What Filters Are Right For Kids?

WaywardGeek writes "My daughter is using phrases like 'hot guys,' and soon will have a chat about the birds and the bees. I believe in letting kids discover the world as it is, and have no Internet controls on any of our systems, which are mostly Linux based. However, it's not fair for aggressive porn advertisers to splash sex in her face without her permission. My question is: What Linux-based Internet filtering solution do Slashdot dads favor, and do they hinder a child's efforts to learn about the world?"

Depends on how fine you grind them

[spun]

Cheesecloth works pretty good to get the chunks out.

They shouldn't be smoking at all!

[aapold]

Filter or no filter, its just bad for them especially at that age.

Yeeeah . . .

[SlappyBastard]

Um . . . "splash sex in her face" . . . oooooh-kaaaaaay . . .

Real people are real ugly

[Anonymous Coward]

I suggest you filter all your daughter's internet queries through a time machine that leads to a not so distant past where "splash in her face" was not a part of the male collective consciousness.

"hot guys" should redirect to Slashdot

[Anonymous Coward]

That should scare her away for a couple of decades.

You need to have that chat

[geekoid]

NOW.

Filter out the obvious stuff. You won't stop a dedicated teen from finding what they want, but you can try to stop them from getting things they don't want that are inappropriate.
I have a daughter and a son, and yes, knowing there will be a day when my kids are looking for 'Hot [Gender of choice]' scares the shit out of me.

Filters

[DoofusOfDeath]

What Filters Are Right For Kids?

Today mine got up at 5 a.m. My answer would have to be, "coffee filters".

Use my whitelist

[dr_dank]

I only whitelist the sites that teach good lessons for their development into adulthood:

Zombo.com: You can do ANYTHING there.

Goatse: What better way to show what one can accomplish if you put your mind to it?

2G1C: Teamwork and empowerment

Lemonparty: Appreciation for the elderly.

I'd list more, but CPS is here. Must be donation season or something.

Re:Adblock

[trold]

If she prefers IE for some weird reason then just put an ad-filtering web-proxy on your network like Junkbuster [junkbuster.com].

If she is clever enough to get IE to run properly on the aforementioned linux systems, she is clever enough to configure her own porn-blocker...

Re:Yeeeah . . .

[Alien Being]

You're a sick bastard for saying what everyone else was only thinking.

You do the only logical thing

[Beelzebud]

You demand that the government censor the entire internet for the safety of The Children!

;)

Extra Slim Filters - best choice

[mogwhy]

Extra Slim Filter Tips should definitely be considered when purchasing filters.

Actually there is good deal on at Amazon currently only £11.99: Extra Slim Filter [amazon.co.uk].

I'm a bit worried about the 4 used & new available from £5.85

Re:What Filters Are Right For Kids?

[Capt.DrumkenBum]

ssh into her brain and:

sudo apt-get install pr0nfilter

Re:You sound like

[American Terrorist]

find out what her reasons are, why she wants to look at hot guys.

Ummmm, let me guessssssss.... DNA? Why do I enjoy looking at hot girls?

A GOOD father would train their daughter from an early age to be interested in GEEKY guys.

Re:The simple one.

[ocularDeathRay]

well if you want your kids to learn fast, just grab your favorite open source browser and hard-code the URL so she can only go to Belladonna's website. Make sure you provide her with a credit card too. After a month or so you can rest assured that nothing on the internet will really shock her anymore. Then you can set her browser back to normal.

there. another problem solved by asking slashdot.

Re:Google moderate safe search

[scubamage]

Porn is only unrealistic if you have a girlfriend who doesn't like porn. Now if you'll pardon me, I have a donkey and a midget waiting for me on the bondage rack.

Re:The simple one.

[Mr. Firewall]

Think back to when you were ten, you put a random term into Google

When I was ten, a google was a fixed (i.e., not random) value. Also:

• The World Wide Web did not exist.
• For that matter the INTERNET did not exist.
• I had never seen a color TV (though I had heard about them, and was curious)
• Home electronics ran on vacuum tubes.
• John F. Kennedy was President of the United States.

