Parental Control Software

[Stuart]

I am fairly certain that some 60% of the replies in this thread will be largely useless and spam-leaning, but I'll take my chances. I am looking for two very specific types of software. The first should be simple enough, the second I'm not sure about. So, here we go ...

1. I am looking for some decent, easy-to-use parental control software. Just for blocking pornographic sites and stuff. I'm not necessarily looking for freeware, but if there are any freeware options it would be nice to know about.

2. I am further looking for some networking software that will inform a second computer of the websites visited by the first computer, if such a creature exists. We want these packages to run on the same PC, as a double preventative measure. So the parental control should theoretically block attempts to visit the aforementioned sites, but should the user find a way around the software, we want a report of it. So essentially just something that sends a report of all the websites visited by Computer A to Computer B.

I don't have much experience with such types of software, so I was kinda hoping that someone here WOULD have experience, or would be able to point me in the right direction.

[Anakha56]

Built in function with Vista

That should keep you relatively safe...

[Stuart]

Yeah, but the PC in question is running XP.

(I should perhaps add that this is not for your local Vista fanboi himself, but for someone else he knows.)

[Monty]

Parent control for Firefox::

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Parental_controls

http://mozillalinks.org/wp/2007/02/an-a ... r-firefox/

http://mozillalinks.org/wp/2007/06/stro ... h-glubble/

[Anakha56]

http://www.snapfiles.com/freeware/misct ... ilter.html

Go through those tools there then

[Stuart]

Alright, just read your link Anakha, and it looks, unless I am missing something, that it'll work in XP too, so long as you have a fairly recent version of IE installed. Which is great ... except that bypassing the check is as simple as installing Firefox, Opera or any other browser.

Also, I'd still like to find out about sending a report to another PC. Thanks for the tip though, I'll be sure to implement it as an extra measure.

[Anakha56]

damn dude you make this harder and harder (pun not intended)...

Will start searching again...

[Monty]

http://www.crawlerparental.com/


This looks pretty good and works across the board afaics


Click here for its features

[Anakha56]

How about this?

Worried about unwanted porn in the home or workplace? ScrubIT promises to block that stuff (and more) at the server level.

All you do is configure your router to use ScrubIT's DNS servers. Alternately, Windows 2000/XP users can download a utility that tweaks the networking settings accordingly. When you're done, any porn-ridden or potentially malicious sites, whether visited intentionally or accidentally, will be blocked.

A couple caveats. First, you have no control over what sites ScrubIT blocks (unless you sign up for the beta program, which is the basis for a future paid version of the service). Second, there's no uninstaller for the DNS utility, meaning once you've run it, your system will face "scrubbed" sites indefinitely. (I'm still working to extricate it from my PC; incredibly, the ScrubIT site offers no information on undoing the utility's changes.) I'm hoping this rather startling oversight will be corrected soon, as it's hard to recommend a service that won't go away if you want it to.

That said, this could be an ideal solution for parents concerned about their children's online activities and employers wishing to keep the workplace PCs pristine. ScrubIT offers simple, free, one-step protection from the web's seedy underbelly. — Rick Broida

[Stuart]

http://mozillalinks.org/wp/2007/06/stro ... h-glubble/

Wow ... this Glubble looks like a pretty handy little app! I must just check out whether the person in question uses IE or Firefox.

I'm just a little worried that browser-specific solutions can easily be circumvented by installing and using another browser. Ideally, a cross-browser solution would work best.

[Monty]

http://www1.k9webprotection.com/index.php


This one also looks pretty good and offers a multi browser solution

[Stuart]

http://www.crawlerparental.com/


This looks pretty good and works across the board afaics


Click here for its features

Yeah, this looks pretty decent. I think I'll install it on my computer and give it a run through, see how it works.

[Stuart]

http://www1.k9webprotection.com/index.php


This one also looks pretty good and offers a multi browser solution

I really like the category based block option of this one. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to allow emailing of the detailed reports ... unless this is an unmentioned feature. I think I'll try to email these people and ask if this is possible.

[hamin_aus]

I am fairly certain that some 60% of the replies in this thread will be largely useless and spam-leaning

Let me be the first:

You can install monitoring software and filtering tools to your hearts content.
A 12 year old with some common sense and a rudimentary knowledge of how PC's work can get around this.
When those kids decide it porn time - it's porn time, baby. Yeah!

