Jeff Drake said...

We use Mac OS X’s built-in parental controls. It’s pretty dang simple: you log in as an administrator (in our case, either parent), open System Preferences→Accounts, highlight the child’s account, and select Parental Controls. From there, it’s just a matter of following the on-screen directions!

July 16, 2007 5:42 am #

Jesse Stay said...

Being the Open Source advocate that I am, you may be shocked to hear this, but the best product I’ve seen is Windows Vista’s built-in protections. I set a password for the admin accounts, and then I have an open account for my kids, of which I can monitor and tell exactly what their doing on the internet. It provides reports for me of those things, and I can specify what they can and can’t browse on the internet, what applications they are allowed to run, and any other details of what I want them to do when they’re using the computer.

I am still craving for an appliance similar to a linksys-type router that I can place at the router level to handle my parental controls and other protections. I have yet to see a mass-marketed solution good enough for my needs like this.

July 16, 2007 6:09 am #

Brandon said...

We use NetNanny. It works pretty well, is supported on Vista, etc. It requires you to log in before getting access to the net so various people in the household may have their own login with varying levels of filters applied.

BUT, from experience I know that if someone really wants to get access to inappropriate things, they can and will… I think having a good internet filter goes only so far. Parents need to bridge the gap by teaching their children (even younger ones) that indecency and immodesty (in all forms) should be avoided. If our families don’t have a testimony rooted in the Savior and don’t know the dangers of addiction, they could fall quickly and hard. The bottom line is: our children need to WANT to avoid these things. It is so accessible that they will find it if they want it.

I also feel that in our society and culture, our children our bound to run into inappropriate images sooner or later. The question is: what do they do once they so see something? How do they handle it? Do they tell their parents? Do they keep it a secret due to shame or embarrassment or misunderstanding?

This is a complex problem without one easy solution.

July 16, 2007 7:32 am #

jrj said...

Computers are in the family room, so everyone knows where you are browsing.

As far as URL access software is concerned, I use the built-in “Parental Controls” that come with Mac OS X. Each child has an account, and I limit the URLs they can get to. This also allows me to log everything. Additionally, I periodically review those logs. The children are too young to attempt any hacks to get around this.

The Bishop of our ward and his wife take the cable-modem whenever they leave the house. If Mom or Dad aren’t there, the cable-modem isn’t. They have teen-agers, so this works well for their peace-of-mind.

July 16, 2007 7:32 am #

Justin Grover said...

We use dansguardian for my linux box and k9 web protection for my windows boxes. K9 is easy to set and free. It seems to do a good job.

July 16, 2007 7:39 am #

Steven said...

My parents have never allowed us to get Internet access at home, so we use it at school or the public library. This way it’s much easier to control our time and content usage, as we are on public computers with better security than we could implement by ourselves at home. While it has been difficult and inconvenient at times, it has been a good thing for our family overall.

July 16, 2007 8:26 am #

Craig said...

My children are too young yet to use the internet, but I have been looking at the options. I want to keep my home a safe haven, where my children can use the Internet for positive things and not have to worry too much about accidental exposure to something offensive.

I have been trying K9 Web Protection and really like it. It comes from the makers of enterprise filtering sofware, BlueCoat, but it is free for home users. It has all the features I was looking for:

- lightweight application
- logging of browser history
- easy to setup and use
- control of what is filtered and what isn’t
- difficult to bypass

I would recommend it to non-techies and techies.

July 16, 2007 8:42 am #

FatherOfFive said...

We keep our family iMac in the living room. I think it makes more sense anyway because much of our entertainment is coming from the computer, so having it next to the entertainment center is convenient as well as safer.

Each child has a separate OS X account, and we limit their accounts to the BumperCar web-browser, a customized version of Safari that has more control options than OS X. It also makes the browser more child-friendly by offering a customizable homepage that gives them options of where to browse.

For filtering and reporting we use ContentBarrier X. which works quite well with OS X accounts. It updates its blacklist monthly. It integrates well with OS-X user accounts. As the kids get older (they are all pretty young) I plan on upgrading them from BumperCar to Firefox, so this is why we use both.

