How to limit access to internet on kids' computer

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I'm connecting my son's computer to my network so he can access some school related websites for some assignments he has to do. But I don't want him being on his computer all day (time-management), and I want him to have access to only the websites I allow (white-list).

I'm thinking some sort of proxy server would be the best bet, but which one? Also, how would I lock him down, but not myself if I'm on his computer?
 
You could use the windows live parental controls. Have your kid on a limited account and yours as an admin. Set the appropriate restrictions in the software. Could also look at k9 web filtering software from Blue Coat, its free for home use. Those will be your free and simple options. If you want to get more technical you could setup a web proxy server and set user based policies. I've done this with astaro home before. Have to authenticate and configure proxy settings in your browser, though.
 
You could just sit with him and monitor what he does as he does his assignments, but that might put the parent back in parenting...

(Anything you do he can learn to circumvent/undo anyway, assuming he doesn't already know how to anyway...)
 
do a really good job locking the system down and he might have a career in computing once he figures how to bypass your safeguards.
 
Tolyngee said:
You could just sit with him and monitor what he does as he does his assignments, but that might put the parent back in parenting...

(Anything you do he can learn to circumvent/undo anyway, assuming he doesn't already know how to anyway...)
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Really? You're going to pull the "you're not a good parent card"?. Go troll somewhere else.


To add to this, he's seven. And I'm not locking him out to keep him from actively going anywhere, I'm trying to keep him from stumbling on sites that he need not see.

And thanks Captain Colonoscopy, I'll look into Windows Live Parental Controls. He's already on a limited account, so it should be easy enough to keep him from changing anything.
 
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Tolyngee said:
You could just sit with him and monitor what he does as he does his assignments, but that might put the parent back in parenting...

(Anything you do he can learn to circumvent/undo anyway, assuming he doesn't already know how to anyway...)
Click to expand...

Wow, pretty sure no one was asking about parenting tips. Keep your opinions to yourself unless you actually have something useful to post.
 
Tolyngee said:
You could just sit with him and monitor what he does as he does his assignments, but that might put the parent back in parenting...

(Anything you do he can learn to circumvent/undo anyway, assuming he doesn't already know how to anyway...)
Click to expand...
agree completely... anyone that lets a child have unsupervised internet access is a fool, parental controls or not...

staring over their shoulder isn't required but the computer should be in a common area
 
This forum never fails to make me laugh on my way to work.
Thank you internet advice.
 
jiminator said:
do a really good job locking the system down and he might have a career in computing once he figures how to bypass your safeguards.
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i dont know how old your kid is, but its rare to see a parent who can out smart a child when it comes to technology. i spent a good decade of my life outdoing mine. it became fun (for me) and i learned a lot while doing it. it certainly had a negative impact on the parent/child relationship however, and i would suggest you think carefully about what you plan to do. its much better to convince him to use it responsibly on his own, instead of forcing him to.

the best way is probably to set up a firewall (untangle) box between the internet and the house network and just use access rules and filters.
 
Captain Colonoscopy said:
When did this become the networking & parenting advice forum? Jeebuz.
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QFT. Seriously people, the guy's asking for technical advice, not parenting advice. Assuming his parenting skills suck is a little pretentious... The OP has the presence of mind to explore options, rather than turn a blind eye like most others. So let's stay on track instead of preaching.
 
Hey Ryan_975, I'm in a similar situation as you and did the following.

1) Give the admin account on your kid's PC a password that only adults know
2) Go to http://explore.live.com/windows-live-family-safety?os=other and download and install Windows Family Safety.
3) Once installed, create a restricted account just for your kid and enable family safety on it. If you already have an account you can enable it there also.
4) You'll be able to setup family members here and the access they have
5) If they don't have access to a site, they can ask in person or they can request by email. In person someone will need to type in the admin password, if its by email it will automatically go to the email you set up in 2.

I have not tried this on Linux but it works great in XP, Vista, 7

What's great you can setup accounts for different people or have them share. I have one account setup for my kids and one setup for my Mom (to avoid the inevitable typo that leads to site she'd rather not see)

GL
 
One thing I forgot to add, you can also setup time limits using Family Safety but it requires Windows 7 on the machine your trying to limit.
 
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k9 works good, does exactly what you want.

i believe some routers do this as well.
 
Open DNS has some solid recommendations from people I know - though I've not tried it myself. My kid is two. I'll be considering that stuff soon enough.

