UKC

Do any of you use parental controls on your children's computers? I'm considering giving my daughter a bit more access to the web and have set her up with her own account on an old laptop. I'm installing FoxFilter on firefox (this will block certain keywords and sites) and restricting access to the web during certain times (this is really only to stop her from staying online after bedtime). Her account will also be locked down so that she doesn't have admin rights. I think I can also tinker with the access controls on the BT Homehub but we've not long had it so I've not much opportunity to tinker with it.

I debated getting Net Nanny but wasn't sure whether this would be going a bit too far. I'd much rather take personal responsibility for how she browses the web and she's generally only online when she's in the same room as us. Although she'll occasionally watch iPlayer in her room.

Any other suggestions? This is all new ground for me, I work in IT but tend not to do much work in regards to web access.

In reply to Toby S:
Everything you've said sounds reasonable without being too controlling.
If you haven't done already, talk to her about what you expect of her to view and what you don't. Show her that you trust her judgement.
How old is she?

In reply to Toby S:

I would suggest restricting the ability to download files as a different browser could be downloaded and used to bypass some of your security measures.

In reply to DreadyCraig:

She's 9 and reasonably IT savvy, we've had a wee chat about it and she seems to be quite sensible about things. Thankfully she's not shown much interest in Facebook/MySpace etc.

In reply to Toby S: I find controls often screw up- and most kids can bypass them anyway.
How would you feel using software to monitor her access instead, so you can keep a manual check on her and protect her that way?

In reply to Toby S:

Register with OpenDNS, which can do filtering for you, as well as logging any requests that come from your router. No need to install anything on any of your computers then.

http://www.opendns.com/

Its free and you just replace your ISPs DNS servers with these.

In reply to Toby S:

I was talking about this with my chap the other day - his kids don't have laptops yet but it's only a matter of time. He said that whilst all the restricting software out there seems to do a great job, he's more concerned about sites like YouTube where you can be viewing something perfectly innocent and then, thanks to the 'viewers also watched' sidebar, within two or three clicks you can be somewhere entirely age-inappropriate. Anyone know how to get round that?

In reply to Toby S:
only issue with this, what if she uses firefox to download google chrome and uses that as a browser??

In reply to Toby S:

set up a web cam over her shoulder and wireless connect it into your own laptop so that you can watch her all day !!!!!!

or you can just check her history and recent files etc !!!!!!

or learn to trust that you have brought her up right

In reply to Removed User:


blinkers?

In reply to Removed User:

theres no real way of protecting that as a lot of them sites ask are you 18 the answer yes or no

In reply to Toby S: buy her one of those mini laptop that can do basically nothing ,,,, until you can trust her or ban her use of the computer if you are checking her history and find something you dont like

In reply to Toby S:
>. Thankfully she's not shown much interest in Facebook/MySpace etc.

Yeah - cos Facebook and Myspace are evil, wrong and bad.

I think the best filter is probably trust actually!

In reply to Removed User:

Agreed. God-daughter's little brother searches YouTube for all sorts of cartoons and sometimes what he puts in as an innocent search comes up with some very in-appropriate stuff.

Fortunately, he's ONLY interested in the cartoons of characters he knows and doesn't understand the rest (due to age/slight Autism).

Some YouTube stuff is restricted by age, but there's nothing to stop you entering what you like as your age and seeing it anyway.

In reply to bouldery bits: I may be being naive and irresposible here, but that's what we're relying on.

Being currently in a TV addict phase, my 12 year old daughter sees stuff on Casualty, EastEnders and Hollyoaks that's hardly Enid Blyton, I think she knows there's innappropriate stuff out there and doesn't particularly want to know more.

In reply to Toby S:

Sorry, if there are controls she will bypass them if she wants. Especially on a Windows machine. Nothing you can do can stop that. I can download a program in about 10 mins (or in your daughter's case, get a mate to download if you've blocked downloads) that will reset the admin password on a windows box.

If you really want install linux and really, really lock it down. I'd say you'll have probably a 90/10 chance of stopping her bypassing the controls.

Alternatively I'd suggest having a chat with her about what she should or should not be looking at, tell her you can check (whether you do or not) and transgressions will be punished with removal of the computer for a year, and then give her open-ish access.

In reply to Toby S: Keep the laptop in the living room then she will be less likely to look at inappropriate stuff and you can see what she is doing easily and talk to her about anything you see that concerns you. More importantly IMO is the lesson about not giving any information out.

In reply to markAut:

I think that's sound advice and would be my preferred way of doing things. I'll bung on a few filters and restrict her user account but that'll be about it I think. I mainly wanted to see if any of the other parent's had any comments. I'm not keen on FB and MySpace due to the amount of personal info you can put out there. I think its only responsible to be cautious (but without being draconian)

In reply to pizza:

You might want to read my original post first before abusing the exclamation marks.

In reply to Toby S:

I met a parent once (before the internet was quite so much a part of everyday life) who basically said to his teenage "son here's how you find porn, go have fun". After a rather intense couple of weeks the lad got generally bored of it all and went back to more innocent computer pursuits (killing large numbers of random animated strangers and so forth).

We've not quite gone this far with our kids. We have, though, tried to work on the principle that them developing their own media-use discipline - which they are going to need throughout life - is as important as protecting them from nastiness.

So we don't use internet filters (I did when they were under about eight), applied some sensible restrictions about when they use it (two or three days a week are no-computer days). All of the family have their own accounts on all computers and most computer use is where everyone can see it.

I'm not sure we have it right, and I'm interested by this thread, but our now-adult oldest son doesn't seem too deranged.

Paper-based media is quite another matter, however. Just how many vampire-based romantic fiction can the average 11 year old consume without it doing permanent and lasting damage.

In reply to Toby S:

If your children want to use FB, get their password so YOU can set the privacy as tight as you want. I know someone who did that with a handicapped child so they cannot put lots of stuff on for others to see.

If they alter it without asking block access to it for a week or so till they agree terms.

In reply to Rob Exile Ward:

I entirely agree - kids know what is and isn't acceptable!

In reply to Toby S: can't add much more to the sensible suggestions above, talking and maybe surfing together to places she's curious about & then discussing it migt work well.

and then tape her thumbs together and remove the 'x' 'k' and 'o' keys from the keyboard