Recommend an internet filter for the house?

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Batman

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#245001 13-Jan-2019 16:32

Kids are growing up and wife is after an internet filter to protect our kids when they use the internet.

Anyone can recommend anything? Completely new to this so I don't even know where to start.

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#2160368 13-Jan-2019 16:52

who are you with . a few ISP's provide a filter that you can enable.

Common sense is not as common as you think.

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#2160391 13-Jan-2019 17:35

A Draytek router with content filtering license.
Or Open DNS Family Shield.

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Batman

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#2160400 13-Jan-2019 17:50

vexxxboy:

who are you with . a few ISP's provide a filter that you can enable.

I'm with Spark.

how good are the filters?

vexxxboy

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#2160435 13-Jan-2019 18:47

Batman:

vexxxboy:

who are you with . a few ISP's provide a filter that you can enable.

I'm with Spark.

how good are the filters?

they use Net Shield which you can control, i think there a different levels so not sure what gets through or how good it is , bound to be someone here who uses it.

Common sense is not as common as you think.

chevrolux

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#2160437 13-Jan-2019 18:48

Open DNS is a good option

SirHumphreyAppleby

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#2160443 13-Jan-2019 18:55

Batman:

Kids are growing up and wife is after an internet filter to protect our kids when they use the internet.

Anyone can recommend anything? Completely new to this so I don't even know where to start.

As a parent, you are the best filter.

Don't put too much trust in technology. I worked for ~13 years on products that analysed and filtered Internet content, and I wouldn't trust any of it.

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hio77

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#2160450 13-Jan-2019 19:12

vexxxboy:

they use Net Shield which you can control, i think there a different levels so not sure what gets through or how good it is , bound to be someone here who uses it.

Yep, is certainly an option.

There has been a few improvements done to it over the last few months, Improving the experience alot.

I would probably recommend you use Premium option, so you have all the control you could want.

If you truly want to filter content, the best advise i could give is to use layers.

Software based content filtering, Network based filtering is a good combo to go with.

Absolutely netfilter, opendns etc can be bypassed if the child wishes to bypass it.

Have the conversation with them at the right time..

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hashbrown

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#2160677 13-Jan-2019 22:25

https://cleanbrowsing.org is another option. Less configurable than OpenDNS, but I like that it forces Google and YouTube safe search.

scuwp

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#2160684 13-Jan-2019 23:00

Don't forget the 'parent' filter and controls. Ensure they use devices in a open/family area, monitor their usage, set guidelines about what sites they are permitted to visit, and have good healthy conversations about the dangers of the internet and appropriate content, and what to do when things go wrong.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

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#2160707 14-Jan-2019 07:10

So would you recommend use one filter plus good parenting?

Or no filter?

Or two filter?

xpd

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#2160712 14-Jan-2019 07:38

What devices ?

I use MS Family on Windows 10 to control time, and does basic filtering as well.

Was using Qustodio for some time as well (free account)

XPD / Gavin

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#2160713 14-Jan-2019 07:38

I wouldn't use OpenDNS if you like your privacy as they do collect a fair bit. AdGuard DNS is good: https://adguard.com/en/adguard-dns/overview.html and they don't log.

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jonathan18

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#2160728 14-Jan-2019 08:50

I recall looking at this a year or so ago, and the thing that ruled out us using a DNS-based filter like Open DNS was we use a DNS-based unblocking service (Getflix) for BBC etc at the router level, so be aware of this limitation.

Our kids' iPads and Android phones have Kidslox running on them - we use it primarily to set daily limits and on/off times for device usage (it's by far the best and flexible of all the apps we've tried for this kind of stuff), but also have the filtering enabled. Unsure of how effective it is, but based on previous advice I got here on GZ I came to the conclusion that filtering can only do so much, and talking to the kids was probably a more effective solution.

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#2160732 14-Jan-2019 08:58

xpd:
What devices ?

I use MS Family on Windows 10 to control time, and does basic filtering as well.

Was using Qustodio for some time as well (free account)

Probably ipad and Windows 10 laptop

surfisup1000

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#2160749 14-Jan-2019 09:26

scuwp:

Don't forget the 'parent' filter and controls. Ensure they use devices in a open/family area, monitor their usage, set guidelines about what sites they are permitted to visit, and have good healthy conversations about the dangers of the internet and appropriate content, and what to do when things go wrong.

Education is good, but the central premise is that kids do as they're told. I'm yet to see any child who listens to their parents.

I'm interested in how people who have actual kids deal with online time. They will know the manipulations and tricks and emotional tactics that kids use to get more online time.

I've found the best solution is lots of sports and activities (apparently we are the strictest parents in the world).

We use the fritzbox to control online time, you can setup groups and disable internet on specific devices around the house . It works pretty well, until the kids say they need something for homework or music or that all their friends are online , etc, etc.

Our oldests says he has to use discord/instagram to talk to his friends....they refuse to use the actual phone , then get aggressive and surly when you say no!

As for determining websites they can visit, you will likely find that all they want to do is play minecraft/fortnite/roblox, or watch youtube videos about other people plaing minecraft/fortnite/roblox. But, as a safety measure it is good to use opendns. I also set the google search filters on devices they use. Of course, any of these things can be overridden by smart kids.

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