Asking on behalf of a family member. Anyone use anything that does a decent job?

You know the sort of thing - children needing to use the internet for school, as well as generally, and the parents can't always be watching their every keystroke...

Cheers,

Steve

I use Mcafee Parental Controls - seems to do the job, can be a little heavy handed but it's always better to be safe.

I recently installed the F-Secure variety and it trashed my computer, blocking all internet access, refusing to be un-installed and eventually it stopped explorer starting up so I needed a complete rebuild...I can't recommend it!

WebWatcher Parental Control Software, Computer Monitoring and Protection for Children Online. I use it and it is awesome. from what I hear, they are coming out with a new blocking list next week too.

Thanks guys - I'll investigate those two.

Steve

iProtect is fairly good, although it does take a little configuring as you can select which programs have internet access - so you can block the kids from using messenger if you want.

Parental Control and Internet Filtering Software

There are different chains of thought on this, especially depending on the age of the children. Here, in no particular order:

"You/your" means "one generally" BTW:

-- Your own security settings and protection should cut access to most inappropriate sites. This because such sites often carry trojan software or are a perfect backdoor for viruses etc. So they are really not sites to be visited if you keep any personal information on your computer (e.g. you make purchases with credit cards, Net banking etc).

-- The point is that even adults can arrive at unintended sites (e.g. by typing .com instead of .co.UK for example - the hackers have sussed all these; also typical accidental mistypes - i.e. hackers will have commandeered all typical mistake sites).

-- A good deterrent is to explain this to children. If visiting such sites "blows" the computer, then we ain't got no computer. As they value their computer access, this is not a threat, it's a likely reality to be avoided. (I guess they know they'll be in trouble also...)

If they access them from their friends houses, then I guess it's up to their parents - but, heck, they'll see them soon or later.

-- If you specifically block all the "naughty words in the dictionary", they will get their hands on them another way at the first opportunity anyway (hopefully not on your computer though). Depending on the age of the child, it can be better to leave the option open (within the existing adulty security settings) to avoid the "What am I missing?" syndrome. Most adult settings will allow "risque" but not "porn", though I doubt many kids would want to see that anyway.

-- I personally installed some keylogging software (cost $30) when I got a new computer

a few years back. It didn't prevent access but showed what I'd done since Helplines always ask "What did you do?" Edit: Keyloggers themselves represent a vulnerability since data is stored on your computer. Mine can be switched on or off, depending on what I want to record.)

It shows all sites visited etc, so if there is a great concern about sites being visited, something like that could be used. It does constitute spying though, which I think is fine when they are younger as the intention is to work out why the computer has crashed. children tend to click on anything willy nilly on URL's shown on younger message boards

-- Most schools have their own security, so I wouldn't have thought that was a problem.

-- Laptops shouldn't be a problem since if they blow their £-expensive laptop, they ain't likely to get another one bought for them. I don't have a laptop, but I assume you can install protection software or set the same adult protection levels, hosts etc?

An alternative might be to have a network where yours is adult (passworded) and theirs is set to lowest level?

Sorry for the long post. I understand the concerns both of parents for their children and for the safety of their own computer. As you are a "go-between", the above is a bit of a mouthful so I hope you glean something helpful from it.

Best regards

Mo

education. since kids these days will laugh at any "control" software and simply disable it. don't bait/taunt them