1
2
In reply to HiTempguy:
Well... I have 2 boys... and it does occur to me that boys looking for pictures of nekkid girls their own age could get the guy on the billing slip into quite a bucket of hot water. Even the fear of death my own children have of embarrassing their mother in the newspaper... won't stop one of their friends from googling "german schizer films".
I put the computer in the family room and only allow it on by permission now... but a little software help is on the roadmap.
I've been able to do a pretty good job of monitoring just by checking the history files and cookies. If Dad doesn't let them know how he found out they found nekkid chix, they will continue to think I have superpowers. When I start seeing missing time from the history files, I'll know they're really starting to grow up.
So far, I've busted my older son once with no repeat offenses...yet.
^^ That one sure looks canoeish. Don't click the link.
Grtechguy wrote:Free filtering: opendns.org nothing is installed on the computer/networked device and logs can be checked from work.
Yup this.
And if you can set it up in your router instead of on the computer, and then password protect your router, it will be fairly difficult to bypass unless your kids are really determined.
But if they don't know how you're on to them, it will take them a while to figure out.
berkeley, Double Zombie.
Pull the plug?
With a daughter I would be less worried about her downloading naughty stuff but more worried her uploading naughty stuff. The problem is that any bad uploads would likely go to an email or video chat service which might be harder to identify as a "bad" site.
I am dreading having a teenager in the house.
You could also pick up a firewall. Do a search on ebay for a Juniper Netscreen 5GT. They are super affordable, I just picked one up this weekend for $40.
Warning: I am the employee of a company that makes home and business routers.
Check your router manufacturer website. I know my company has a free download to give parents some fairly granular control of where their kids can go on the internet.
Not quite sure if something like that is possible at home but I would love to know too. It could come in handy.
But, at work we have this internet usage monitoring that aside from tracking each employees' work hours, it also monitors the web sites visited and reports an overview of the computer usage.
The main difference is that each employee knows about it but it could be a good alternative.
Choke points, router, servers... hasn't anybody heard of a mobile hot spot?
I've come full circle on my approach to parenting my kids on the internet. I used to think that it was my job to protect them from bad stuff- to shelter them. Now I recognize that no matter what I do, many of their friends will be significantly more computer savvy then I will EVER be, and they will have countless methods of connecting surrounding them for their entire lives.
I now see my role differently. Whether I like it or not, my children WILL be exposed to bad stuff. There will be pop-ups, or bad links, or friends saying, "Look at this". It's not my job to shelter them. It's my job to prepare them.
I want to train my kids to know how to respond when they encounter those things.
I'm not making a case AGAINST having a filter- it's a good idea. But there is a much deeper and more significant issue that our children need to be prepared for.
Is it possible in OpenDNS to get the exact pages visited, all I can seem to find is what domains were hit?
We have a foster teenage boy in the house now so while we are attempting to prepare him he hasn't had the greatest start so we feel some monitoring is necessary - and yes he is aware that we are doing it (just not how).
