I have two lads 13 & 15. Both have PCs windows 7 for the 15yo & just got a windows 8 for titch.

They have always had their own non administrator account that is time restricted between 8am & 8pm however what has always annoyed me is that I can not restrict the total number of hours.

Now it looks like with windows 8 you can do that – unlucky titch.

Just done a quick look for what I could use for large’s PC & found a few:
http://www.timesupkidz.com/ – $30.00
http://digiparent.weebly.com/ – Free
http://www1.k9webprotection.com/get-k9-web-protection-free – Free

Anyone used these or others & have an opinion?

The other thing I was thinking of doing was creating two accounts for them, one with their games installed, with quite mean time restrictions & then one with general access & longer time allowance for homework & general FB time wasting.

& a general question (if that is not too many) – Am I being too much of a victorian dad ?

We use Norton Family – https://onlinefamily.norton.com/familysafety/loginStart.fs

Good controls and cross platform.

Aaw. You think they haven’t bypassed your security, how sweet. (-:

How about rather than rely on technology that they’ll spend 30 seconds working out his to get around, you actually…y’know….talk to them about it

haha – at that age, I’d have re-partitioned the HDD, and dual booted it with Linux, or even just booted off a 2nd HDD/SSD/SDHC or whatever 😉
Or had a spare Raspberry Pi or something to play with after the deadline, and spoofed the MAC address so you wouldn’t even spot an extra machine on the router 😉

did you have a girlfriend?

Cougar – Moderator
Aaw. You think they haven’t bypassed your security, how sweet. (-:

It’s unlikely as they are only 6 & 9 and have the IT skillz of their mother.

I meant the OP’s 15 year old, but fair point.

How about rather than rely on technology that they’ll spend 30 seconds working out his to get around, you actually…y’know….talk to them about it

Awww… how sweet.

This echos my approach: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/nov/13/children-porn-starbucks

I set up a similar thing to jam bo for a friend (Both parents were clueless about technology) ^^

Wifi #1 = Parents/Guests – password was a secret (not written down), and cached on the parents phones/laptops. Password never changed.

Wifi #2 = Kid #1 – password valid for 24hrs (new one automatically emailed to parents). WiFi restricted to MAC address of kid #1’s phone + laptop

Wifi #3 = Kid #2 – (same as above, but for kid #2)

The kids xbox/playstations were also restricted by MAC on the router, same as WiFi devices.

The kids soon got used to the idea, and learned that access to the internet was a privilege, not a right.. if their internet was confiscated for whatever reason, they could use the ‘family’ computer to do their homework.

I also added 2 external buttons to the router (USB powered) – one red, one blue. If either kid started playing up, a press of the button and their WiFi/Xbox/Playstation was instantly restricted.

The 24hr password recycling was eventually extended to 7 days. My friend worked on the principle that his kids would misbehave enough to warranty the internet being cut off at least once in 7 days!!

It was a fun little project to put together, and it served its purpose for many years.

EDIT:

@andytherocketeer Your methods still wouldn’t have circumvented my restrictions 😉

haha – at that age, I’d have re-partitioned the HDD, and dual booted it with Linux, or even just booted off a 2nd HDD/SSD/SDHC or whatever

I once went into a local secondary school that had a very restrictive internet policy. One of the Year 9 kids had written his own proxy server software that was running on his home PC, which half the kids in the school were using to bypass the filters 🙂

@andytherocketeer Your methods still wouldn’t have circumvented my restrictions

At least on neighbour within wifi range will either have an unlocked network, an easy-to-guess password, or a router in their window with the password printed on the back 🙂

Having had the strictest upbringing in regards to computing My kids will have no restrictions on the times they can use the internet. That being said I would hope I do a good enough job of bringing them up with an active lifestyle that they simply will choose to not sit on the computer all day rather than go for a ride, walk, run etc.

That being said I don’t have kids yet so know nothing.

Excellent thread.

I sympathise entirely with the OP’s concerns, and don’t think he is being a Victorian dad.

That said, I can’t believe the lengths some of you would have gone to, or expect your kids to go to, in order to circumvent restrictions. I look at wires and buttons, and think ‘I can’t be arsed. I think I’ll just go outside’. Indeed, I don’t mind working with computers, and actually appreciate the technology; but having to know enough to get around security or whatever? Please.

I can feel a little piece of my soul die just thinking about it!

Being on the internet is not a bad thing in itself. Same as watching TV.

1 hour after school and before dinner (telly or pc), then can’t use it till after homework is finished. Any need to be any more strict?

@miketually My local Primary school got in to the news because one of the kids had sussed out how to get porn thru the net nanny filter. Of course the mother went to the media to kick up a fuss on BBC local news to get the headmaster and Kent County Council IT guys in to a bit of bother. Of course nothing will ever be 100% secure. All it did was tell the whole county that her 10-11yr old kid was going out of his way to find porn!

@miketually My local Primary school got in to the news because one of the kids had sussed out how to get porn thru the net nanny filter. Of course the mother went to the media to kick up a fuss on BBC local news to get the headmaster and Kent County Council IT guys in to a bit of bother. Of course nothing will ever be 100% secure. All it did was tell the whole county that her 10-11yr old kid was going out of his way to find porn!

The kids at this secondary were using it to access things like Google Images, which they needed for their work but were blocked. In the years I was there before/after the uber-geek set up his proxy, they spent ages finding Google Image sites from other countries and switching the language to English.

Good luck with that one Pik n Mix

Good thread

Timed access to internet is quite easy to implement

What about controlling content when they are on the internet?
Do you want them to be able to access anything at all?
how will you restrict content to what you deem appropriate?
parental trust and advice to kid or actually restrict access using technology?

I believe on home routers or using openDNS servers you can block sites based on keyword or restrict access to only a few ‘approved’ sites. There are also some more advanced solutions that will classify each website to a category and you can allow or deny categories – eg PORN category not allowed but SHOPPING category sites are allowed.

I believe the toughest challenge is social media – Facebook, youtube and the like that have a wide variety of content. How can I let me teenagers look at facebook but prevent them from seeing inappropriate stuff in Facebook? Google products have safe search so you can restrict what youtube vids appear in a search but you have to be logged in for it to know your safe search preferences.

So far from what I have seen the mobile internet providers (EE, O2 etc) offer parents much more control over what you will allow down your internet connection.

For me google, facebook and the like don’t offer enough in the way of parental control

OpenDNS is a fantastic tool

Timed access to internet is quite easy to implement

Actually I’ve found that unless you are going to run a second router just for the children it is difficult to find one that gives you good access just for them a different times of the day on different days of the week. By far the easiest way I’ve found is a second router on a mains timer. That way it’s easy to fire it up if they need it for a little longer or cut it if need be.

In reality though opendns to block most stuff and the rest of the time I trust them not to use it when they aren’t meant to. If caught playing on computers at night or when they should be doing something else they just get confiscated for a few days. And no laptops in bedrooms, same as tvs.