Parental Controls - which software??

inmypocketnottheirs

I have been tipped off by Father Christmas that he is bringing a PC for my 8 & 10 year olds to use. This also a present for me, as it means I can have my laptop back, and that I won't be mithered about Club Penguin and facts about Man U!!

However, I am greatly concerned about the bad points about t'internet. The PC will be stationed downstairs, in the dining room, but with the best will in the world, it is not possible to supervise the kids every minute of their surfing.

I have tried looking around for Parental Control software, but am mindful of the credibility of downloads from the net. So called Parental software could be quite the opposite. Perhaps I am paranoid!!

So my question is, who uses what? How much is it and where from? I consider the concerns to be both access to unsuitable material (8 y.o. has already been found on youtube watching 'farting' material aaaaaaaaaaaggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh!) as well as chat rooms etc. So something that logs activity etc would be beneficial.

Thanks!

Browntoa

this is free and has the parental controls you desire

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/sharedaccess/default.mspx

will also allow you to restrict which programs they can run , and roll it back to its original state if they manage to break it

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/sharedaccess/seeit/athome.mspx

Parents can use Windows SteadyState to help control and enhance their children's computer experience. They can customize the computer to be safer and easier to use. Internet access can be carefully controlled. Different levels of restriction can be applied for different children. In cases where a single machine is used by children and parents, the parents' configurations, programs, and files can be completely isolated from access by the children.
Control the WebParents may have concerns about their children viewing inappropriate content on the internet. Windows SteadyState helps give parents the control they want over their children's web access. All websites can be prohibited except for those the parent specifies as acceptable.
Control the programsWindows SteadyState helps make it easy to control the programs and Windows features a child can access on a family computer. A parent can prevent a child from using Internet Explorer, Windows Messenger, or any other program installed on the computer. Windows management features such as Control Panel can also be restricted.
Control the experience
Parents can take full control of the family computer with Windows SteadyState. A few more examples are:

• Simplify the interface by removing options from the Start Menu that your child doesn't need.
• Apply a time limit to your child's computing sessions.
• Block access to any hard drive, partition, or removable media you don't want your child to access.

inmypocketnottheirs

Browntoa, fantastic! You have come to the rescue again! Many thanks. Have a beer ...:beer:

Reggie_Rebel

Don't pass on all responsibility to the software though, still check on them regularly, while they are using it

inmypocketnottheirs

Reggie_Rebel wrote: »

Don't pass on all responsibility to the software though, still check on them regularly, while they are using it

Quite right. It needs a bit of both, I fully understand that. Hence the reason for installing the PC in the dining room, it just isn't possible to supervise 100% of the time.

BillScarab

If it's a new PC presumably it will be Vista? In which case it has pretty decent parental controls built in.

Set up an administrator account on it for yourself and then set up standard user accounts for your children. You can restrict what web content they can see, what age rating games they can play and specifically allow and block use of certain programs, it also logs their activity so you can check what sites they've been visiting. In addition you can set it to only allow them to log on at certain set times of day.

It may be worth looking at OpenDNS as well. It's free and allows you to filter web sites.