I recently had to look at the issue of online protection because my 5 year old son is finally old enough to start using the internet. It isn’t something that I had never thought about before, but something that is fresh today. As a parent, it is our responsibility to protect our children. This post will serve more as a guide to things I have looked at, as well as a starting point to discussions on things I have not yet seen. I was hoping to not get into discussions of “what is too much” and “invasion of privacy”. That is something that is a personal choice we all have to make and is beyond the scope of this post.
I presented the question about privacy to twitter and had some interesting ideas sent back to me:
- wpmuguru@techtrent for emma what we set up was an html page on the desktop that had icons and links to the sites she used (ex. findingnemomovie.com)
- Chris_KastenStart w/ (configured) OpenDNS RT @techtrent: for all of you out there with young children, do you use any software to control the internet?
I will start with the idea from wpmuguru. This is a simple, yet wonderful start to this discussion. Since my son is young, he generally only does the things that are on his desktop. This includes his learning games as well as the links to great sites like CBC Kids. I immediately cleaned up everything on his desktop and created a simple HTML page when he opens safari with all the links in question for him.
Next, was the idea from Chris_Kasten. Once again, a wonderful idea. OpenDNS is a simple way to protect your online life without any software installs and can be done on an entire home network. It doesn’t require anything other than a DNS change. Once you have the DNS configured as well as a simple account creation, you can block sites based on categories. For instance:
Simple enough to block just phishing sites from your network or any variation of porn, gambling, violence, etc. that you might deem important. It can be setup for multiple computers easily and best of all, it is 100% free!
Simple, yet effective ideas from some very smart people. I appreciate the feedback!
There are several software suites out there that I have also researched and have yet to put any of them on my network or computers yet, as I want more time to evaluate them. They are, in no particular order:
- Untangle Firewall – This is another free solution for controlling your private network. It is a firewall that helps block from phishing, spyware, viruses and multiple sites. It is a community based project that is constantly updated. It also offers monitoring tools to find out what is being used on your network and when. Included are chat programs, sites, times and the ability to lock things down. It is only Windows based, but there are ways around that if you are so inclined.
- eBlaster – This product gives you the ability to monitor your network in a more intrusive way. It gives you the option to see all chat logs, email logs as well as detailed information on web sites. I am sure it does many other things, but isn’t free. It can be used for personal or business use just like the other products mentioned. The testimonials deal with some hard issues like online predators and other important issues, but without judgement, I will leave it at that.
- Net Nanny – This is a cheaper solution than eBlaster and doesn’t seem quite as intrusive. It is a product that achieves similar results though.
There were other products out there and many other solutions including tutorials on using the built-in parental controls on your operating system I also read about. It is a big topic and without jumping in with both feet, I am still evaluating my options.
Without getting into the discussions on privacy, I believe that the market is providing multiple solutions at our disposal as parents to protect our children as we see fit. Any of the solutions in conjunction with a healthy and open communication relationship with our children should be a good starting point for us all.
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