We also use Covenant Eyes, which is an online accountability tool (not a filter). It records all sites visited and sends a report to mom each week. There is a Mac OS X 10.4 version and PC versions.

Our wireless router came with a trial parental controls program, but this was a pain to configure, and I dropped it because it was blocking sites like LinkedIn.com. What I wish is that AT&T-Yahoo would offer a filtered version of their DSL that filtered the content before it came into the home. Their “award winning” parental controls are really out-of-date codewise and crash frequently on our Windows PC. I have done several webhunts for filtered ISPs, but they are usually limited to a very specific geographical area, although I imagine if you live in Utah there are probably good filtered ISP options.

links:

BumperCar: http://www.freeverse.com/apps/app/?id=5003
ContentBarrier X: http://www.intego.com/contentbarrier
Covenant Eyes: http://www.covenanteyes.com/

July 16, 2007 9:27 am #

Steve Hargadon said...

I’m really disappointed that the router manufacturers have not had enough of a market to create a sustained filtering product built into the router. Linksys has discontinued their parental controls model. As a reasonable substitute, we use the free DNS filtering solution http://www.scrubit.com, which appears to be working on a customizable version. It works well for our family computer, which is kept in the kitchen.

I gave talks both for our stake (adults only) and our ward (interactive youth and parents) on Internet/technology safety, and the stake presentation is at http://www.protectfamilies.net. Also there is an interview I did with Nancy Willard on Internet safety. It’s worth looking at the new data coming out from the actual police records which are allowing a better glimpse now of what the real dangers are–including the fact that family problems are a much higher indicator of Internet problems for youth than the posting of personal data. For the congressional caucus webcast on this topic, see http://www.netcaucus.org/events/2007/youth/video.shtml. The information is very good, but MOST TELLING about this testimony is that the role of the family is only mentioned in the negative. There is no understanding or support of the family to help address these issues.

July 16, 2007 9:56 am #

Kim Siever said...

We use no software. We put the computer in the most central-highest traffic room in our house. Our children’s accounts, which are non-admin, have no password. My wife and I have admin accounts and have access to their history.

July 16, 2007 10:14 am #

Mario Hipol said...

We use MSN and the parental controls offered through them for our children. What I found interesting was that its not my kids that I worry about as much as guests. But I have found a great solution for that too. I use the google web history with my gmail account to monitor internet usage. I downloaded the google toolbar and log in with my account on all the pcs in my house.

It tracks everything…and I can login and view what is being looked at from anywhere.

I think that detering people is GREAT. However, many times they can find a way around it or just go somewhere else. I personally think that best thing you can do is let them know you are aware and discuss it. I will continue this with my children if it ever becomes and issue.

The thought is this, you can tell your kids that they shouldn’t drink or do drugs and never let those items enter your home. That’s only one piece of a huge puzzle. I want to treat the behavior not the symptoms. That’s my thought.

July 16, 2007 10:28 am #

David said...

I agree that computers in a “public” area of the home is important, as is teaching them what is acceptable and why. When they are still fairly young, it is probably the best to use software that uses a white-list policy where only sites listed are accessible. (We used a product from McAfee) Then if they need to have access to a new site, a parent can login and add it. However, as an adult, this security became such a pain to get around whenever we wanted to go to a site not in the list that we eventually removed the software on the PC that we usually used. (It is still in place on the “kids” PC)

When the kids get older and need to do internet searching for school work, this white-list approach probably isn’t going to work.

July 16, 2007 10:48 am #

Roark Janis said...

I have used http://www.familyconnect.com for many years with success. However, as my children got older and went off to college and needed a little more independence and ability to make their own decisions, I found that http://www.covenanteyes.com is the perfect solution as it doesn’t block anything but logs all activity and sends me reports to review with them every three days.

I also used http://www.familyconnect.com for many years on the FHC computers in the Stake until the Cisco PIX was installed and SLC filtering took over.

July 16, 2007 11:25 am #

Brenden said...

