Parental filters for internet
I have a 6-year-old who is just starting to get on the internet and enjoy some of the educational games and etc. It would be *way* too easy for him to click on some ad or other link and be taken into content that is completely inappropriate. So I'm on the prowl for some decent filtering software. I really like free software (see other posts) but I'm willing to pay a one-time fee if it's reasonable. What I don't want to do is end up paying that fee each and every year.
I tried "We Block" and it slowed my browsing to a CRAWL. (That was after I turned off the keyword searching -- as long as this software was installed I experienced slow-downs by 5-10 times! (Just between my wireless router and my computer I was unable to update my bandwidth meter every 5 seconds -- it took longer than 5 seconds for it to download! When I got rid of the software it was instantaneous -- just a blip and the screen was updated. I tried it several times on and off to make sure I wasn't getting confused with some other change -- definitely We Block was the problem.)
Then I downloaded CyberSitter. It works effectively and no big slow-down, but some of the designed-in "features" are crazy! If you get to a page deemed inappropriate (and there seem to be a lot of false positives) they don't give you a message -- they either put up a simple "not found" type of message or else THEY REDIRECT YOU TO SOME UNRELATED SITE! What's that all about?!? I can see the first as being an OPTION parents might want to choose in certain circumstances, but I can't imagine when there would EVER be a time where being redirected to an unrelated site makes sense. And certainly there should be an option to simply give an error message which makes it clear WHY you can't go to that site. Now whenever I get an error message related to my browsing (timeout, not found, etc.) I always have to disable the filtering and try the site again simply because I don't know if there's really a problem or if it is just the filtering software. YUK! And the other problem is that there is no concept of multiple profiles or users -- I operate at the same level as my 6-year-old. That in and of itself makes this software virtually unusable in my book. (I'm not interested in viewing ually explicit content and would like to have that filtered, but I don't want to be reading in a technical forum where someone cusses and suddenly I find myself in some unrelated site.)
SCORE SHEET SO FAR:
We Block: 1 out of 5 (unusable)
CyberSitter: 3 out of 5 (good for very restrictive environments, but crazy response to filtered sites and no way of applying a different profile for different users)
Any suggestions on another one I can try that won't require me to pay an annual fee?
I tried "We Block" and it slowed my browsing to a CRAWL. (That was after I turned off the keyword searching -- as long as this software was installed I experienced slow-downs by 5-10 times! (Just between my wireless router and my computer I was unable to update my bandwidth meter every 5 seconds -- it took longer than 5 seconds for it to download! When I got rid of the software it was instantaneous -- just a blip and the screen was updated. I tried it several times on and off to make sure I wasn't getting confused with some other change -- definitely We Block was the problem.)
Then I downloaded CyberSitter. It works effectively and no big slow-down, but some of the designed-in "features" are crazy! If you get to a page deemed inappropriate (and there seem to be a lot of false positives) they don't give you a message -- they either put up a simple "not found" type of message or else THEY REDIRECT YOU TO SOME UNRELATED SITE! What's that all about?!? I can see the first as being an OPTION parents might want to choose in certain circumstances, but I can't imagine when there would EVER be a time where being redirected to an unrelated site makes sense. And certainly there should be an option to simply give an error message which makes it clear WHY you can't go to that site. Now whenever I get an error message related to my browsing (timeout, not found, etc.) I always have to disable the filtering and try the site again simply because I don't know if there's really a problem or if it is just the filtering software. YUK! And the other problem is that there is no concept of multiple profiles or users -- I operate at the same level as my 6-year-old. That in and of itself makes this software virtually unusable in my book. (I'm not interested in viewing ually explicit content and would like to have that filtered, but I don't want to be reading in a technical forum where someone cusses and suddenly I find myself in some unrelated site.)
SCORE SHEET SO FAR:
We Block: 1 out of 5 (unusable)
CyberSitter: 3 out of 5 (good for very restrictive environments, but crazy response to filtered sites and no way of applying a different profile for different users)
Any suggestions on another one I can try that won't require me to pay an annual fee?
posted by Peter Bowers at 7:19 AM
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