A lady at church told me that her kids found Disney porn online and that the web filters didn't even block it. I'd never heard of that. As you know - you'll never catch it all. Most forums, even if they are otherwise clean, have an 'anything goes' section where anything pretty much does go...
Even if you take the PC off the network, one of the kids at school will have ripped out a page of a playboy magazine and taped it to your boys locker. That happened to me when I was in school...

As another poster said --- if you want to install your values in your kid you'll need to couple your attention in this detail to many conversations about why you think the behavior is detrimental, and provide a understandable and agreeable warning that he will comprehend and can align with because of his own choice.
 
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I still say k9webprotection.com

It has an override feature with PW, so if you(as the adult) wants to look at something else, just punch in your PW and voila.... ALSO, if your child guesses your PW too many times and gets it wrong, it will block the internet from working.... if they try too many bad websites in a row, it will block the internet from working.
 
ghost6303 said:
Rule 34- baffling content filtering everywhere.
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not funny.

1 Cor. 6:12 Everything is permissible for me - but not everything is beneficial

Did you feel the need to comment negatively against my post because it contained the word church? Your comment was unhelpful to the OP, while at least my post offered my opinion to address his specific question.
 
Archaea said:
not funny.

1 Cor. 6:12 Everything is permissible for me - but not everything is beneficial

Did you feel the need to comment negatively against my post because it contained the word church? Your comment was unhelpful to the OP, while at least my post offered my opinion to address his specific question.
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Chill dude. He wasn't making fun of you or your god. Simply invoking "Rule 34" of the internet tubes. Saying "yeah, wow, disney porn, thank you internet."

From the Urban Dictionary:

Rule 34

Generally accepted internet rule that states that pornography or sexually related material exists for any conceivable subject.

Additionally it is accepted that the rule itself has limitations and you cannot be too specific on the content of the item in question.

Most commonly used on various message boards for various reasons, from humor to cruelty.
I invoke rule 34 on the Rescue Rangers. What have I done.
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If you have a spare computer with a few nics you could load up untangle, dansguardian, or some other linux UTM distro. A good mix of webfilter and opendns should stop a majority of badness from getting onto his browser.
 
Archaea said:
not funny.

1 Cor. 6:12 Everything is permissible for me - but not everything is beneficial

Did you feel the need to comment negatively against my post because it contained the word church? Your comment was unhelpful to the OP, while at least my post offered my opinion to address his specific question.
Click to expand...
Welcome to the Internet, you must be new here...

I award you no points and may dog have mercy on your soul.
 
I'm an adult an I have Untangle set up to keep me from accidentally running across stuff I don't want to see as well as for its other protective features.

I'm really into security stuff and some of ther areas I venture into have a tendency to pop unexpected items on the screen. Its nice to have them pop up with just a nice soothing block message. :)

I've been responsible for workplace proxy servers and I'm more aware of the variety of human sexual experience than I've ever wanted to be. No scanning/filtering I've ever seen is anywhere near 100% effective against the truly dedicated...

A combo of OpenDNS and the Windows family safety stuff should work out pretty well.
 
nessus said:
I'm an adult an I have Untangle set up to keep me from accidentally running across stuff I don't want to see as well as for its other protective features.

I'm really into security stuff and some of ther areas I venture into have a tendency to pop unexpected items on the screen. Its nice to have them pop up with just a nice soothing block message. :)

I've been responsible for workplace proxy servers and I'm more aware of the variety of human sexual experience than I've ever wanted to be. No scanning/filtering I've ever seen is anywhere near 100% effective against the truly dedicated...

A combo of OpenDNS and the Windows family safety stuff should work out pretty well.
Click to expand...


Awesome, didn't know about OpenDNS, just signed up for it and set the entries in my router. Learning something new everyday.
 
opendns is great but dont use it with untangle if your doing spam filtering, as it will severely limit the effectiveness of the spam filter module.
 
A former coworker had a Linux-based proxy set up on their router box. I assume squid, but I don't know all the details for sure. It would disable internet access while the parents were at work, and redirect any blacklisted sites to http://kittenwar.com/ (as well as emailing the parents regarding access attempts during the day).

I'll see if I can get some details on his setup, but I'm sure it wasn't a simple PnP thing.
 
Gotcha, when I get my untangle box up I won't use OpenDNS with it. In the meanwhile, I've got both OpenDNS and MS Family safety running concurrently. Interestingly, it took almost 30 minutes before OpenDNS started content filtering even after changing the DNS entries on the router and rebooting both the router and the attached PC's.
 
Your box would pull DNS entries out of the local cache whenever possible. It wouldn't be pulling new data until the record stored on hand timed out.

I remember running the family network when I was still young(-er).
 
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