How to Restrict Kid’s Access to Adult Sites: Alternative Solutions

Posted: 27 Mar 2012 04:35 PM PDT

As soon as I posted this previous week’s post How to Restrict Kid’s Access to Adult Sites, I have some few friends who suggested other “better” solutions than using Windows Live Family Safety. It is always good to have other options available and easier to use than the one I’ve suggested.

I believe there isn’t a one size that fits all. It’s best to go for the one that fits your needs. If Windows Live Family Safety, then have a look at other options below.

OpenDNS

The OpenDNS main service is to provide alternative and better-than-your-ISP IP address. Just plug-in the two DNS addresses and you’re good to go, which means lesser downtime and headaches in accessing websites (my ISP frequently has this problem of not letting me in one some selected sites while the rest of the world is able to get into them).

OpenDNS has more functionalities than providing a better DNS. Their DNS could restrict sites by category. I could restrict websites by category: adult sites, social networks, gambling, and so much more. I can also fine tune the setting to individually block or allow some websites. The settings are straightforward and I am amazed that all this is offered for free.

However simple this maybe, the web filtering feature doesn’t work if your ISP dynamically assigns you another IP address. You have to do either one of these two: log into the OpenDNS account and manually add the new IP address, or download and install an OpenDNS updater from the website (available for both Windows and Mac computers). Although I haven’t tried the latter, I see one disadvantage of the OpenDNS updater – it will always need at least one computer installed in the network to run and update the IP address. This means that blocking capabilities won’t work anymore if your home wifi that relies on dynamically assigned IP addresses is open to using devices that cannot run the OpenDNS updater, such as an iPhone.

If you want to impose time limits to use the computer, restrict games or block locally installed programs then OpenDNS is not something to go for. This service is perfectly designed for blocking websites and that’s just about it! If you have several devices at home that connects to the internet (an iPhone, iPad, computers) then you might seriously want to look at this solution.

K9 Web Protection

Like OpenDNS, it is not pretty difficult to setup this one. It requires downloading the software and obtaining the license key from the website. The free version of K9 Web Protection has enough features to restrict web access here and there, and everything is just self-explanatory.

You can easily which website categories to block, and as well put exceptions on individual sites. You can set time restrictions as well, and even specify keywords based on URL to outrightly block sites. I like that K9 search feature, so that keywords typed on search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing are forced to use the safe search which are apparently filtered by K9 web search.

However, I have several Windows accounts to begin with. I simply do not like having restrictions whenever I open my own account. I just want to have restrictions applied specifically on my kid’s Windows account. I log into my computers at no specific time of the day – be it at midday, in the middle of the night or at the break of dawn. Hence, this one is not just the right one for me.

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