Net nanny

**funkyg** · 7th February 2009

Can anyone recommend a 'net nanny' type app? My 9 year old is getting well into the internet, and yes we do watch what she does, but she's now started getting up early to play on the Wii or internet.
I don't want to stop her using the computer altogether when we aren't up but just limit the chances of her stumbling across something she shouldn't.
Cheers.

**TwoPlAnKs** · 7th February 2009

Stumble across something?

Just the other day I was searching for the cbeebies website and made a small typo in google and ended up on this page http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=bla...ks+and+donkeys

If something like that happened to your daughter it could turn her into somebody really warped.

Sarcastic arseholism aside, you'll find by far the biggest risk to her is what she does herself with friends, on "safe" websites the system won't block and on msn. Keep an eye on what social networking she uses, and make sure all her profiles are public and check them. The majority of the stories I hear from parents discovering their children's real net use is seeing the shite on their bebo page, especially if they didn't even know their bebo page existed.

A lot of parents complain that they just don't have a clue what their kids are up to - its safer for them to be out with friends because at least then they can know where they are and vaguely what they are doing. Online, even net savvy parents still wont use social networking or any of the other sites kids are on.

Interesting fact: most people under age 14-15 do a smiley face like this (: and a unhappy face like this ): That's the sort of insanity you are up against, even working full time in IT at the age of 21 that makes me feel like I've never even touched a computer.

And not all girls do it but in 3 or 4 years time, the biggest worry you'll have is not what your daughter sees, but what she is showing others. I've lost count of the number of social networking homepages that are covered in slutty pictures. It's not any worse than what they would have got up to with boys their own age anyway, or even sometimes what they wear to teenage discos. But it only takes a little bit for a really dodgy photo to end up online, and out of her choice, that any dodger could see. 25 year old dodger for example could seem quite attractive to a 13 year old daugher, and once she's into that she's really fucked.

If anything, I'd just introduce her to youporn.com now and hopefully that will distract her from the real dangers.

**marcode** · 7th February 2009

i dont necessarily agree that monitoring apps are the best way to keep kids safe any more.. as twoplanks points out, many of the dangers actually come from the legit services and sites... your social networking, IM'ing etc

however if you wanna go the netnanny surfsafe type route, best do it with one of the routers with a built in service you can subscribe to... no software to fuck with.. or circumvent. and then stick a key logger on her machine so you can temporarily have a shufty at what shes up to.

http://www.actualkeylogger.com/

Originally Posted by TwoPlAnKs

Keep an eye on what social networking she uses, and make sure all her profiles are public

certainly DONT do that.

if you wanna be really sneaky.. get radmin, install the server on her machine, run the viewer on yours.. see everything she does, silently, covertly.

**TwoPlAnKs** · 7th February 2009

Originally Posted by marcode

certainly DONT do that.

All the private bebos and facebook owners should be rounded up and shot - just personal preference, not really anything to do with child protection.

I'd say if she needs to make her page private to be safe she should take info off it and make it public. I'd certainly not trust all my friends on bebo and facebook with any information I wouldn't trust the whole net with, and I don't really know why some people do.

**marcode** · 7th February 2009

Originally Posted by TwoPlAnKs

All the private bebos and facebook owners should be rounded up and shot - just personal preference, not really anything to do with child protection.

pft, you are just saying that cos it stops you from having a wank over someones pics.. why the fuck would you leave it public?

may as well not use them at all than have nothing on it and leave it public... make it all private and monitor the friends who have access.

Originally Posted by TwoPlAnKs

I'd certainly not trust all my friends on bebo and facebook with any information I wouldn't trust the whole net with, and I don't really know why some people do.

try making some friends with people who arent cunts m8. do you put yer cc details on your account or something? the worst i have is a mail address.

**New Art Riot** · 7th February 2009

you could set up an open dns account
http://www.opendns.com/

you just register and then change the dns addy on your pc to open dns.