I just use the functionality on my Linksys router.
It allows me to restrict by:

- keyword
- site
- define timed access by MAC address
- block/allow specifc ports to and from specific IP’s
- filter proxy
- filter cookies
- filter java applets
- filter ActiveX
- filter popup windows
- filter multicast

…and more. It is OS independant and does alright!

July 16, 2007 11:51 am #

Brenden said...

…also, in past employment, I have used a device called 8e6 that sat on the network in a listening mode and audited/blocked traffic that had a great reporting system and active directory integration. After taking a peek at their site today, it appears they have a home product. Not sure how good it is but thought I would at least mention it…

http://8e6home.com

July 16, 2007 11:58 am #

Kevin said...

I have two young children so my solution is for them. I have two accounts in XP: Admin for parents, and limited use for children (they can’t install programs). Using the content advisor I block everything (*) and add the websites that I want them to access (*.pbskids.org, *.lds.org, *.fisher-price.com). This only works on IE so if you have different browser installed it won’t block the content.

If you want to control the content on the parents account you can create a password with your spouse. The first eight chars are provided by the wife and the last eight are provided by the husband.

I have a few more years before I really need to provide a solution for teenagers so I look forward to using the Vista solution or seeing what the industry provides.

July 16, 2007 12:00 pm #

Brian Hall said...

While I was a student at BYU, I found the internet proxy filtering fairly effective. It would be nice if LDS members all over the world could somehow be allowed to use this same internet filtering. It must be something that is constantly updated and monitored. At the company I work for, they recently implemented SurfControl and it seems like a flexible and effective solution that protects against indecent content as well as malicious sites, etc.

One thing is for certain, there is a great and urgent need for some sort of active, dynamic protection at the router/gateway level (where the Internet comes in) to protect our families.

July 16, 2007 2:03 pm #

Brian said...

I’ve tried several things including dansguard and found scrubit.com. It’s free, os independant and easy to set up. down side is that you have no control over the list of blocked sites.

July 16, 2007 4:27 pm #

Jason Powell said...

another thumbs up for http://www.scrubit.com … a simple DNS change on your router is all ya need.

July 16, 2007 7:53 pm #

Kurtis Oliverson said...

I know that this might not be as easy for non-technical folks, but it’s free:

I initially block all out-going port-80 and port-443 traffic in the DSL modem’s built-in firewall.

Whenever we find a new site that we know we can trust 100%, I add a port-80 rule to allow it through to that IP, so from that point forward, we always have free access to that site.

Whenever we’re all home and we want to do (somewhat-) random browsing, I just comment out the two main port-80 and port-443 blocking rules, which makes it temporarily wide-open for browsing anywhere.

Also, when we have random-browsing sessions like this, we always keep images and animations turned off in the browser. Once we find a site whose images can be trusted, we tell the browser (only Firefox allows this much configurability) to allow images from that site from then on. Not only does this save you from seeing a lot of those unexpected banner ads. in pages, but it also causes pages to load instantly, because they’re not having to load the images, which are typically the largest chunk of bandwidth for a web page.

Also, if both you and your wife want to fight temptation by having it so that neither of you can randomly browse without the other present (strength in numbers), make the password to the firewall a combination of something that you type and then something that she types, so that both of you have to type in your part of the password for either of you to use it. Then, you each keep your part of the password to yourself. It sounds kind o’ crazy, but I’ve heard of situations where this kind of measure helped immensely.

July 16, 2007 8:45 pm #

Shogo J. Cottrell said...

In our home, we’ve done a few things to protect our children. We homeschool, so we have 3 computers in a public place for research, homework assignments, etc. We have talked to our older children about inappropriate websites, photos, pictures, etc., and what to do if they inadvertently come across something on the Internet (close it out and immediately get a parent). We also have a linux-based filtering server running SquidGuard. While this works quite well at filtering inappropriate websites, each computer must be setup to go through the filter, so computers without the proxy server settings bypass the filter completely. Because of this, I am building another server based on the PublicIP ZoneCD server that will set between my DSL modem and my home router which will force Internet filtering for all users. The ZoneCD includes DansGuardian which provides content-based filtering, which will complement the URL filtering of SquidGuard.

