Parental Control in 2016. How do you do it?

[olof]

I have a daughter 9 years old who is becoming quite active on internet (youtube, games, research for school) and I want to avoid her stumbling across bad/adult sites.

With so many devices in the house, I have tried do some research, but I would love to hear how you guys have done this for your kids.

This is what I have found so far as possible options:

1. Blacklist on my router (Fritz.box 7390)
It allows creation of a black list of websites but this seems to me very cumbersome. There is no way I can list all the bad sites in the world on this.

2. Buying software to install on each device
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2346997,00.asp

3. Windows allows some settings to set up Parental Control. I have not checked it though and it would not solve the Android and Iphones laying around the house
Windows 8: cnet.com/how-to/how-to-use-parental-con ... windows-8/
Windows 10: windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/ ... ly-account

Thanks
Olof

[AshaiRey]

Instead of using a blacklist you can better use a whitelist which blocks all and you give only access to the sites you want or they ask for (after checking)

[olof]

Whitelist: could be a solution for younger kids. But for a 9 year old, it probably is a very time-intensive solution. As every time my daughter is researching the internet for homework assignments I would have to keep adding websites to the whitelist.

My assumption (naive?) is that a proper router could be linked/subscribed to an 'blacklist' list which is regularly updated. Thereby saving me the time to keep updating it.

I will keep looking into it.

[AshaiRey]

Please look into the idea behind a whitelist versus blacklist.
A blacklist is faaaaar more time consuming because you need to block all the sites on the web.
With a whitelist all is blocked (urls, ip's, ranges) except those you open. that is far more safe and less time consuming.
This way you never miss one as you will do with blacklisting.

However, as i have been down this road too i know it's hard to do. Trust is working better (and an occassional check of the router log)

[olof]

Thanks.

I promise to look into the whitelist thing more closely.

[raymonvdm]

There are internet service providers who sell filtering as as service. They will filter the connection so it should work on all devices connected to that specific internet connection (PC, Ipad, Smartphone)

[olof]

tx, will look into it.
Just means that also I can´t watch any dirty stuff anymore....

[raymonvdm]

tx, will look into it.
Just means that also I can´t watch any dirty stuff anymore....

No they have a bypass function, so you should be fine

[yjb]

Most NetGear routers have a feature called "Netgear Live Parental Controls" (http://www.netgear.com/Landing/lpc.aspx) . I haven't used it myself, but running on the router it implies that all devices on the Network are subject to the filtering. Not sure how techie your kids are, but when my kids were still teenagers they we're pretty good in working around parental controls (based on software).

Ysbrand

[olof]

ok, thanks. However, as I´m quite attached to my Fritzbox router, I prefer not to switch routers...

[PietjeNL]

Maybe easyer to use something like OpenDNS FamilyShield on the devices or on the router for all.