[Monty]

It allows you to view reports... Not sure about emailing them to another PC

clicky clicky

[Monty]

I am fairly certain that some 60% of the replies in this thread will be largely useless and spam-leaning

Let me be the first:

You can install monitoring software and filtering tools to your hearts content.
A 12 year old with some common sense and a rudimentary knowledge of how PC's work can get around this.
When those kids decide it porn time - it's porn time, baby. Yeah!

I'll be second!! Easiest way to stop porn is stop internet access

[Stuart]

I am fairly certain that some 60% of the replies in this thread will be largely useless and spam-leaning

Let me be the first:

You can install monitoring software and filtering tools to your hearts content.
A 12 year old with some common sense and a rudimentary knowledge of how PC's work can get around this.
When those kids decide it porn time - it's porn time, baby. Yeah!

Yeah, true. But SOME preventative measure is at least better than NONE, surely.

[Stuart]

I'll be second!! Easiest way to stop porn is stop internet access

Well, I can't go into all the details here (doctor-patient confidentiality ... you know the spiel ) but suffice it to say that this is not as simple a matter as blocking porn sites for salivating teenage sons. It's a little more complicated than that ... for various reasons.

[hamin_aus]

SOME preventative measure is at least better than NONE, surely.

If I were a parent - LOL! Unlikely tho that may be, this is what I'd do:

Put a family PC a public area of the house. Make sure the kids understood no browsing when there are no adults at home. Give them a standard or limited user account to browse with. Checking event logs now and again will tell you if they have been logging in on the sly.
Some web logging/caching software is a good idea too. Not to prevent, but to catch them if they do.
Tell them you know what sites they visit and promise them all manner of punishments should they visit anywhere funny.
Then trust them to do the right thing.... And by that I mean wait until curiosity overcomes them and they go out and look at porn. it will happen eventually - kids are kids.
When it does, commence moering.

[Nuke]

What jamin said.

Only thing that software do is to give you a false sence of security. For people like me, trying to block me out is like daring me to bypass your restictions. And so far I'm proud to say I always came out victorious every time so far


Just tell them that you trust tht they will not browse wierd stuff, and that you will be very disapointed if they do.

The only way to make it almost impossible, is to deny everything exept a few things. eg. allowing http to absa, pcformat, etc,etc.

[Stuart]

So what you're telling me is that you'd tell kids not do do it and then actually trust them to obey you? LOL!

I am fairly certain that this particular person won't be able to, in his current state of computer knowledge, bypass any sort of protection. It's always possible, I understand that, but we're really hoping that the sending of activity logs to another person will help a little.

Anyway, I have some suggestions to play with, so thanks for all the help.

[Nuke]

Your best bet is a proxy server sitting just behind your internet connection. You can use Sarg to look at the logs of what was visited for that day etc.

It will also speed up your internet by miles if you use the same pc as a dns server. Even an old p2 with 2 network cards will work for home use, I used a p3 1000 with 1GB ram for 500+ people. It ran Ubuntu server.

IF you want to try that I can help with most of te configs. I just never used it to do content filtering.

[Stuart]

Problem is, I really want the event logs to be emailed to someone else. As I said, this is not as simple as parents trying to stop teenage sons from lurking around porn sites. I really need the logs to be emailed to someone not even in the same household.

[Nuke]

Its linux. You can make it to whatever you like. Emailing a html file daily is easy.

Squid creates log -> is read at 11h55 by Sarg and published to a html file ->html is emailed at 1am via nail/mailx to somebody.

[jcd]

Naomi

My dad used this to try and stop nasty stuff from being viewed. I must admit, trying to crack that password was fun. But eventually I figured it out. Then he changed it and forgot the password. So he challenged me to get that filter off. reward was a new game. I found that ending naomf.exe's process tree does the trick.

But for someone that has basic knowledge of pcs, I would recommend this. It doesnt have a list of pages it restricts. It scans the page and if it finds anything with sexual, nude, violent bla bla bla connotation it closes the browser.

EDiT: I go with Jamin, I can see this guy knows kids