parental control software

AGB863

I'm looking for parental control software, pref freebie! I wan tot control the times that my little horrors can access the internet and to stop them accessing undesirable web sites. I know that you can use IE settings for undesirable web sites, but it does not do the rest.

Any suggestions?

nib131

i feel the best parental control is u yourself, there are many softwares out there but there is also a site that is designed by teenagers with ways to crack these netnanny type software. how old are your children at the moment i have my content advisor turned on so that to access the internet a password is needed, its only to my daughter becomes competent with computers that she could crack the password and have access but then i would no this, so i would no to change my tactics. some isp providers have there own child safety tools perhaps its worth asking them. also using children browsers are sometimes good as these have filtering systems.

tigermatt

I haven't tried any of these so don't know what they are like, (some are shareware which you have to pay for) see here: http://www.download.com/3120-20_4-0.html?tag=srch&qt=parental+control&tg=dl-20

Also take a look at Securus (for Home Users) which can monitor for bad sites etc. and report back to you. It also monitors emails, word documents etc.) See this thread: [thread]120799[/thread]

If your children don't know its there or don't know how to delete/clear it, you could just check through the history on your Web Browser program and see what sites they have been browsing. If you setup a profile account just for your kids then their history will be seperate and won't get mixed in with yours.

albertross_2

Do you have broadband with a router? If so, then they can be used to block access times, and some (e.g. Netgear etc..) allow you to block specific keywords, and also the latest firmware integrates with Trend Micro parental control.

-TangleFoot-

Someone else asked a similar question a little while ago...

christie_m

Personally I'd go for a product from one of the big players (Trend/Symantec/McAfee). Trend Micro are my current favourites - download their Internet Security 2006 product on trial for a month and see if you like the look/feel of it. They sometimes offer discounts when it comes around to paying for the full license.

I appreciate that this is a pain in the wallet, but the effectiveness of these products is based on the frequency of updates. The adult websites change on a daily basis (new/revised domain names), and you really need to pay to be told about the new sites as they appear.

As someone else has said, none of the controls are perfect and certainly no substitute for having the PC in a room you can watch them in. No doubt your kids will start searching for ways around the solution as soon as you install it! Ah the joys of kids

ultrak3wl

I've used Dansguardian for a couple of years now, works very well for my kids. US libraries use it to comply with their filtering laws. Only thing is though you need to run it on a Linux PC. But hey that's free too.

http://dansguardian.org

Fran

Under Techie FAQ's - Computer Security there are links to websites you might find useful.