How To Configure Real PC Parental Controls? 618
Orange Crush writes "As the resident computer geek in an office full of accountants, my boss recently asked me how she could reasonably keep her teenage son from using the family computer to 'access inappropriate sites.' I of course responded 'Give up now. There's nothing in this world that can keep a determined teenager from acquiring porn.' Sadly, she was dissatisfied with this answer. I mentioned that there was in fact software available for this purpose, but that all of it was trivially easy to bypass for a clever young mind. I really can't think of another answer. She could password protect the BIOS to prevent booting a different OS, but that's easily defeated with a screwdriver at most. The only solutions I can think of involve upstream firewalls/proxies/etc to which I gleefully redirected her to her ISPs tech support number. As much as I disagree with her reasoning — and ignoring the obvious 'go to a friend's house' loophole — is there really any other way (on a home budget) to netnanny a household computer?"
K9 Web Protection (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.k9webprotection.com/ [k9webprotection.com]
It's free and it's not (too) easily defeated. Of course the usual applies (if physical access to the machine is available, all measures are null and void in the end), but it's something at least.
How about actually supervise your child (Score:5, Informative)
That way you can watch them.
God forbid you actually raise your own child.
"It's 10:00 do you know where your children are?"
Social Control (Score:2, Informative)
Can't look at porn when mum can walk bye at any moment.
BSAFEONLINE (Score:2, Informative)
To make matters worse, she hates the "damn machines" and doesn't know anything about them.
In comes bsafeonline http://http//bsafehome.com/ [http]
This products locks down damn near everything. You can customize almost everything, and its a bitch to bypass. Time restrictions are firm, co-ordinated to the bsafeonline clock, so changing the local time on the machine doesn't do anything.
As a service, if disabled it will force a reboot.
My mom (meaning I set it up) has it set up to e-mail her (my dad) anytime a rule is triggered.
Its a good product and very effective.
k9 windows filter (Score:2, Informative)
What's the problem being solved? (Score:5, Informative)
As a computer technician I'm sure you've encountered cases before where a user asks you, "How do I do thus-and-so?" when really they're looking to accomplish some goal only tangentially related to what they're asking. Maybe this is best treated as the same sort of problem.
What is the user actually trying to accomplish? Is she worried that her son will become some kind of sex fiend? It's too late -- to paraphrase a line from Buffy, even linoleum makes teenage boys think about sex. Is she concerned that he'll get bad ideas about sex from Internet porn? Maybe some sex education is needed: "Son, just so you know, real women don't like bukkake gang-bangs. They like hugs. And clitoral stimulation too, but hugs first." Does she just have moral or ethical objections to porn in general? Maybe she should be talking about her values with her son a little more.
No matter what the problem is, it's almost certainly a social and educational one, not a technical one. Deploying a technical solution is probably not the answer.
Re:logging firewall and TALKING (Score:1, Informative)
Also, if you're doing the router thing, it's also trivial to disallow SSH tunnels, and DNS requests would certainly be logged. I'm sure you think you're pretty 31337, but there actually are people smarter than you.
Re:logging firewall and TALKING (Score:2, Informative)
Pricvacy (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Not really (Score:3, Informative)
If the lock used to lock the case shut was remotely decent, the only way someone else will be able to use the computer is to break either the lock or the case or both.
Comment removed (Score:3, Informative)
Re:logging firewall and TALKING (Score:3, Informative)
and yes, you do sound like a spoiled brat because you obviously don't know the meaning of the word spoiled... it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with physical objects. it's the non-physical stuff that matters most.
Agree with this strategy (Score:3, Informative)
She loves IM...and MySpace and Facebook. She also loves text messaging...and frankly, it is somewhat scary. Unlike when I grew up, parents are often no longer the gatekeepers for communication. When I was a child, friends had to call my house...and thus, my parents generally knew with whom I was speaking outside of school. All bets are off now with such varied and ubiquitous communication devices at their disposal. That said, we are still parents...and we make them available...so we have responsibilities.
Our strategies:
1) The family computer is kept in a high-traffic public place in the house
2) My office computer is kept locked
3) The internet turns off at 9:00 pm (per the router config)
4) The cell phone is a privilege...that gets pulled when necessary. Ditto the internet.
