Parental controls on windows 7

rev229

DS 14 had a new laptop for xmas running windows 7. DH sorted anti-virus and security and thouht all was fine. DS is the only user. In have been checking what he has been up to weekly on the web. all was fine until last week and I now find he has been dowloading !!!!!!:eek:. It is the same site each time and the stuff is pretty awful. He doesn't know that we know what he has been up to. We have tried to set up the parental controls on windows 7 but we get so far and then it says it is loading but nothing happens. We need to sort this ASAP. Any advice, apart from removing his laptop please.

JasX

Tell him if he wants to download !!!!!! he'll need to sharpen up on his Techie skills and cover his tracks a bit better so you don't find out about it.....

......or go buy it from the newsagent like everyone had to do in the old days

DatabaseError

download ms family safety and install it on the lappy (of course you are the administrator of the machine, he's just a user...right?!)
This will allow you to set what he's allowed to do (including time limits) plus you'll be able to view every site he visits, and approve/disapprove as required.
When I was a lad we had to get our pron from hand-me down magazines (often found in hedgerows....no idea how they ever got there in the 1st place but it still happens!....kids have it too easy nowadays

John_Gray

You could have a look at K9 - the publishers speak very highly of it!

Also, if you're confident enough to play around with the DNS settings, there's the Family Shield feature in OpenDNS.

You might get away with one or the other, or a different program, since he doesn't seem to be particularly technologically competent, but you may Have To Have a Talk with him...

rev229

Yes we are the administrators and we made sure we could access what we wanted because we knew the potential problems. Not clever enough to delete his history though, neither was his friend. If it were a !!!!!! magazine I would be less bothered. This wasn't soft !!!!!!. It was vile. This was more hard core stuff that he accessed. So bad that his friends dad refused to tell his wife the content!!

free4440273

rev229 wrote: »

Yes we are the administrators and we made sure we could access what we wanted because we knew the potential problems. Not clever enough to delete his history though, neither was his friend. If it were a !!!!!! magazine I would be less bothered. This wasn't soft !!!!!!. It was vile. This was more hard core stuff that he accessed. So bad that his friends dad refused to tell his wife the content!!

unsure what error you are getting but quick guide here : ::

http://www.practicallynetworked.com/howto/win_7_parental_controls.htm

free4440273

also, it could be a corrupted user profile affecting that user ; so u could try creating a new profile for your son //

DatabaseError

another advantage of family safety is you can monitor the sits he's visited (or tried to) from an another PC....so you don't have to physically invade his privacy..you can do it remotely...much easier I find

sillygoose

John_Gray wrote: »

You could have a look at K9 - the publishers speak very highly of it!

Also, if you're confident enough to play around with the DNS settings, there's the Family Shield feature in OpenDNS.

You might get away with one or the other, or a different program, since he doesn't seem to be particularly technologically competent, but you may Have To Have a Talk with him...

I have recently been working with a laptop for 5 and 8 year old so even more important to try and keep unwanted stuff out. I have been very impressed with the OpenDNS Family Shield as it simply diverts to a 'sorry blocked' page, there are simple step by step instructions on the website to activate it. The MS filter stuff whilst powerful involved lots of 'approve this or that' and interaction, can get tiresome. Not saying the OpenDNS is solely sufficient (time will tell) but it does no harm to use as an addition protection, its free and you don't have to install any software.

Syman

I use microsoft family safety (i think that's what it's called) for the computer my two use. Easily set up and more importantly easy to maintain. when DD want to access a site i get an email asking for access which i can then allow or not.

rev229

Can you install both microsoft parental controls and K9?