Internet, kids, and how to block websites?

[Sonny]

My wife has been sharing her computer with our soon to be 5 year old twins. Last week she asked me to build the one and I did. Now we have them set up in the same room with my wife. It's so cute yet simple....pics coming soon.

The kid's PC is running Win XP/w SP3 and FireFox3 for a browser. How do I black ALL websites except the ones we allow?

[photonewb]

I know in IE you can block all sites, and then approve sites as necessary.

Or you could set the limits to something like G rated etc. It's under Tools>internet options in IE.

[Cajungaltx]

The best program is K9 Web. It's free - and you can set it to ONLY allow access to specific websites. Plus, just in case you start letting the littleo one look at other stuff - you can then say : only kids sites, only this, etc.

I have it on my 11 year olds computer. Her searches for homework were turning up some jaw dropping items... *sheesh*

So hers is filtered based on category ...

[Wes]

Do a little research: http://www.internet-filter-review.toptenreviews.com/

That being said, I built my son's computer a few weeks ago and installed Vista. The parental controls in there are very good and do exactly what I want.

[dbphotos]

What I am using is http://www.bsafeonline.com. It allows you to only allow access during certain times of the day, block specifi sites or block all sites except what you allow, if you eventually allow instant messaging, it logs all conversations, etc. It's very extensive and costa about $60 per year. You can set it to sed you weekly reports of all attempted and successful logins of every web site that was accessed or attempted access.

Until my kids are on their way to college I will never again have unfiltered access. Also, my computers are in a public area, not in anyone's bedrooms.

[Daniel Bates]

Keep in mind that when your children eventually do get access to unfiltered Internet, they need to be educated about safe browsing. A strong filter is great and I highly recommend controlled browsing, but education is a must as well.

I had BSafe as a kid, and it worked well (if anything it was too harsh - it miscategorized not a few websites).

[Dennis_H]

Another vote for K9 (www.k9webprotection.com). Seems to be pretty good, and is free. It's only real shortcoming is that you can't have different settings for different users. It can be bypassed if needed by password.

Make sure the PC is in a public place, and you should be pretty safe.

[adirty1]

I would use the router to lock it all down.. Most routers you can set your site permissions by mac address of the computer you want to lock down. Some routers will even let you set time limits and days.

[loana0320]

I definitely need to look into k9 I found my 7 year old browsing youyube the other day on their pc and freaked me out lmao