Parental Controls on Computers

[SamSpade]

Does anyone have experience in putting parental controls on their home network?
My experience with the stuff that comes with Windows 10 is that it's awful. I went through the laborious effort of putting it all in place -
And tested it. I could break every control within seconds. Worse, it says it doesn't do anything with non-Microsoft products.

Do you use anything else? A service, an app, an installed product?

 

[Clem72]

What are you looking to control, applications?, websites?, how tech savvy are the kids?

You can download a family friendly whitelist (for the router or the computer) and restrict which sites they can visit while removing their ability to install new programs. You can disable the protocols used for VPNs in the router to keep them from using a VPN to go to whichever sites they want. Hopefully there aren't any unsecured wireless networks from your neighbors. May also want to disable booting from CD/USB as well and lockout the bios and glue the hard drive cables in place.

But all of that is like locking your front door. If they are really determined, they can just break a window (VPN through DNS or over SSL using browser plug-ins, Bluetooth tether to phone, etc. etc.)

 

[black dog]

I used the AOL.com format and email Service for my son. It has great kid controls that you can easily change as they grow.. you just have to make sure that they log on to aol before they go anywhere. That might be alittle more difficult in today's internet with all the search engine choices...
Do they have there own computer?

 

[SamSpade]

But all of that is like locking your front door. If they are really determined, they can just break a window

It's just one of my kids, and he knows a few places to go and can use a search engine. But he's not more sophisticated than that (learning disability - rather strong) and I was able to defeat the router's "parental controls" simply by going to a site or two whose name alone should have triggered SOMETHING. The others - my girls - they have never showed an interest in going to places they shouldn't go.

Until I went to my router's controls, I had no idea just how many devices we have that connect. It's a LOT. I mean, I knew about them, I just didn't give it a lot of thought.

For the time being, I'd be happy with install-able software that doesn't require a yearly fee and can be used on more than one machine. The EASIEST way to do that is use stuff I already have - parental controls on the operating system (extremely cumbersome and essentially useless) or at the router level (which MAY prove to be useless).

 

[Misfit]

A key tracker if you have a keyboard plugged in or an activity monitor program might work. :shrug:

 

[black dog]

I found the same thing with mine, by the time he was around 12 or so the full web was his to surf. He never as a kid detoured where he had no business..
What I liked about aol was if he tried to visit a site that the age group he was at then disallowed him it would instantly send me a email and if I oked the web site I could ok it and then he was allowed to surf that website.. most of the sites that set off the parent controls for him were Lego videos that other kids had made..

 

[SamSpade]

A key tracker if you have a keyboard plugged in or an activity monitor program might work. :shrug:

Well that only tells me where he's been, and I can usually just look at his browser history.
What I *want* is to shut it down. My workplace's firewall won't even let you go to a website that TALKS about games, for example.

I just put my workstation's anti-virus software onto his machine, since I have 10 licenses and it has parental controls.
It works - ok. For example, it won't go to certain porn site, but it WILL go to one that has thumbnails to videos.
You can't go to the videos, but the thumbnails still come up.

I haven't found ONE piece of software that everyone thinks is great that doesn't cost a massive fortune to implement throughout the house.
And the router controls have been useless. I got to give them credit - it SAYS it applies controls per MAC address, but what it does is useless.

 

[black dog]

Read this real s l o w Sam, aol has great parent controls... And it's free..
You simply set the child's age group and he will not be able to get to any objectionable websites... Been there done that...
Give him one icon ( aol ) to open.. and his games if he plays them.

 

[SamSpade]

Read this real s l o w Sam, aol has great parent controls... And it's free..
You simply set the child's age group and he will not be able to get to any objectionable websites... Been there done that...
Give him one icon ( aol ) to open.. and his games if he plays them.

Reading it slow.....

https://help.aol.com/articles/parental-controls-discontinued

Won't matter.

 

[black dog]

Reading it slow.....

https://help.aol.com/articles/parental-controls-discontinued

Won't matter.

I'm sorry, the only email I have received is about ------NOTE: You will no longer be able to Add or Restore a username effective November 30, 2017.

I would guess because all of the aol screen names on my account are allowed adult access.. that's a shame, it worked very well and it was free.. it went back to the AOL for $9.95 a month dialup service..
My humble apologies...

 

[SamSpade]

I'm sorry, the only email I have received is about ------NOTE: You will no longer be able to Add or Restore a username effective November 30, 2017.

I would guess because all of the aol screen names on my account are allowed adult access.. that's a shame, it worked very well and it was free.. it went back to the AOL for $9.95 a month dialup service..
My humble apologies...

No harm intended.

Anyway, I have a LITTLE success with the McAfee I bought last spring. I almost forgot about it. I had a threat of ransomware on my main work computer, and in a panic, I went out and bought a 10 license software that just happens to come with parental controls on it.
STILL have to go through the irritation of creating profiles - "Microsoft accounts" - on the machines, and obviously, Admin profile. So now my kids have to login to their own machines.

It does all right. For now his inability to see some things should suffice, but I will probably have to add more URLs to the router to keep him from going to them.
If there was a comparable router that did a really good job of filtering, I might be persuaded to switch. We have two routers in our home, so I'd have to consider switching out both.
It's just that some routers are so fragile, once they work I tend to step back and mentally think "don't even sneeze".

I'll keep looking for solutions. So far, a combination of reviews from USERS and site reviews tell me, nothing works perfectly that I can find.
Now there MUST be, because my work internet doesn't let ANYTHING through.