5) And, without a doubt, the most important strategy - we stay involved. We talk every day...and make an effort to both be parents (not friends), but also people on whom she can rely and trust. I know pretty much all of her friends' names...and what went on each day...and we go to school functions (football games, etc.) to help stay in touch. We also do our best to not be incredibly embarrassing so she does not mind still having us around and involved (don't discount this one). We also try our best to balance her need for privacy with our need to know what's going on to support her best interests. Finally, we talk frequently (in casual conversation) about a wide range of related topics, including the potential dangers of internet access...and posting info that you don't want to come back to bite you...either next week or when she is applying for college or a job.
It's a daily struggle and I don't intend to imply that we think we have everything worked out. We are doing well for now...but like any other plan, it's got to be dynamic. What it cannot be, however, is apathetic. That said, she is maturing a little more each day...and we need to recognize both her increasing need for independence and our continued responsibilities as parents. She won't become a responsible adult on her 18th birthday. In some respects, she is becoming closer to that person each day...and any applied strategy must accommodate that reality...and hormones.
BTW, neighbors with unprotected wireless access points are a pain in the ass to parents.
Re:Take away the video card? (Score:3, Informative)
I'd advise against creating so much conflict over such trivial issues, save your anger for when the kid does something really stupid(like cocaine).
Another way to monitor (Score:3, Informative)
Zoot
Re:parenting? (Score:3, Informative)
We went the monitor route. We installed stealth software that e-mails logs. They don't have admin access on their machines. The machines are in public areas. Router is secured for wireless (and they don't know the key).
When we confronted the culprit the one time they tried it, they pretty much gave up. They can't use another OS or anything without losing Internet access.
But for the original post, something else that can be considered is set up your own proxy server. Configure it to be the only one with Internet access. If they want to access it, they go through the proxy. The proxy does two things: logs all accesses and retains all images/videos for review. You can add any blacklist / whitelist approach you want.
Layne
Re:parenting? (Score:1, Informative)
It got to the point where some of my friends told their parents about it (I think the parents wondered why they hardly saw me), and some of them would then cover for me. I'd tell my parents I was going to A's house for a couple of hours after school, when in reality we'd spend the time in the city (and once I was 14 or so, A's parents would even cover for me when we came back drunk. They'd ring my parents and tell them they'd invited me to stay overnight to watch films. Although, since A's parents were good parents, we didn't come back drunk very often -- after the first couple of times they decided they weren't going to stop us being drunk, so they bought us whatever we wanted on the condition that we drank it in their house where they could at least keep an eye on us).
My parents didn't give me any money either. They said if I wanted something I should just ask, but I never dared ask for half the stuff I wanted, I felt that anything unnecessary/frivolous wasn't allowed. When I was 18 (and left home to go to University) I owned just three CDs! They still didn't give me any money when I got to University until my grandma pressured them (now I get a massive £10 a week! Go crazy!) which was hard, because in the UK how much financial assistance you get from the Government depends on the income of your parents, and mine earn enough that I get nothing.
Back on topic...
I had an unfiltered Internet connection in my room from when I was 16½ or so, my mum's best friend gave me a 15m phone extension cable, she didn't know anything about computers and probably didn't realise how much my parents would disapprove. I did look at porn (usually when I was home alone to be honest), but nothing very extreme, that's gross and IME the kind of thing you get shown once, go "eeeeeeew!" and ignore, I doubt many normal people find it erotic, I don't.
The result of all this is I don't trust my parents, don't get on very well when I'm in the same building as them, and visit them as infrequently as I can get away with.
Re:Not really? yeah really. (Score:2, Informative)
2. Set up a proxy app like squid (with plugins) *on the router*
3. Set the proxy app to block out porn using one of many available blacklists or whitelists (google for it).
I think squid has a plugin that only lets you access sites from a search engine, and restricts the search engine to having safe search at full.
4. Block outgoing port 80 and 21 from your kids computer (on the router), or on all computers. If your kid really needs FTP (port 21) then you can whitelist
the IP addresses he needs (for example, whitelisting his school's ftp server if he needs to upload assignments)
5. Set up two passwords to view otherwise blocked sites on the proxy. Give one to him. Make sure he knows that you can get a list of all sites he accesses when he uses that password, so that he won't override a porn site.
Re:Ignoring the friends house, are we? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Not really? yeah really. (Score:2, Informative)
And if you don't have a wifi network, the kid picks up one of these [zipzoomfly.com] set to client mode and still finds the neighbor's open wifi. And you won't know about it because he keeps it hidden along with a USB key he stores the 'good stuff' on.
You can't stop it. What you're fighting against here isn't just the kid. You're fighting against the entire computer industry, pda industry and cell phone industry. These companies are highly motivated to connect their customers and make it easy because it sells.