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Ask Slashdot: Good Low Cost Free Software For Protecting Kids Online?

Posted by samzenpus on from the won't-somebody-please-think-of-the-children dept.

An anonymous reader writes "I have two kids, 7 and 8. I would love to allow them internet access on a regular basis. The problem is what's out there: I really don't want them to deal with porn ads and such, but making either a blacklist or a whitelist myself would take months. So I figured I would ask you: what free software would you use with preferably prebuilt lists to protect your kids online? What is out there with fairly easy configuration ability (to allow for game servers — they love Minecraft), but secure enough they can't just bypass it using a Google search?"

5 of 646 comments (clear)

  1. Free or free by afidel · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm not aware of any Free software in this space, for free software you've got MS Live Family Safety (works with most browsers on Windows and some applications) and OpenDNS content filtering. I use the Live family safety on their laptops and OpenDNS on their tablets.

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    1. Re:Free or free by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Squid with Dansguardian (http://dansguardian.org/) has worked well for me. It has a free "subscription based" white/blacklist and also a heuristic "score" mode.

      Could be a good balance between watching them all the time and letting them have some freedom. You tell them not to visit certain sights, and unless you're running it
      on your router as a transparent proxy, can be bypassed with a modicum of effort, so some of the onus is on them.

  2. K9 Web Protection by Slacker3000 · · Score: 4, Informative

    I've used K9 Web Protection for years. http://www1.k9webprotection.com/ It's free and does a pretty good job. I also setup my wireless router to use OpenDNS as an added layer of protection for any of my kids friends who may bring something over and connect to our wireless network. It's not foolproof, but you can setup a filter level and it does a decent job of stopping "accidental" clicks.

  3. subject by Legion303 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Firefox, AdBlockPro, Noscript, and the computer in the living room.

  4. Dan's Guardian by capedgirardeau · · Score: 5, Informative

    One possibility is http://dansguardian.org/

    It is filtering based and there are community maintained blacklists and whitelists for it for different audiences.

    Good luck and as much involvement as you can have in their internet use to teach sensible web use will be beneficial as well.

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