The Best Web Filter Is…
We’re used to saying that the best web filter is the watchful eye of a parent.
We believed that to be true, and that is why we didn’t tackle web filtering in ComputerTime. A number of filtering solutions already existed when we created ComputerTime, and none of them seemed to do the job adequately.
ComputerTime tackled the problem of monitoring kids’ time, and enforcing the limits that parents decided on. We advised moms and dads to keep the computer in a public place in their home. If they are concerned about what their kids view on the Internet, then having a direct line of sight to the screen when the kids are on it should work well enough.
I’m not sure that is the best advice anymore. We’re seeing laptops flourish, so it’s harder to keep those screens in a public part of the house and the screens don’t usually face outwards into the room when the kids are sitting on the couch.
So maybe it isn’t a bad idea to employ a web filter that does a good job of blocking the nasty stuff. While many were deemed inadequate a number of years back, I believe there is a solution that well enough for me to recommend it. It’s called OpenDNS.
Six Reasons Why You’ll Love OpenDNS
I’ve been using OpenDNS for a while now. I love it and recommend it all of the time. If you want to filter out inappropriate content, here are some reasons I think you’ll love it too.
- It’s Free: In this economy, what’s not to love about free.
- Easy Setup on Your Router: They provide really simple instructions, with screen shots, for most of the popular routers. All you have to type in are a handful of numbers into the fields that they tell you to. You really can’t screw this up. Click Save and you’re done.
- Entire Network Protected: That one simple setup on your router means that every computer on your network should now be protected by the filter.
- No Software To Install: The fact that you just change a setting in your network configuration, preferably on your router, means that there is nothing to conflict or degrade your computers performance.
- Up-To-Date and Accurate Filter: New domains and websites come and go every day. This is what made it hard for so many of yester-years filtering solutions worthless. The databases of what to block would be out of date in a matter of days and weeks. OpenDNS has input from thousands of users who are constantly tagging websites into categories. With an OpenDNS account and a bookmarklet you can install on your browser toolbar, you can contribute too if you would like, or you can just rely on the wisdom of the crowds of others that do all the tagging. See a sight that you think should be blocked as inappropriate? You would click on the bookmarklet, check off the categories and submit.
- Two Versions: Easy and Easier. Both are free. If you want control over what categories get filtered, choose the standard OpenDNS, set up a free account, and enter in the DNS server numbers they they instruct you to. Don’t want to get that involved, choose their new Family Shield, and simply punch in different DNS server numbers into your router and be done. Family Shield is configured to block “Adult Content”. I assume this means things like pornography, nudity, gambling, chat rooms, erotica, violence, guns, etc. Family Shield is OpenDNS, just without the finer control. Want to have more control, use their (still free) OpenDNS and create an account.
SoftwareTime, and myself personally, do not have any relationship whatsoever with OpenDNS. This is just a hearty recommendation from a satisfied user (me!) of their service.
I’ll add that I think that if you’re using ComputerTime, or thinking about using ComputerTime, OpenDNS or Family Shield really round out your parental control toolbox.
Can I get away with saying that ComputerTime now offers free web filtering? ;-) Probably not. But the net affect is the same. Go give OpenDNS or Family Shield a try.
More on the Family Shield announcement here.
by mark on March 19, 2010
When my son was about half his age, he started to get online to play a few, fairly harmless online multi-player games. No big deal — except that these games included a “chat” feature where you can communicate with other players, which I hadn’t noticed.
I learned about the chat feature only after my son came to me frustrated that he couldn’t log into his account on the game anymore. Turns out that he got bored with the game, and decided to give away his earned points and skills to another player by giving the other player his password. Ugh.
We had a talk about sharing information with strangers online and we revisit the topic from time to time. Luckily, he didn’t give out much more personal information in the chat room.
You’re Not as Private as You Think, an article by Caroline Knorr at Common Sense Media, has a nice list of tips that you should consider and discuss with your kids. Especially with younger kids, they can be very naive about the risks of giving out personal information.
Have any additional tips you’d like to share?
by mark on August 1, 2009
A Google image search for texting while driving will turn up some pictures that will give you nightmares. If your kids text while driving, you might want to show those pictures to them. I am not inclined to link to them here because… they are gross.
But if it makes your texting teen rethink updating their Twitter while driving, then perhaps let them see what can happen.
A lot of adults aren’t any brighter than careless teens.
“My job has me out on the road for four to five days out of the week,” Anthony Perry, a director of business development for a Washington-based health care research firm, told CNN in an e-mail sent from his BlackBerry. “I don’t particularly think I am that good at texting while driving but I do it anyway, recognizing the risks.”