**-AMO-** · 8th February 2009

You could introduce her to the long lost world of playing in the garden or baking pies with mummy and daddy on rainy sunday afternoons.

Keep her away from the warped world of technology and the internet which we all immerse and suffocate ourselves in until we're lost in a slurry of meaningless shit.

Allocate a set hour or two a day in which she can go online but be strict in doing it and stick at it. Don't let her steal away her own childhood by letting her become another one of these zombified drone children that live for the internet and computer gaming.

Give her the freedom of life before she grows up and inevitably succumbs to the world of the internet.

**ka$h** · 8th February 2009

Just install 'Salfeld Child Control' and limit whatever you want. Files/folders on your HDD, internet sites, programs & applications etc. It works too. Also you can impose limits on usage per day/week/month or just allow for certain time periods for access to things.

It means creating a new account on your PC and passwording your account, but that should be used as a good thing, giving her some independence.

K

**RhinoBanga** · 8th February 2009

I've got 3 kids (9, 12 and 13) and after they started getting up at 2am in the morning on a school day to play. I locked the whole thing down by building a cheap linux gateway machine with two nics ... one to my switch and the other to my internet router. This guarentees that everything goes thru the linux box.

On there I installed squid, an internet proxying service. It has the ability to allow access by username/password. Next I installed squidguard ... this allows you to hook up white/black lists of accessible sites (there are some really good ones out there) linked to squid user accounts. You can also setup time-of-day access. I blocked all web based IM services and only allow MSN. I have installed imspector which monitors MSN chat. I have also setup an automated script to change the kids passwords every day. As the final nail in the coffin I installed a squid log analyser and showed the kids how mummy and daddy can see everything they access.

Being kids this all went in one ear and out the other of course. Many a time we have caught them downloading ROMs when they are supposed to be doing their homework!!

I also run a Windows domain which I have also setup tme-of-day access however IIRC you can do the same with Linux.

I'm sure you won't have to go to the same lengths as I've had to but my kids are crafty little gits and it's a constant game of cat and mouse.

**d3xt0r** · 8th February 2009

Originally Posted by RhinoBanga

You can also setup time-of-day access. I have also setup an automated script to change the kids passwords every day.

how do you setup time of day access? and is the password script done with batch scripting?

~d3xt0r

**RhinoBanga** · 8th February 2009

In squid you configure an ACL:

http://wiki.squid-cache.org/SquidFaq...b69030e0b7c906

In windows server the user control panel has an option called "Logon Hours".

I change the passwords via a Perl script running on the Windows server at midnight. For every user it picks a password from a dictionary file at random and changes the Windows password and RSH's to the gateway box and changes their Squid password too. Once everyone's password is changed it emails both myself and my partner the new passwords.

**funkyg** · 9th February 2009

Thanks for the feedback guys. Some good suggestions. I'm going to have a look at the opendns and child control, but I think I'll probably go with the opendns route.
At the moment she doesn't have email/IM/facebook/bebo but I'm sure she'd be asking if her friends got them.

**funkyg** · 9th February 2009

Originally Posted by -AMO-

You could introduce her to the long lost world of playing in the garden or baking pies with mummy and daddy on rainy sunday afternoons.

LOL, we do! On Saturday she went dancing. Yesterday we all went swimming together. We're out on our bikes whenever we can. I'm quite conscious that she doesn't become an IT zombie, there's enough with one of us in the house!

**ka$h** · 9th February 2009

Originally Posted by funkyg

Thanks for the feedback guys. Some good suggestions. I'm going to have a look at the opendns and child control, but I think I'll probably go with the opendns route.
At the moment she doesn't have email/IM/facebook/bebo but I'm sure she'd be asking if her friends got them.

I still recommend the Salfeld

**tbops** · 9th February 2009

i got k9 on the boys laptop. uk company and its free. stops him looking at porn and facebook etc. ive treid a quick mess about with it. As hesonly alowed to use it in the living room its just a second line of defence.