Free Parental Control Software
This blog entry was posted on: 05 April 2010.
When children are surfing the Net, it’s sensible to have security measures in place to safeguard against adult-themed content, predators, malware and other rogue sites. Adult content is the obvious one, but parents may also wish to block access to a variety of other pages. The Internet is not the kind of place you’d want to grant your child unlimited access to, and rightly so. The number of dodgy sites scattered around the Web perhaps exceeds that of legitimate sites!
To fight back, a number of free software solutions exist, and we’ll investigate them below.
K9 Web Protection from Blue Coat Systems does a great job of filtering a variety of questionable content, including hacking, spyware, illegal sites, gambling, and lots more besides. Best of all, it’s completely free. In addition, K9 also provides malware cover (that is, protection against malicious software).
Another parental control program you might like to try is Visikid. Signing-up here is very quick indeed, but the program takes a different approach to K9, being more of an Internet monitor rather than filter. Visikid reports on how often your children are using the computer, which sites they visit and the applications used. The free version only allows statistics to be viewed on a day-by-day basis, but it’s still a useful tool nonetheless.
Open DNS Basic, while not a parental control program per se, can also be used to filter Web content (plus there’s some advanced commercial versions if you’re willing to spend a small fee). If you’re an Internet savvy person, and a bit technical, it could be very worthwhile.
Also be sure to view KidZui, a bright and colourful browser download that features a massive database of 2.5 million “child friendly” Web sites, videos and games. As with many of the other services, there is also a commercial variant, which packs a bit more punch than the freebie version. It’s great for kids and also parents, with up-to-date reporting on usage, and even features that enable you to block various types of content. We highly recommend this!
But what if your children like to chat to their friends via instant messengers? If they use Windows Live Messenger – formally MSN Messenger (and it’s likely they do), consider ChatShield, a tool to help protect your kids from Web bullies and Internet predators. Parents can set the level of control prior to any chat session and set up “approved” friend lists, so they can be sure the contact is genuine.
Software aside, the best protection is that of education. If children are aware of the potential dangers and how to react if they encounter them, that’s half the battle. Stay safe!