I’ve been looking into a way to provide a safer environment at home for my kids to use the Internet. There are a number of products that have been around for years that you pay for; NetNanny, CyberPatrol, etc but I just thought I’d make you aware of a few other things I have found that you might like to try.

At the time of writing this all are completely free.

1. K9 Web Protection.

A small application that you install on your child’s PC that runs as a service in the background, and forces all web traffic through its own internal proxy service. You can configure it block websites based on categories, (60 in all; illegal drugs, pornography, firearms, etc). You can also provide time restrictions.

You do need to register on the site for a free serial number but you only have to provide your name and your email address.

http://www1.k9webprotection.com/

2. Chat Shield

This one is about Instant messaging, and allows you to restrict who is allowed to contact your kids over IM. The registration process isn’t simple, because it relies on a system called NetIDme and as a parent you may have to carry out a postal registration if the online check doesn’t work for you. (It didn’t for me for some reason). In that case you need to get a professional person that knows you to countersign your application.

However once it’s all set up you can create a list of allowed email addresses of people that are allowed to communicate with your child over IM. This list can be set up individually for multiple children also. Your children cannot add new people to their contacts list without your intervention.

It also has the ability to save all the chat logs to a central place which you can review later if you so wish.

http://www.chatshield.com/

3. Microsoft OneCare Family Safety

The last one is an offering from MS and supports similar features to both of the products above in one package; both web filtering and IM restrictions. Basically you create a MS “passport” (what MS calls a login) and then register on the Family Safety site as “A Parent”. You can then create passports for your children and individually set web filtering based on categories or block/white lists, and also restrict who they can chat with in IM.

You need to install the MS Family Safety program onto each computer that your child uses but once set up you can manage the rules and contact lists from anywhere centrally using the MS website. This includes being able to see reports about which sites your children have been visiting, and also the capability of subsequently allowing or blocking those sites from within the user interface.

I’d point out that if you have Vista there is built in functionality for this also.

http://www.microsoft.com/protect/products/family/onecarefami…

Remember, that Internet safety for your children is as much about education as it is about monitoring and restriction and you shouldn’t rely wholly on any of the products above.

Finally here’s a site with a number of podcasts about Internet Security focusing mainly on the online safety of children. Podcast topics include;

What are your kids finding on the Internet?
Content and Filtering
Safe and Responsible Surfing
Chat Rooms and Instant Messaging
Parenting Guidelines
Online Predators

http://www.internetsafetypodcast.com/

I hope you find this useful.