hoping to be able to designate just some sites as acceptable, though, I could, I suppose, make those particular sites available off-line only while he's doing research on a particular, topic (for instance). Interactive sites, however, can't be done off-line.

I'm much more of a cautious parent than the dad, who thought the original Karate Kid was ok for a 7 year-old. He shut it off in a hurry when the characters talked about being "hot" for a girl (not something we want our impressionable son to get in trouble for saying at school - of course, he'd get in trouble at home for saying it, too!) and "kicking ass." I guess his memory's been sanitized over the years.:rolleyes: