Kids and Internet Safety

Dub13

Our kids are starting to use the net a bit more,so I am looking at my setup at home and trying to figure what what to put on the laptop they use.So my question is what do you use...?

Moonbeam

It depends...
How tech savvy are the parents?
What ages are the kids?

Dub13

Moonbeam wrote: »

It depends...
How tech savvy are the parents?
What ages are the kids?

Tech savvy is not a prob,the kids are 8 & 5 and the odd time the 4 year old will be on it but only games so not an issue yet.

Moonbeam

I would invest in a good router and completely lock down access when they are online.

webwise.ie might have some good advice.

Eoineo

I have a plug in for my browser which prevents children visiting any unwanted webpages without my password. You can also set it for skin exposure, adult rated sites & profanity filtering. What I do is set a specific list of acceptable websites. I also monitor all web use while I'm in the room. Anything with internet access isn't allowed in the bedroom either.

CrazyRabbit

The best defence is you.

Stay with them as they use the PC. Educate them about the risks, and let them know that there are 'bad' websites. Tell them that if they ever see anything that they feel might be 'bad', that they should immediately tell you.

Bookmark known 'good' sites and show them how to use the bookmarks/favourites feature of the browser.

The sad thing is, no matter what you do, they will eventually come accross inappropriate material. It's best to educate rather than try to create an impenetrable wall of protective 'cotton wool' around them.

Moonbeam

That would be my general attidute to the internet and kids but I think that can only work for the 8 year old and not for the 2 little ones.
I think the 2 little ones have to be prevented from any risk of viewing anything unsuitable in the 1st place.

alpha baby and bam bam are great programmes for the very little ones as they are not online and lock out the keyboard:)

byhookorbycrook

Keep the pc in a living area, not a bedroom, consider something like NETNANNY, set up favourites and only let the child use them, not google etc.

BostonB

Unless you sit beside them, you can't control internet access. Sooner or later, they find a way around all these nanny applications.

TheQ47

My 10 y-o and 7 y-o both use the net, and I'd agree with crazyrabbit, but as well as that, I use Windows Live Family Safety.

It is a bit over-protective at times, but allows you as an administrator to override the blocking of a site, once you've previewed it first. You can set the settings at different levels for different family members, turn it off for some, limit it to specific sites for others, Etc. It monitors everything they surf, and you as the admin can check the sites they visited, the sites they tried to visit but were refused, Etc. I find it very useful, and takes an extra worry off you.

Best of all, it's free!

BostonB

Problem I've found that some sites can often have a search box somewhere, and they find this and it allows them out from that site to the main internet. Kids can cut and paste into it, and search away and they son't even know what they are searching for.

TanG411

I recommend registering with http://www.opendns.com

What that site does is allow you to block any website you want through their servers. Or you can block an entire category of websites, like Adult or Social Networking - and it's completely free. Really handy.

You can set it up through your router, and then password protect the router so your kids can not try to unblock it.

RedXIV

I'd second CrazyRabbit's sentiments, if you can educate them instead of trying to completely hide them from these aspects, its a better option. I know things have changed since I was that age but I remember the school I was in had a net nanny program that me and another student figured out how to bypass at 9. Now we were looking at video games but but even still, once they start looking around online, you'd be suprised how difficult it is to spend time searching without coming across SOMETHING unsuitable for kids

Dub13

Some good advice in this thread,thanks and keep it coming.

m'lady

My girl is nearly 10 and I have net nanny on the laptop, I find it fantastic. As fair as I know you can adjust the sensitivity (I'd need to ask my OH). Its very good, and it blocks just about everything in my house! She was talking to her nanny the other night on MSN and when they said 'love u xxxx' it sent me a mail with the content.

Cant recommend it enough alongside close monitoring of course.

nesf

For the younger ones use a system that locks them into a walled garden that only contains age appropriate stuff.

I use Zoodles with my 4 year old and he loves it. Starts it up by himself and plays games and watches videos on the computer requiring no supervision.

It's a free service (though you can pay for extra features, but that's unnecessary). It's available here: http://www.zoodles.com/

It's for 8 years and under. So useful for the little ones. For the oldest one you'll have to look into educating them about the web and potentially more complex solutions depending on what they spend their time looking at. I've no advice for you here as our oldest is 4 so I've only looked at things for that age group.

Deliverance

This thread has made me think about how to set up a secure system for my 5yr old and test it on her. The first thing I will do is set up a user account with a simple password.

Scenario 1: 5yr old turns on computer, clicks on her user account icon, enters password, Screen has shortcut icons that she can single click on to open. These icons would represent fave movies, games etc and would be set to run on a default player: 'VLC' for movies (always runs smooth), downloaded games on the hard-drive basically all offline stuff.

This offline 'window' / account could, should and would include a photo viewer for her photos that she uploaded (she is into photography). Movies, games shortcuts would be with a single click for ease of use (this can be set up in the mouse settings).

The internet browser would be disabled. If she wants a new movie or game added to the account then she could make a request and then I would add the files to her account via these requests.

Internet and browsers would be disabled for this account. Any browsing and net stuff would be under supervision with the adult / parent.

Ok that is a first draught of how it could work, simple to do for any parent / administrator. Who needs a nanny, net or otherwise when it is actually easy to design a set up where a parent can do this.

Ps I broke net nanny in under 30secs. I tested it myself and it is a very uncomplicated program to be honest.

The next step in this venture for me I think is to find a way to only allow access to certain sites i.e. if my daughter is online on a site then she should not be able to navigate away from that site.

phillip33

Dub13 wrote: »

Our kids are starting to use the net a bit more,so I am looking at my setup at home and trying to figure what what to put on the laptop they use.So my question is what do you use...?

Many products are available by searching in Google. I don't use any.

K-9

Eoineo wrote: »

I have a plug in for my browser which prevents children visiting any unwanted webpages without my password. You can also set it for skin exposure, adult rated sites & profanity filtering. What I do is set a specific list of acceptable websites. I also monitor all web use while I'm in the room. Anything with internet access isn't allowed in the bedroom either.

Can you get this for Firefox?

phillip33

K-9 wrote: »

Can you get this for Firefox?

I got one add on for mozilla forefox as follows
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4351/
You can search other add on if you don't like this one.

FoxT

We have done the following :
- Briefed our children clearly on risks of internet usage
- they ask for permission before signing up for anything
- they tell us if the PC does anything unexpected
- the PC is in a TV room which is constantly in use
- We spend time with them on the PC. They show us their favourite websites & we talk them through things they dont understand or are in some way undesirable.

We have not used any filtering/netnanny type products, nor have we enabled any browser filters/blocks.

so far, so good. ( We have a PC at home now for about 10 years, kids are now aged 8 up to 19...)