How I’m keeping my kids safe online
I have five beautiful children. Four boys and a girl. 14, 10, 8, 3 and almost a year.
We use the internet a lot. I use it for social media, schoolwork, professional reading (a lot – I use google reader with an app called mobile rss on my iPad). My wife uses email a lot, reads a lot of blogs etc.
Mr 14: fb & blogs (I think).
Mr 10: Miniclip. Almost exclusively.
Miss 8: Moshi Monsters.
Anyway, apart from worrying about my bill at the end of the month, I worry about objectionable material. We have a bunch of mobile devices: laptops, iphones, an ipod and an ipad. The kids are always in a public place when they browse the net and we have an open dialogue with them and (I think) and really intimate relationship.
Sometime ago, someone was surfing youtube – there’re loads of dodgy stuff on there. I wanted to block youtube, so I talked to my ISP. They don’t provide content filtering. So I went around and checked a bunch of ISPs. Watchdog is (as far as I know) the only provider that filters, but they were just too expensive.
I’ll cut to the chase:
I found opendns.com last night. The process was anything but simple, but:
- Sign up etc.
- Set your router to go to their dns server. I have an old Thompson router. I had to do this job via command line. Yikes.
- Install their IP tracking app so they know what your current IP is.
- Mess with filter options and take a goofy pic for the kids to see when they try to access a blocked site.
- When someone tries to access a blocked site, they see a message that you can program, and some very benign google ads. This is how the service is paid for.
Try covenant eyes. . Great service and minimum cost
That’s software that sits on the client machine, doesn’t it?
Just so you know, this is not a winnable battle, not with technology.
DNS blocks are easily bypassed through proxies and direct IP addresses – while they will keep the kids from getting there too quickly, you’re looking at < 1 hour of effort for a smart kid with access to the Google hive mind.
Having the computers in the communal area with others around tends to produce much better results, and isn't nearly as annoying to other household users.
I don’t think it’s a battle at all. It’s parenting. Usually, we have computers in communal spaces, but there are times when that simply doesn’t work.
This most useful thing that opendns gives me is the list of requests. This includes direct IPs and proxies. If I see a proxy I can block it.
Certainly, this not a silver bullet. It’s part of a very big picture that includes trust and accountability.
Just so you know, this is not a winnable battle, not with technology.
DNS blocks are easily bypassed through proxies and direct IP addresses – while they will keep the kids from getting there too quickly, you’re looking at < 1 hour of effort for a smart kid with access to the Google hive mind.
Having the computers in the communal area with others around tends to produce much better results, and isn't nearly as annoying to other household users.
[…] has made me realise this: I love IT. I love problem solving. I love fitting things together and making stuff work. I love sharing my passion with others and showing them how this all works. I am pretty excited […]
[…] has made me realise this: I love IT. I love problem solving. I love fitting things together and making stuff work. I love sharing my passion with others and showing them how this all works. I am pretty excited […]
[…] filtered internet access […]
I am glad my tutorial helped you in your battle.. Thanks for the link back :o)
Cheers
Mike
http://www.mikesel.info
Thanks Mike 😀
I just worked out that opendns is blocking bit torrents too. Awesome!