I don’t think he actually does recognize the risks. Mr. Perry, please have a look at those images I mentioned above. Only then can you say that you recognize the risks.
More stupidity follows:
Nevertheless, for many in business, it seems to be a matter of competitive survival.
“Now with e-mail and with the advent of the BlackBerries and hyper-accessibility, there’s this sense that if you don’t show that you’re always prepared and ready to respond and address an issue, then somehow you’re going to be perceived as not being conscientious or not keeping up on things,” said Tom Britt, a professor of social psychology at Clemson University in South Carolina.
“I could not imagine doing my job, or living my life, without the aid of a bberry,” Perry wrote. “I don’t know many who could who are in my line of work.”
In the context of an article about the modern workplace, devices and connectivity, that kind of attitude wouldn’t raise an eyebrow. But this is from this article about texting while driving. Are people seriously justifying the need to text while driving? Work demands are forcing you to put your life in great peril? Really? Or do you think that you’re that important (not to mention, indestructible)?
Mr. Perry. You only get once chance to become fatally distracted. Do that Google image search mentioned above. You’re job isn’t important enough to risk your own life or the lives of others.
Sending that message can’t possibly be that important. If it is, then it’s important enough to justify pulling over for a minute.
by mark on July 6, 2009
Kids, be careful about what you put up on your facebook pages. It could come back to haunt you when you apply for a job some day.
And grown-ups… heed the same warning!
Wife blows MI6 chief’s cover on Facebook
The wife of the new head of MI6 has caused a major security breach and left his family exposed after publishing photographs and personal details on Facebook.
Sir John Sawers is due to take over as chief of the Secret Intelligence Service in November, putting him in charge of all of Britain’s spying operations abroad.
But entries by his wife Shelley on the social networking site have exposed potentially compromising details about where they live and work, their friends’ identities and where they spend their holidays. On the day her husband was appointed she congratulated him on the site using his codename “C”.
Unbelievable.
Photo by Wesley Fryer
You’re watching the evening news and the anchor says, “Coming up next! Something that will scare the crap out of you!” After a sequence of commercials, back to the news program where they report on a murder, or an abduction, or just something that shocks and frightens you.
They peddle fear because it sells advertising. It gets you to pay attention.
We don’t become overly concerned about our safety in the real world, because we live in it every day — working, shopping, socializing, jogging &mdash and we know it’s safe based on our experiences. Horrible things on the news rarely ever show up in our lives.
The news widely reports, and harps on, those rare events that happen in the real world.
When they report about online dangers and examples of bad things happening on FaceBook, MySpace, chat rooms and the like, some parents become very nervous about their kids being in the online world.
Some parents, not having a lot of experience in the online world, aren’t living it every day and can’t grasp that it’s relatively safe. They are only going on the sensationalized news stories.
If you’re one of those parents who is concerned about the online world your kids inhabit, you need to take some steps so that you can relax.
First, get some facts to put things in perspective. I heard Lenore Skenazy on NPR’s Talk of the Nation to discuss the realities of online predators with Neil Conan, Richard Blumenthal, and Janis Wolak. Each has a unique perspective on, and it is worth the half-hour listen.
Lenore also wrote about the subject on her
Free Range Kids blog So check them both out.
Next, calm your nerves by familiarizing yourself with the online world. Even better, ask your kids to help setting you up. If they show you the ropes you’ll get a good idea of what they do online as they explain to you what is cool and what is dumb. Ask them questions like, “What if somebody friends me, but I don’t want to be their friend?” or “If somebody is my friend, and they start bugging me, can I unfriend them?” You may come away with a feeling that you’re kids are doing a good job of being safer online than you think.
But don’t be insulted or angry if they won’t friend you. This is a way that your kids hang out with their peers. You’re their parent, not their peer, and they will think it’s creepy that their parents insist on always being present in their teen hangout. Besides, don’t we want to keep adults out of our kids online hangouts?
Pick up Lenore’s, Free-Range Kids: Giving Our Children the Freedom We Had Without Going Nuts with Worry
and help your kids to grow up stronger and independent.
by mark on April 26, 2009
Talking to my ex the other day about my 13-year-old son and how I would be willing to let him go hang out by the beach with his friends in the summer time, she made it clear that she wouldn’t agree to that.
I pointed out that when we were 13 years old that we did things like that all of the time. That valid point was simply dismissed and I got the hair-raising “Well, it’s a different world today.”
<Sigh> Yes, it is a different world today. In general, a safer one for kids.
