A friend on mine has asked me to help her out because she has recently discovered that her child is using the internet inappropriately. The friend is talking to her child about it, but she has asked me to look at the PC and see if I can find any specific dangers (sites, IM, e-mail).
I have said that I will help her out in checking the browsing history and things like that, but I also want to be prepared incase she asks for any other ideas, like software to monitor net surfing.
I don’t have any experience with any particular software as I have never had a need for it, but it doing some research I have found several different options and I wanted some opinions before I make and recommendations.
The ones I have seen are K9 Web Protection, Naomi, NetDog Internet Filter, SafeSquid, and Net Nanny. Does anyone have any experience/opinions on any of these applications?
I understand and will explained that technology is not always the answer and she is talking with her daughter, but I want to be prepared incase the question does arise.
My advise is only useful if she has a new-ish computer with Vista installed.
My version of Windows Vista (Home Premium) has parental controls built into it that are pretty good. They let me monitor what programs (email, IM, games, etc.) and websites they are visiting, how much time they are spending on any of the above and it allows me to control what times they are allowed to use the computer at all. My girls are still young and aren’t doing much beyond surfing cartoon-related websites, but when they start doing more, I’ll know that too.
I use K9 Web Protection on my kids’ computer. It works great. Not only does it allow you to set the kind of filters you decide upon, but it also will monitor what sites were browsed. Also, it is pretty secure as well. I’m a techie and I could not find an obvious way around it. Best of all it is completely free.
Right now I do not know what OS is on the PC. I did some digging around yesterday afternoon in the IE Content Advisor settings and found some useful items in there.
K9 Web Protection does sound like a useful tool, so I might have my friend look at it. Does anyone else have any opinions?