Friday, May 23, 2008

censoring the internet

We've procrastinated long enough....it's time for us to come up with an internet solution for our kids. They enjoy club penguin, webkinz, maybe a little Disney Channel now and then...but as they get older, they also have learned that you can Google ANYTHING and get amazing information. You can google things like South Carolina for your geography project, High School Musical, or, say....Naked People.

Um, that's what caused me to feel like the worst parent of the year. I heard one child describe what she saw to her sister, and my heart broke. Innocence lost. Confusing images burned onto her brain. So, I know the curiosity is natural, and I'm over the embarrassment and guilt (well, not really, but let's move on...)and it's time to do something.

We tried the parental advisor on Internet Explorer, which required a password every time we opened a new page....then we switched to Firefox, which doesn't have a parental control. Next, we tried an ad-on from Mozilla called Glubble. Ugh, it's just so annoying...

Is there something that exists that will filter out inappropriate content without loading a bunch of other crap on the computer? I'm looking for suggestions....

5 comments:

Angela said...

I know what you mean on this one... Right now we have all of our computers in the same room which helps, but The Bean has learned the coolness of youtube... so I assume we are going to need to find something soon as well. If you find something that works, please let me know.

Unknown said...

Hmmm...that's too bad. i was sure the Firefox plug-in would work, but it sounds like it's ... uh ... annoying? If you had a Mac, they have built-in parental controls that work with the operating system (and limit downloads, media play, as well as web surfing). When I was there age, all I had was books and a horse named Crackerjack. Maybe THAT'S what they need ... a HORSE!

Brad and Fran Hoagland said...

Wow! Hope you come up with something and let us know how it goes. I will need this soon enuf too.

gigglechirp said...

yeah, if ya find something that works -- please announce!!

We just may adopt older children next, so we will likely need this info before Mamush is computer savvy!

when are we gonna get together? :)

Jarretts said...

My sister-in-law was just telling me about a web filter called K9 just this weekend. She said they just started using it, but that it was very good. It might be worth checking into (www1.k9webprotection.com/).

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