Filtering software

[Waeloga]

Anybody have any web content filtering type software to recommend?
I have never used one but one my my cousins is getting a PC and her parents want to keep her away from "bad" sites.

I told them the best way to monitor access was to put the computer in the living room and not tell the kid the password... But they would rather not bother with that. *shrug*

Anybody have any experience with it?
They have no problem paying for something as long as it's good.

[Hoofhurr]

Seems like it would be easier to allow certain sites than disallow all the bad ones heh.

[Snowreap]

Net Nanny is supposed to be good. I've never used it myself.

as a computing professional, I can't consider anything locally installed as being secure. the only way to truly control internet access (i.e. to make it tamper-proof) is to physically secure the gateway and modem in a locked room.

-ken

[Vanraw]

My kids are grown up now, but I shared their concern. Here's the deal. Tell them that restricting the PC is a failed plan form the start. They should take a ?trust but verify" approach. Programs like Netnanny work to a point, but they also limit the valid sites in error. Also allot of these programs depend on web site operators to play by self governing rules. For instance, many porn sites set flags that these programs screen for, but the ones that do this are not the guys they should be worried about.

The real danger to kids right now is online scum bag predators. These guys dont hang out at porn sites, they hang out at myspace sites and aol IM and act like 13 year old kids. Theres also new "cyber bulling" stuff going on.

So they should take to approach I did.

1. Talk to your kids and tell them to never EVER put their personnel info out on public forums. Name, town city, age, school, etc.

2. Tell kids to never ever meet someone in person you met online, unless your parents are with you and approve.

3. Set the rules. Tell them what they can and cant do. Tell them to NOT answer yes, whent hat pop says, Are yoiu sure you want to run this executable?"

4. Tell them that if they go to a place on the web that was disturbing, they should close the browser and talk to their parents about it. Its not their fault if they accidentally went somewhere. Talk about it, its ok.

4. TRUST BUT VERIFY. They should monitor to the browsers history, cookies etc. Spectorsoft is a very cool program that runs in stealth mode and can track every key stroke, every IM every web page on the PC. It can even email daily reports in stealth, so you can track whats up.

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I've used it and it works very well and is not very resource intensive.

[Vllad]

I had to take another approach Maull after I took the same approach you did for my daughter. I still ran into problems so I had to totally elimate web access from any computer but my own for a while.

No matter how many procautions you take their are just to many around them for your kids.

Well all accept one. No internet access at all.

Granted it wasn't a popular decision as you could imagine but it isn't like it is a neccessary tool for children.


Vllad

[GreenTurnip]

Just think of how hard this is for parent's that don't know shit about computers... we have a distinct advantage with our knowledge about games and the internet.

We know what the ratings mean... and we know the pitfalls of the internet. Some folks just don't have a clue. I truly feel bad for them. Well... not that bad...

-turnip

[Diggles]

I forget the name of the one that I demo'ed that recorded all sites visited, keylogged IM sessions, took screenshots & 15second video at regular intervals, etc. It was pretty hardcore, and the parent pussed out.

Something like 'Family Cyber [insert generic technology name here]'