So, no, I can't relate to your example. Now get off my lawn.

Re:Privoxy

[Joe Tie.]

And if she does change it, hey, she just learned an important lesson about proxies.

Re:The simple one.

[interkin3tic]

I have to ask...do people REALLY that often, hit porn sites by accident?

Yes, every time my wife or boss walks in and there's porn on the screen? Accident.

Re:The simple one.

[dawich]

I've gone to whitehouse.com in front of ~80 people, deans and other faculty mainly, doing a presentation on Netscape 2 and all the nifty features including domain completion. "And here you can see I type in 'stanford' and it goes to www.stanford.edu without typing anymore. A handy shortcut. Let's try another, whitehouse, let's see what the president is doi.... aww crap." Projected on a 50' screen. Lovely day.

Re:The simple one.

[lbbros]

Actually it can happen even for experienced users. A Google search for the color of the plumes of a bird (which my colleagues had found and wanted to know the gender) made me realize there were a LOT of other synonyms for female genitalia that I didn't even know...

Re:Yeeeah . . .

[SlappyBastard]

It's rare that I win the race to say something first on the internet. I am soooo proud today.

Re:The simple one.

[Sowelu]

Actually, I'm pretty sure I'm trying desperately to repress my memories of Metacrawler, and Altavista (half-decent) and Webcrawler before that...

Re:The simple one.

[retchdog]

Eww. I hope it wasn't a thrush.

That's OK

[SlappyBastard]

Every good product is actually just a lie the customer wants to hear.

Re:The simple one.

[DesertBlade]

Learned this one the hard way, do a google image search for "penny" with safe search turned off.

Re:Use OpenDNS and a hosts file

[pleappleappleap]

Personally, I think Camel filters are the best for kids.

Re:Privoxy

[UncleTogie]

My ex keeps trying various filtering software to keep my eldest son {age 14} from viewing porn... with pretty predictable results. One Google search for a workaround, and he's back in business.

I was more than amused when she tried to complain to me. "Gee, son, follow the rules" was what came out of my mouth, although I couldn't keep from smiling. "Way to figure it out and disable it so you can see what you're so curious about!" was what was going through my mind, though.

Heck, when I was his age, I was hip-deep in porn mags at my friend's house. I can't blame him for hormones.

Re:The simple one.

[Mr. Firewall]

Or maybe his brain has started to decline, and he's just forgotten how to spell it....

Guilty as charged. Now GET OFF MY...

...have you seen my glasses?

Re:The simple one.

[Tubal-Cain]

Let's try another, whitehouse, let's see what the president is doi...

Clinton was President then, wasn't he?

Re:Use OpenDNS and a hosts file

[Anonymous Coward]

What?? You still get the delicious Turkish tobacco taste without the unwanted tar. Not only insightful but informative!

Re:Use OpenDNS and a hosts file

[WaywardGeek]

Hey, that was another great suggestion! I'm a bit embarrassed I wasn't already using it. I've not had much time to play with it, but thepiratebay.com has seemed to think I really need to meet a girl living near me for years. Different nearby towns, names, and ages, but always the same girl! I almost feel like I know her... I certainly know all her bathing suits. Now thepiratebay.com has nothing but whitespace where she use to be!

I think I'm happier with both Adblock Plus and a DNS based filter. Both free, easy, and useful.

Re:One father's experience

[colesw]

I hope he speaks from experience, I'd love to meet his porn loving daughter!

Re:Use OpenDNS and a hosts file

[Anonymous Coward]

Different nearby towns, names, and ages, but always the same girl! I almost feel like I know her... I certainly know all her bathing suits. Now thepiratebay.com has nothing but whitespace where she use to be!

That's still her. She just moved to Alaska and it's blizzarding.

Re:The simple one.

[commodore64_love]

"Daddy what's that?"
"That's how babies are made sweetheart."
"Oh. Do you and mommy do that?"
"Not anymore. (sigh)"

Re:The simple one.

[Nefarious Wheel]

> When I was ten, high tech meant a chain hauberk.

Bloody archers...