Windows XP Parental Controls in XP

[nivrip]

Anyone any experience of using parental controls in XP. The inbuilt system is aknowledged to be extremely basic.

The child in question has his own user account and we would like something that can block websites in his account only. I cannot find anything like this on the inbuilt system which seems to block out on all user accounts.

There are some downloads for parental controls out there on the web but I'm not sure how safe they would be. I would be much happier if someone could recommend a download, having had personal experience of it.

 

[TriplexDread]

Does your connection go through a router?

 

[nivrip]

Does your connection go through a router?

No.

 

[TriplexDread]

Thats a shame. Most netgear routers have an interface in which you enter the site/site's you do not want to allow access too and they will block them.

They will also send you an email if you wish them to do so allowing you to know what other places have been accessed

You ADSL or Cable?

 

[nivrip]

You ADSL or Cable?

Cable.

 

[TriplexDread]

You're answers are while straight to the point and appropriate are still very monotone mate

 

[nivrip]

There only appeared to be two answers to each question and both were single words.

 

[muckshifter]

castration

 

[floppybootstomp]

FWIW I let my three girls loose on the Internet with no restrictions when they were aged 8 & 9 respectively (twins).

I did tell them to beware of nonces and gave them the warning signs.

They all seem to have turned out ok. You see, I had confidence in their intelligence and I also think it's best not to shield your kids too much.

Not always a good idea though, I grant you, one of my nieces, visiting, on discovering my computer was unfettererd, typed the words 'b*** **b' into Google. She was ten years old at the time. Fortunately I wandered into the room and saw it.

I do remember it was quite a tough decision to make but I had confidence in my girls, a confidence rightfully realised as things turned out.

 

[nivrip]

Glad it worked out Flops. Maybe things have got a lot worse since those days.

Problem here was that an older boy gave him a website with a game on it which to be honest wasn't really bad - some references to drunken behaviour and fighting. But not really appropriate to a 7 year old, even though he is very sensible and takes note of what he is told. It would be reassuring to find a simple system for surreptitiously restricting some sites.

There seem to be a few freebies that I might look at if no-one has any suggestions.

 

[Ian]

Which AV suite are you using? It could be that it has a parental control system built in. I know that Kaspersky, Norton and a few others do.

 

[Ian]

Actually, what may be worth a shot is OpenDNS. I don't know how it will work in this case, but it may be a good solution (you'll need to try it to see if it works as well as it promises):

http://www.opendns.com/solutions/household/parental/

As you can set the DNS servers per account, you could add a customised list to your childs account, limiting adult websites without the need for any software.

 

[nivrip]

Thanks for those ideas, Ian. Kaspersky certainly gives some degree of protection and I'll be looking into the opendns option next.