What Filters Are Right For Kids?

WaywardGeek writes "My daughter is using phrases like 'hot guys,' and soon will have a chat about the birds and the bees. I believe in letting kids discover the world as it is, and have no Internet controls on any of our systems, which are mostly Linux based. However, it's not fair for aggressive porn advertisers to splash sex in her face without her permission. My question is: What Linux-based Internet filtering solution do Slashdot dads favor, and do they hinder a child's efforts to learn about the world?"

Comments

Adblock

[antifoidulus]

Seriously, if all you are worried about is her getting porn ads when she doesn't want them, just use adblock.

Use openDNS

[sammy_cda]

Use openDNS and set up an account. Point your router's DNS settings to their servers. It allows a few different levels of filtering. You can change the levels of filtering as she grows older.

OpenDNS

[jkupko]

Just change your DNS servers to OpenDNS (http://www.opendns.com/) and register your IP with them. You can use their category-based filtering to block the pr0n. Block adware, malware, and phishing while you're at it. Oh, and enjoy a faster DNS service and extensive stats pages. If you are worried about a dynamic IP from your ISP, don't be: most ISP's preferentially reassign IPs to customers instead of switching it up. Happy censoring!

DansGuardian

[pjbgravely]

DansGuardian

Either put it on their desktop or install on a server if they use OSX/Microsoft windows.

Use OpenDNS and a hosts file

[NeverVotedBush]

Actually, something like that exists for Linux and any OS that uses DNS - check out OpenDNS.

http://www.opendns.com/

You can configure what levels of filters to use and even customize the page that opendns supplies when a forbidden link is clicked.

They are also working to block some of the botnet phone homes.

All you need to do is use their name servers. You can set up an account and configure what gets blocked and what doesn't.

Also check out an enhanced hosts file at http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm.

That will block a lot of requests from ever leaving the computer. You can also add in whatever others you want as well.

Re:Use OpenDNS and a hosts file

[WaywardGeek]

Dude, right on! I'm the original poster, and I have to tell you, this is exactly what I was looking for. I've set filter level to 'medium', for malware/phishing and porn. As the kids grow old enough to figure out how to get around it, they're probably old enough to handle unfiltered content.

I hate to sound like an add for these guys, but hey, it's free, and in a few minutes of testing, it blocked 100% of the porn sites I tried to visit, but nothing from wikipedia.org. Search for 'sex' on wikipedia, and you still get a useful, informative site. Search for 'sex' on Google, and not one hard-core porn site is allowed, but metacafe.com gets through. The 'cached' links from Google show hard-core porn thumbnails, though. Not perfect, but way better than I was expecting! Thanks!

Re:The simple one.

[kirbysuperstar]

I have to ask...do people REALLY that often, hit porn sites by accident?

No.

Re:Privoxy

[LateArthurDent]

If he wants a filter that is more difficult to bypass by the child, Privoxy is pretty handy.

Well, he specifically said he doesn't. He said he "believes in letting kids discover the world as it is" and that it's not fair for porn advertisers to display sex "without her permission," he didn't say his. I think that means he wants her to be able to bypass it if she wants to, but doesn't want her to be exposed to things she's not specifically looking for.

Pretty reasonable stance, and I think adblock is the way to go.

Re:The simple one.

[geminidomino]

Sure it does.

1) /etc/hosts - Unwieldy, but effective.
2) apt-get install bind - A little better, zone files are available
3) OpenDNS and the like...
4) Privoxy
5) Squid+Junkbuster
6) ...

Re:The simple one.

[Ephemeriis]

I have to ask...do people REALLY that often, hit porn sites by accident?

I mean, I can count on one hand (I know I know) the number of times I've actually had porn flash up on my browser when I was not looking for it....in all these years.

How bad a problem is this actually? From anecdotal evidence, I'd have to guess if someone has porn on the screen....they were looking for it.

Depends on the situation, the user, etc... But, yes, it does happen accidentally.

You can throw some pretty innocent phrases into Google and get some pretty interesting results. Some torrent search sites, which are very popular for folks looking to download music, have pretty explicit advertising on them. And it's entirely too easy to wind up on somebody's mailing list and get deluged with advertisements for various adult services. Some malware pops up advertising as well, sometimes it is of the adult variety.