I suppose that would be nice. But your child is 8 years old. No 8-year-old on the planet should have unsupervised internet access. If you turn off the internet entirely and make a sandbox with a few games and a reference CD-ROM (DVD? whatever), then it might be appropriate to let a child that young use the computer without supervision. But he shouldn’t be allowed to Google anything without his parents hovering over his shoulder the whole time.
My experience is that all of the net-nanny ware, including that built into IE, is crap. Sites have to have compatible rating codes for many of them to work, and few (fewer and fewer?) sites bother with it. We were forever having to add another site to the approved list, and then collateral sites wouldn’t work, etc. I know some people are quite happy with such setups, but I found them balky, annoying and (in the case of usage timers supposed to limit sessions) just plain non-workie.
I don’t think anything substitutes for keeping a kid’s computer in a common area where parents can see the screen.
I set up a scheme for my son’s access when he was seven.
I ran a dual-homed Linux host with Privoxy as a proxy server. Privoxy allows you to whitelist sites, and allows you to mark sites as allowed referrers. So I could, for example, allow him to see cartoonnetwork.com and any site that was linked from cartoonnetwork.com – but not any site that linked from such a site, unless I manually validated it.
His system was wired into the Ethernet so that it could only physically reach that second port on the Privoxy server.
I disagree. My system allowed him to have “unsupervised” Internet access in the sense that I didn’t need to be physically present, but since he couldn’t see any site unless I pre-approved it or it was a direct-link from a trusted site, there was no problem.
When he got a wi-fi device, I added a WAP that was resident on that same tightly controlled VLAN.
How did your setup cope with ads? Was it immune to malware? Could a child using that setup still see inline text ads for hookups, even if clicking on them went nowhere?
My computer has always been in the lounge area. When the kids were young and wanted to use the internet, I could see the screen from where my chair was.
All the other stuff about not giving them Admin access so they can’t download and install anything and setting the security and search levels.
My theory is that they’re going to be exposed to this stuff anyway so why bother? I mean really. Block it out all you want, but what are you accomplishing?
I assume porn is what you’re worried about, but I don’t think that’s even a concern if you’re communicating well with your child. When I was a kid porn was stashed in drawers of parents and siblings and even found in the woods!
Having the computer in a common area and walking past occasionally is a good idea, and so is checking browser history, but kids are naturally curious and unless there are major alarm bell issues with torture and rape and denigration… I mean really, it’s not the end of the world that normal curious kids look at porn. That’s my interpretation anyway.
We’re all OK with them killing one another on video games, but God forbid they see blowjobs and fucking.
Not so much the Porn, curious kids will stumble on stuff. You don’t want them over exposed to it, just the same as I wouldn’t let 8 year olds play violent video games either.
My main worry was chat sites, bulletin boards, messaging etc. Lurkers posing as kids the same age when they’re a middle aged man typing one handed (if you get my drift).
When mine were youngish, windows messenger was all the rage. I had to ask my daughter a few times to delete and block people who she admitted she didn’t know but had added her and seemed nice, when I thought some of the line of comments was as suss as a $3 note.
I have used this in the past and think it is a competent “net nanny” (free, too): K9 Web Protection
Also use something like Firefox with a configured Adblock Plus and Adblock Plus Popup Stopper.
Not my child. But no, we don’t want to sit with him and watch every keystroke. He’ll be using it in the living room or in the kitchen, where we can easily look at what he’s doing now and then. It’s not as if he’s going to take it into his room and shut the door for the afternoon.
I’m not worried about him looking up porn at this point, I think he’s more interested in looking up videos of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
However, I’d like to reduce the possibility that he stumbles on somthing by accident that he’s not ready for.
The messenger aspect hadn’t occurred to me…he hasn’t asked for it, and I’m not bringing it up!
It’s not as simple as violence and porn. There is some sick, twisted, mind-warping shit out there that kids don’t need to be exposed to. As well as sick, twisted individuals hunting for innocent friends to play with. Any parent who lets a kid wander freely in that milieu is not much different from one who lets them go play on busy streets.
13 and 15. I can’t possibly be with them 100% of the time they’re on-line. Rather I can talk to them and have conversations about what’s appropriate and what’s not.
My daughter got caught once looking at porn with a friend a few years ago; she didn’t know we could check the browser history. My son has looked at porn, as evidenced by the browser history too, but so far it’s been pretty normal stuff. Stuff that I would have looked at at their age if the internet was around.
So far I have nothing to worry about. They’re good, normal, well-adjusted kids with lots of other hobbies and don’t spend an inordinate amount of time on-line anyway. I think that’s key too.
Okay. Your post had a slight whiff of childless opinionating… I apologize for questioning it.
There’s a considerable difference between 8 and 13. Our twins (last of six altogether) have had computer access since they were 3 or 4, but until about 11 it was only in a public area of the house with the screen visible to all, and we reviewed history and talked to them about getting out of any unexpected location immediately. They were good about it.
Now, at 13-next-month, they have essentially unlimited access, with some review, and as you say, at that age, they’re past any casual supervision and you have to trust that they will handle, or ask appropriate guidance for, anything they run into.
<sobs into hands> Now if they’d just stop TALKING about it so much!