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Content blocking software

EQTitan

Diamond Member
Jun 4, 2004
4,031
0
71
I'm looking for software that will block every site except the site we want them to see. Can anyone recommend a good free product or one that is fairly cheap....
 

Cooler

Diamond Member
Mar 31, 2005
3,835
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If your kids are smart, no software will prevent them from going to sites you don?t want. Best thing is to watch your kids while on line if you can and talk to them. Software never substitutes good parenting.
 

EQTitan

Diamond Member
Jun 4, 2004
4,031
0
71
I'm just setting them up to be good with breaking security measures!!

=)
 

papaschtroumpf

Senior member
Mar 5, 2003
879
5
81
actually for 3 and 5 year olds it's not a bad idea.
they're not aware of the filtering, not smart enough to defeat it, and probably don't care about it as long as Disney.com or whatever still works for them.
I have an 8 year old that tends to mispell things, and we all know mispelled internet searches can lead you in unintended places not suitable for a young kid.
I'm in the room while the kids use the computer, but leaving them some leaway as to not be breathing down there neck at every keystroke *is* good parenting. Software is not a good substitue to good parenting, it's a good complement to good parenting.
Once the kids are old enough to try and defeat the protection, they should be old enoguh to have a good talk with you about what is and is not appropriate, because at that age it's not an accident anymore.

so is there anything good and free?

So is there or is there not a good solution?
 

BeauJangles

Lifer
Aug 26, 2001
13,941
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What about creating a webpage that is hosted locally with links to all the "acceptable" sites and then just hiding the address bar? Sure it isn't terribly secure, but if you're keeping an eye on them it should prevent them from going places you don't want while also giving them an easy way to access the "okay" sites.
 

papaschtroumpf

Senior member
Mar 5, 2003
879
5
81
That's what I have been doing till now. No need to even hide the address bar, kids were simply told not to use it.

My oldest is getting an an age where he often has questions (how long to kangaroo live?) that I answer by "let's see if we can find out on the Internet". I suppose I could have a hard link to wikipedia only, but so far we've been using google in "Safe search" mode.

So far so good but I wouldn't mind an extra latyer of pretection.
 

n0cmonkey

Elite Member
Jun 10, 2001
42,936
1
0
Squid + Dan's guardian (maybe?) + a good firewall. Block everything that isn't the site you want to approve, and force all http connections through the squid proxy.