Blocking sites from KIDS, my experience

[Dawai]

My home computer network has a Linksys router.. Others I am told are similar.

I found in router setup labeled :"access restrictions" 10 pages of different types of limitations you can put into the system. each page has about six URL blocks and about 10 or so keyword blocks. You can enter times when the restrictions are in place, or internet is shut off. Most the time the kids are up to no good when you are not watching, late at night. IF you enter the IP of each computer manually, you can make it apply just to thier computers.

keywords.
Example.. "chat", "forum", "email" "screw" "X"

Sneaky kids, all the kids sites has chat rooms.. zetapets.com webkinz.com meez.com and others, so the keyword block works. My daughter had her older sister here with her, she went home with a bunch of boys phone numbers. BOYS? men, old men? I trusted them to a point.

AND them typing PIR (parent in room) or if the kids swap screens as you walk up means big troubles.

THIS is so simple to be able to block things in the router anyways.. much simpler than I thought, just a few clicks.. remember to change the default password and not to save it in the wallet thou, or the kids will block you out.

My point being, you don't have to be a computer guru to use the blocks. Easy to do. And I never knowed it was there before.

[Alistair Hosie]

I cant understand why child pornography is allowed on the net surely there is some way of stopping this for good poor children deserve better Alistair

[Dawai]

Alistair:

NO child pornography, Plenty of trouble for kids to get into other than that, chat rooms.. ONE silver tongued devil talking to a young girl and she may run off, come back when you are going to be a grampa, or worse come back a drug addict working for some pimp.

My kid is gone for the summer now. I got to ride my bike a bit this morning. Talk about a generation gap? I am 50 she is 11.. She does things just to piss me off cause it is so much fun.

[Carld]

I think that's the problem with most kids now days. They do something just to piss parents and others off. The problem is the parents have lost control from when they were todlers. They get together with other kids in shcool and learn ways to beat the parents down plus what they see on TV.

[Too_Many_Tools]

My home computer network has a Linksys router.. Others I am told are similar.

I found in router setup labeled :"access restrictions" 10 pages of different types of limitations you can put into the system. each page has about six URL blocks and about 10 or so keyword blocks. You can enter times when the restrictions are in place, or internet is shut off. Most the time the kids are up to no good when you are not watching, late at night. IF you enter the IP of each computer manually, you can make it apply just to thier computers.

keywords.
Example.. "chat", "forum", "email" "screw" "X"

Sneaky kids, all the kids sites has chat rooms.. zetapets.com webkinz.com meez.com and others, so the keyword block works. My daughter had her older sister here with her, she went home with a bunch of boys phone numbers. BOYS? men, old men? I trusted them to a point.

AND them typing PIR (parent in room) or if the kids swap screens as you walk up means big troubles.

THIS is so simple to be able to block things in the router anyways.. much simpler than I thought, just a few clicks.. remember to change the default password and not to save it in the wallet thou, or the kids will block you out.

My point being, you don't have to be a computer guru to use the blocks. Easy to do. And I never knowed it was there before.

David, you can't watch them all the time....you have to teach them to protect themselves.

What I have done is to surf the Web with them....go to sites and show them what is dangerous and what is not.

My kids know that I will look at their Facebook/MySpace pages...and I have educated them as to what and whatnot to have there.

We have also done some chat rooms....and I have shown them that slimebags do exist out there...and that they are not immune from them.

Education is the best form protection...you won't be there forever to protect them.

Good luck.

TMT

[Scatterplot]

One other thing to block would be proxies.

I can't show you any right now (cause I'm at work, and they block proxy sites) but they basically allow anonymity to anyone surfing. You go to one website, then you can visit others through a window in that site, thus circumventing the router blocks. I've used this trick at school every once in a while for something that really shouldn't be blocked, lol.

Your kids might be too young for that, not many people know about them. However more and more people are getting better and better!

I do agree though that the best thing is to teach your kids what is and what is not appropriate to "get in to" on the Net. Think about it like your dog, you can either safeguard all the liquids in the garage or teach him not to go near it (I suck with training dogs, lol, but you get the idea!)

[BadDog]

Sometimes more useful that blocking/filtering, turn on logging. Then, if they are getting around your blocks, you can see where and what. You can also see when they tried to access a blocked site. A bit like spying, but what choice do you have with all the crap going on today. I talk to my kids about everything. I've taught them about the dangers, what to watch for, how to protect them selves physically/virtually/financially. And they are good kids. Yet they are still teenagers and prone to "knowing everything", which is simply impossible since they don't always agree with me. But I still keep logging turned on, and periodically scan through to watch for any big red flags. And they know logging is turned on, it's simply a condition of having open (and largely unmonitored) access to the internet. Mainly it just "keeps them honest". I did bust a friend of my son's who was over staying the night, but so far so good on the other fronts...