Do you want your kids to have completely unrestricted access to the internet?
Personally, I wouldn’t want this for my kids – if I had any! However, after being asked to look into the possibilities by someone who does have kids, I discovered all is not as it should be…
This should be easy, right?
Well actually, no.
You see, the individual concerned wanted to give different access rights to his three children – who were all different ages and required different access. Nothing unusual there I thought – should be simple.
However, after researching the freeware arena, I could not find anything that would content filter by Windows account – deep joy. So, I started trawling thought the commercial options and finally found a few good solutions, that would perform this task…however,
Is it just me, or should every parent have the right to filter web content, for free?
Tim,
Yes, every parent wants protection for their kids for free. But is it a right? I don’t think so. Why should I expect someone to write and offer really good software to me for free? You and I blog for free (lucky readers!), but I don’t consider free software a right. But at the same time, I’m thankful for the really good software that IS available for free. (Did I misunderstand your “have the right comment”?)
Personally, I like Bluecoat’s K9. It doesn’t allow different levels of access, but it’s good enough. The privacy issue still bothers me a bit, but not as much as what my kids could run into. It’s good enough software to keep the kids safe as long as they aren’t PC wizards.
Yes, I suppose I agree – I just can’t help thinking it should be ‘a right’. As computing and the internet becomes a fact of life for everyone’s kids – indeed it is essential these days, I feel that certain safeguards should be free.
If it is essential to have computing and internet for kids, is it also essential to have to pay (even more) for protection against everything that comes along with it?
I am regularly asked to provide security solutions and feel sorry for the customers who are obviously financially challenged: on the one hand they have to stretch to get internet access for their kids in the first place, then they find all the ‘hidden’ software costs on top.
Perhaps ISPs should make it part of their sales pitch, some do now, but their offerings don’t appear to be up to much – especially (as you have already suggested), they aren’t PC wizards!
Tim,
No I don’t think it’s essential to pay more for protection. I just use the free stuff (and encourage my customers to do the same), but 1) I understand the limitations of the free stuff, and 2) I make a conscious decision about the security tradeoffs–with Bluecoat K9 I am trading security for privacy, as they can see every website my kids go to.
I hate to give up privacy and it goes against my grain for freedom, but in my kids case, I’m willing to do it. The important thing is to KNOWINGLY make the choice. Too many people just “do it.”
Yes, basically I agree – making an informed decision is the way to go – but most of my customers are not aware of the risks – that’s why they pay me 🙂
(I must not get started, on how many people think the Windows logon password secures their data if the PC gets stolen…)
However, when it comes to protecting children, as long as the customer has purchased some other service, I setup the web filtering for free: it just doesn’t seem right to make a direct charge for only this service.