Parental Controls?
Posted by: dropped packet [ITS Security] under Informative
January 27, 2010
Many of you have children using the Internet for various reasons it might be for homework, games, chat etc. Do you really know what your child looks at? I have spoken to many people with different points of view on the subject with comments that range from “I will let my child use the Internet” to “I trust my child”. Both ideas might be a little naive about what is really going on here. Parental controls or content filtering are like a lock on the door, it keeps the honest, honest and the dishonest will get in anyway.
Let’s look at a simple homework project that could be given by your child’s teacher. Write a short paper on the rainforest. Okay, that seems normal, but when you search for the rainforest the results could very well be inappropriate for children. Now if you won’t allow your child to use the Internet you might be living in a vacuum of sorts, since they have access to it at school, library, friends, etc. Keep in mind that I know several adults that run parental control on their personal machines just because they don’t want to see some of the filth that is out there.
What does the software do you might ask? Well it’s a filter, you setup what you want to block. Most of the packages I have seen have categories that you check such as dating, sports, gambling, adult content, etc. You simply select the categories that you want to block. At any point you can override the blocked site with a password when needed and you can also enter in exceptions to your rule list.
Another option that is offered by some packages are time limits. You may decide that little Johnny can use the Internet from 6:00pm to 7:00pm and little Suzy can use it from 8:00pm to 9:00pm. Some also allow the creation of time durations so a user can be on the Internet for two hours a day and will be blocked after they have been surfing for 2 hours. Many packages even offer the ability to block some programs from executing. This feature is great if you have games loaded for older children that the younger should not play.
Their are a few different options on the blocking method. The first is software based (Figure 1). This is software that you can load on the system that you are trying to protect and works well for home use. The second is proxy server based (Figure 2). This requires some security to be setup on your computer. It redirects the address you are visiting to a third party for verification and access. The third option is hardware based (Figure 3). These are mostly used in business but some home units are on the market. One thing you can do with all these options is monitor. You will have access to logs that show you the who, what, where, and when with regards to Internet access.
Always remember that no security/filtering solution is 100%. The best solution to compliment any suite of tools is simply to be aware of what is going on with your computer.
