I have a young child of my own (20 months), but my wife and I have recently become registered foster carers and one of the things that is on our 'must do before children arrive' check list is to safe-guard the internet connection from the typical online nasties. My only knowledge of this area is from [the days of?] Net Nanny and Cyber Sitter, both of which I recall being a bit naff and not really effective. I think there's going to be some kind of proxying involved, but I can't really find any 'ready made' solutions and time is against me. It has to be something proactive and I don't really want to use something crude like blocking rude patterns in URLs... Surely this is a problem a lot of hacker parents have? So what do you guys do/use?
Simplest method (what we do) is to set up OpenDNS Home (<a href="http://www.opendns.com/home-solutions/parental-controls/" rel="nofollow">http://www.opendns.com/home-solutions/parental-controls/</a>) as your home router's DNS server, which should then propagate to all your machines.<p>It only blocks the most egregious stuff and doesn't do anything about monitoring/blocking chat, etc., but at least you have some basic peace of mind.<p>(Of course, a determined budding hacker could easily get around it if they can change a local machine's DNS settings.)
Model good practices.<p>Be present with your child when she is using the internet.<p>Shut down the electronics and put them away at night.<p>Discuss the facts of the world openly and honestly. Don't lie.<p>It's just basic parenting stuff - no different than cable TV or DVD's. It's all in the relationship.<p>There's no techno-fix. Or rather, the techno fix doesn't substitute for actual engagement.<p>It will help to think through where your limits are. What are your options when a 13 year old boy visits Pornhub to watch teen lesbian videos?<p>Do you call a counselor? Ignore it as a normal part of sexual expression? Lay hands on to remove the devil? Talk about it? Ignore it?<p>Is your response different if it's bondage? Forced sex? Latex gimp dwarf porn?<p>There's no shortcuts. Parenting is pretty simple and very hard. You protect them by teaching them to make healthy choices and leave the helicopter in the hanger as often as possible.<p>Good luck.
You probably want to ask this question to happy parents of happy children, not just any parents, including overcontrolling parents who makes their own and their children's lives miserable.