In our town, we have a small beach, heavily populated with adults, and more than one lifeguard on duty. And our son is not a risk-taker. And we’re talking about Long Island Sound — there is no surf on this beach!
I just ordered Free-Range Kids: Giving Our Children the Freedom We Had Without Going Nuts with Worry and after I am done reading it I’ll pass it along to her to see if it has any effect.
by mark on March 31, 2009
Speaking to a customer who was trying out ComputerTime, I was asked if ComputerTime did parental control types of things. What she really was asking was, “Does ComputerTime do internet filtering?” Some people think the terms are synonymous. But parental control software is a more general term and can refer to different types of control.
Blocking and Logging Parental Control Software
Most parental control software that hit the market over a decade ago, primarily monitored or blocked websites along with other internet related activities. Some software went as far as spying on kids every activity.
Website blocking software has never been extremely effective*. To be effective, the database of sites that need to be blocked has to be complete. But everyday, tens of thousands of new domains are registered. Old domains expire and are acquired by people who put up different web pages than the previous owners. If you feel comfortable utilizing a tool that may only be 90% accurate — that’s better than nothing — but don’t rely on it for real protection.
I Spy with my 25 Eyes by nickhall
Tools that give parents detailed logs of websites visited, every keystroke typed, and even screen snapshots seem a bit creepy. Just because parents can monitor every aspect of their kids online lives, is it the right thing to do? Parents will take different sides on this issue. Parents today should think back to when they were kids: If your parents clandestinely listened in on your phone conversations, or trailed you in their cars at a distance, using parabolic microphones to listen to your conversations across the parking lot, would you resent or respect them for how they handled your upbringing.
SoftwareTime’s Approach to Parental Control
SoftwareTime‘s stance is that the best web filter is the watchful eye of the parent. Ensure that computers are located in a public area of the house and if you choose, set limits that disallow use of the computer at times that you won’t be around to keep an eye on the activity.
ComputerTime encourages responsible use of computers. Kids push against boundaries, not always respecting limits. They don’t always act in their own best interest, and ignore consequences. Parental guidance is required. ComputerTime helps parents to provide this guidance, but does not replace parents.
With ComputerTime, it’s you, the parent, that still sets the rules for how long and when your kids can be on the computer. You can be strict with the limits that you set, or you can be flexible and let the kids manage their time within relaxed constraints if they have shown themselves to be more responsible. Since you’re only managing time with ComputerTime, it’s a less intrusive type of parental control.
Things Are and Aren’t Different Today
Kids with cell phones, the web, IM, email, FaceBook, MySpace… It’s a whole new world.
But kids themselves, they haven’t changed all that much. The aspire to be trusted, respected, loved, appreciated, etc.
The best way to handle our children in today’s technology-saturated world is similar to what our parents would have done when we were kids:
- Have a good, open relationship with our kids where they feel comfortable talking with you. Spying on them would joepardize that relationship, so don’t do that.
- Provide guidance. Teach your kids good values and responsibility so that kids can do the right thing whether that be at the playground, the mall, or online.
- Pay attention to your kids. You’ll know when something is wrong; attentive parents notice subtle changes in kids behavior and moods when they are in trouble.
- Give them roots and wings
Do you agree with this philosophy? Do you think parents always be aware of exactly what’s going on? Overtly or covertly? Leave a comment below.
—-
A quick shout out to my friend Brett, who posted about his fears and uncertainties about how to best handle the issue of how much privacy he should give his kids when they’re old enough to get onto the Internet. It’s a problem that a lot of parents wrestle with, and inspired me to share my two cents.
Whether you suffer hearing loss from headphones depends on three things: how loud you listen to music, how long you listen, and what type of headphones you listen with.
Most MP3 players (such as the iPod) come with the earbud style headphones which are placed in the ear, will cause hearing loss faster than supra-aural headphones which rest on the outer ear.
Study: Hearing damage occurs after more than 5 minutes of full-volume listening on iPod earbuds.
The worst choice appears to be the headphones that isolate outside noise by fitting into the ear canal.
Played at no more than 50% of the maximum volume, none of the headphones appear to cause permanent hearing loss. You can even enjoy constant listening at those moderate levels.
Higher volumes bring the risk of damage, and then listening times also become a factor. If you are going to push the volume up, then you should limit how long you listen.
Recommendations: Find a good set of supra-aural headphones. I’m a fan of the Sennheiser PX 100
headphones. They are comfortable, light, and sound terrific. Most importantly, don’t play it so loud!
Previously: Famous Rocker Pleads With You to Turn It Down.
