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Hi Guys,

I have been tasked with making a netbook with intenet access safe to use for young children, (5 -9 yr olds), probably running Windows XP, I know that no parental control app will be 100% effective but would like to know what the best one I could use is, it has to be free, anybody have any opinions or experience with parental control programs I would love your input and reccomendations.

thanks in advance.

regards

Dyno

Only way I know how is to unplug the ethernet cable. And even then they might start hacking the neighbour's WiFi. Bloody kids these days... Get off my ports etc.

What's wrong with the standard Parental Controls in Vista/Windows 7? (I'm sure they're also in XP...)

I use the built in W7 stuff, plus Windows Live parental controls.. works pretty good

XP users?

Password the default account (Admin level account). Set up Limited User account for kids. Apply Windows SteadyState 2.5 (Its a Microsoft created freeware tool.)

Overview:
=> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_SteadyState

Get it here:
=> http://download.cnet.com/Windows-Steady ... 27965.html

Handbook is here:
=> http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/de ... px?id=4310


Combine this with using OpenDNS's Basic or family oriented solutions...
Basic => http://www.opendns.com/home/basic
FamilyShield => http://www.opendns.com/landings/familyshield

Basic has customization, FamilyShield does not.

a thick leather belt and a joyful glint in your eye when you use it...

at least that was my parents control..

yogibbear wrote:

What's wrong with the standard Parental Controls in Vista/Windows 7? (I'm sure they're also in XP...)

They require Internet Explorer.

bthylafh wrote:

yogibbear wrote:

What's wrong with the standard Parental Controls in Vista/Windows 7? (I'm sure they're also in XP...)

They require Internet Explorer.

IE-9 is a really good browser. the "Bashing IE because it just sucks" days are in the ending phases. IE has moved past v6 and has done nothing but get better where some other browsers have gotten much worse.

xtalentx wrote:

a thick leather belt and a joyful glint in your eye when you use it...

at least that was my parents control..

An effective method.

K9 Web Protection, OpenDNS, and WebCleaner are the easiest to set up of the good ones. If you're willing to put a bit more work into getting things set up, you could also look at DansGuardian, polipo, Squid/SquidGuard/SafeSquid, or Privoxy.

I haven't tried all of these but have read a lot of reviews and have some experience with a couple of them.