[Gllug] Content filtering proxy server

[general_email at technicalbloke.com]

JLMS wrote:
> On Sat, Jan 9, 2010 at 12:16 PM, Stephen Nelson-Smith <sanelson at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>   
>> Hi,
>>
>> The children now have a computer.  We discovered them watching
>> unsavoury things on youtube yesterday, so think it might be a good
>> idea to install a web filtering proxy server.  I've heard of using
>> dansguardian and also of squidguard in conjunction with squid.  Any
>> experiences, comments or recommendations?
>>
>> S.
>>
>>     
>
> Sorry I can't help. Hopefully somebody will actually answer your question
> instead to trying to suggest how you do your parenting :-)
>
> Or perhaps nobody has got any experience whatsoever with filtering :-/
>
>   


There's no foolproof substitute for supervision but you could always
tell them you're going to be watching where they go on-line so they'd
better not go anywhere naughty. Whether you actually do or not doesn't
matter so much if they believe that you will.

If your concern is prevent them accidentally surfing to bad places then
the simplest approach is OpenDNS's filtered DNS service (free or
reasonably priced) I think. Nothing catches everything though (well not
without raising metric buttloads of false positives aswell). Youtube are
pretty on it when it comes to removing porn and few products will
block/filter youtube content at all. Whatsmore most kids how to find and
use proxies as most schools use content filters and block MySpace,
Facebook and Youtube so if they want to get round your restrictions they
probably can.

A report into kids internet searching habits came out a few weeks ago
and "porn" was one of the top 5 search terms in all three age
categories, Teens, Tweens and shockingly under 8s! If you want to be
certain they're not going anywhere unsavoury you'll have to sit with
them while they surf.


Roger.
-- 
Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug