concerned parent

[pelao]

My kid has gone a bit overboard with the computer, the problem is I'm out of the house all day so I want I way to limit the connection, like making the connection crash after a few minutes or something of that sort, nothing too radical.
TIA
pelao

[Target]

How about setting a password that only you know for the internet connection?

That way, you will have total control over access to the net. Your child will not be able to get on unless you do the dial-in for them.

[thekingofpain]

There is also software that limits a childs ability to get beyond where you set boundarys...

[Dputiger]

There are also ISP's that prevent children from accessing harmful webpages. My parents have one called Quixnet.net that works extremely well.

The only downside is, the ISP doesn't differentiate between users--no one is allowed access to blocked websites. Still, it is a good solution.

[El_Brio]

Take it from a recent adolescent. You child is -most likely- much more tech savvy than you. No matter what you do, it will only be a matter of days before the malicious teen mind will find a way around it.

Your best (and in my view only) option is to sit him down and talk to him about why some of this stuff is bad. Checking out some pictures of some naked girls once in a while isn't gonna hurt any boy. We all found (or will find) a way to do it one way or another. Probabaly the worst thing you can do is treat him like his urges are unnatural - or worse yet criminal. Chances are if he knows that you know what he is up to he will stop. Another thing to keep in mind is this - if he doesn't know that you know what he is up to on-line you are free to monitor what he does. If you put the hammer down on him he will hide his activities and you will have no clue what he is up to.

Besides there really isn't that much bad stuff out there. I have been around awhile and have seen much of what the internet has to offer and frankly, without a credit card there really isn't much to be had. Newsgroups probabaly present the only threat. I would try to steer him clear of those. (should be easy with any isp). What it all comes down to is that if you try to keep naked pictures out of a pubescent boy's hands you will invariably fail. This isn't abnormal either. (unless you WANT a son who's "a little light in the loafers") Don't sweat it. Monitor it.

[Dputiger]

I actually agree with El_Brio to a point.

I can tell you that in two hours of trying to break through Quixnet's ISP lockouts I was unable to. I only use them as an example because they are the only ISP I've tried this on. There are other choices.

But even this solution won't fix everything--there are just too many loopholes, email programs, newsgroups, etc.

If you're absolutely determined to not allow the Internet in your house unmonitored, your only real solution is to have it disconnected.

[shadow]

You may want to consider a keylogger program which logs all keystrokes, sites visited, etc.

Nasty but you'd know what he was doing online. Here's one example:
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Hills/8839/skin984.html

[mad hampster]

I dunno the internet can be a pretty preverted place, I once did a websearch for "tank-treads" for a school project and came up with several porn sites...I REALLLLY dont wanna know the relation.

[KillerBug]

Ya, keylogers work great...

Record for 693 hours of use
------------------------------
g
clear

[Ultima]

Ya might already know this, but how about Zonealarm???

Zonealarm has a built in feature that lets you set some kinda timer that if ya set it, it will block internet access after for example 1 minute of inactivity.

If ya would wanna get on the net, you'd have to have the right password.

Seems like a good option to me.

Pim

[Richard_Cranium72]

Hey Guys, what about the "Content Advisor"? I enabled it once just to see what happens and was unable to go even to MicroSoft. It will keep ya outt any site with a unapproved rating or NO RATING either.. any thoughts on this, the person who sets this up has a password to change it... ?? DrVette

[OuTpaTienT]

Assuming you use the phone line to connect to the net, then just get yourself and EXTERNAL modem (and get rid of the internal one). Then, when you go off to work just grab the modem and go.

Or get one of those nifty removable hard drives and use it as your main boot drive. Same idea, take it with you.

Or, follow my parents philosophy and just backhand the little bugger and say, "...because I SAID SO. That's why."

[ghostface]

whatever happened to those keyboard locks of old? i used to have a roommate that would use my old gateway all the time. got fed up so i started using the key to lock the keyboard everytime i left the room. worked wonders.

[GroundZero3]

El_Brio you haven't really been online much have you? There is some really sick ***** out there for free! i mean i would be surfing and all of a sudden just some bizzare stuff come up for free. the internet has opened up my eyes alot. there is so much stuff i never new about till i started surfing about 3 years ago. my best advice is to change the passwords to the internet and sign him on when you are home. or you can just take the power cords off the computer http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif thats what my mom used to do. (but make sure he doesn't have any other laying around like i did) http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif
JaYsin

[Graham]

If he is like my son (10) he will be looking for cheats for games, unfortunately a lot of the pages have adverts for porn, and of course he went there. I believe that he got to the first one by accident, but.......
Not too much you can do, its just a pity you can get this stuff without choosing to !!
I have no problem with porn etc. being there, just where it is !!

G

[bobcat]

http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/frown.gif CyberPatrol - You can set the time of day one can be connected to the internet. It also filters out bad sites and words. You can hack past it by crtl-del. Do that enough times and it chokes and you have access to the internet, unrestricted. Also for word filtering, if you add extra characters in between the word and then go back and delete the extra characters then it will allow the word to pass through.

http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif BestDefense - Not only does it come with a firewall and sandbox for malitious code, it definitely filters out not only bad information from the net but also off of your machine. You can crtl-del till you are blue in the face...it keeps working. I don't think it logs hours. I cannot remember.

[Brydon]

Look for a proggy called Cybersitter 2000 as it will do everything you are looking for including letting you set times and days that the net can be accessed.

[pelao]

I trust my kid, but not so much that he will do as I say. I'm worried about his chatting through icq with people that don't exactly seem to be his age. Is there a way of restricting the icq without the connection? because I believe at this point that although he can run into very sick free stuff in the long run the positives outweigh the negatives.

Thank you all very much for your responses

[mad hampster]

Hmm, I dont think there is any way to really restrict ICQ, you might check their website to make sure though. If there is no way to restrict it, I would reccomend you take it away, I get porn advertisements from random *******s every so often and cant find any way to filter those out.

[Digitalcandy]

If you really want complete control, buy Win2K. Assign him a logon name and password and then assign that username the right to lognon only during certain hours. That will definately solve your problem.

[Dave_H]

This one is rather expensive but includes an Anti-virus and firewall, so if you don't already have those it may be well worth it.
Norton Internet Security™ 2000 Family Edition (http://www.symantec.com/sabu/nis/nis_fe/)
Have a look under "Product info" and check the features and screenshots.
Dave

[qball]

Sell kid and buy an even better computer, lol.