We have SBC DSL and this past week I tried their parental control software. It seems to work good, but it’s not compatible with the proxy server settings which are required for SquidGuard. While I will probably uninstall the software, it does provide some things that I would like to try (through another software or perhaps Vista) such as time limits.

July 16, 2007 8:56 pm #

Tadd Giles said...

We have multiple computers in the home and I just started receiving requests to connect friend’s laptops to the network when they are visiting. I recently installed the D-Link SecureSpot filtering device (http://www.dlink.com/products/securespot/). This gives me centralized control in one place for the whole network. Its working pretty well. The user interface could use an overhaul, but it does give me lots of control, customization per user if I want. It annoys my wife on occasion, but she has a password that allows her to override per site.

I’ve also used ContentBarrier X4 in the past (http://www.intego.com/contentbarrier/) and Safari parental controls with good success.

Another DNS-based solution I just discovered is http://opendns.org. But that won’t give you any of the logs or reporting that you are looking for.

July 16, 2007 9:07 pm #

Will said...

We use ContentBarrier X4 on our family iMac (Intel) which is located in the living room. It integrates well with OS X’s Users by allowing the admin(s) to set different “permissions” for each user. It is quite a bit more sophisticated than the built-in OS X parental controls. When you buy it you get a year’s subscription to updates to their blacklists: http://www.intego.com/contentbarrier/

July 16, 2007 9:33 pm #

JCD said...

As an observation, most of the comments above are limited to what most people see as the “Internet”. However, there is significantly more to the Internet than just what can be seen through Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer. Many still run across HTTP, so the monitoring techniques mentioned above will likely still work, but a significant portion will slip through nearly all of the solutions mentioned thus far.

The single-note-playing of the concern over images is likewise shortsighted. There are plenty of other harmful things that are not necessarily contained in images. What about text messages, instant messages, emails, chat groups, newsgroups (yes, they are still around and are as active as ever). All are text based, but can be equally as damaging as naughty pictures. What about kids giving out private information (email address, SSNs, home addresses, mom & dad’s credit card numbers, birthdates) over the internet?

In your monitoring efforts please also consider how to manage TOR/Onion Routing, anonymizing proxies, peer-to-peer networks (in all their various flavors: BitTorrent, eDonkey, Kazaa, Gnutella, Freenet and on and on; see the Wikipedia entry for P2P).

What about when your children visit their friends home and get on the InterWebs or the neighbors put up a wireless access point? What do you do when you kids become savvy enough to out-smart your monitoring? My intent here is not to show how futile efforts are, but rather emphasize a comment made earlier by Brandon. His post details the ultimate answer to these problems: Ensuring that your children live in a household where correct doctrine is taught, testimonies are strengthened and communication lines within the family are wide open. Technological measure can only get you so far.

July 17, 2007 7:33 am #

Derek said...

We use CyberSitter and it’s very much like NetNanny in terms of functionality and capabilities. However, as a software developer, I noticed it seems very heavy and really seemed to interfere with a lot of the applications that I need to do my work, and actually made development impossible in some cases. So, on my work laptop, I installed Covenant Eyes. I LOVE Covenant Eyes. It runs completely invisibly and IS NOT A FILTER. Instead, it just logs every site you visit and reports it to an “Accountability Partner”, in my case, my wife. It’s great because instead of feeling like I CAN’T get someplace I shouldn’t be, I know I can, but I can CHOOSE not to. My wife gets a daily report of the sites I’ve visited ranked by “questionableness”. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that the Savior is always watching and aware of us. And this software enables us to kind of put our wives or whoever our accountability partner is, in that role of helping the Savior.

July 17, 2007 8:09 am #

Randy said...

I’m a Net Nanny guy. It seems to work fairly well.

I recently learned of family where internet supported addictions were an issue, and their approach was to ensure that each spouse only had half of the family computer password. If the computer was going to be used, both partners had to be involved. It is a pretty dramatic approach, but if trust is gone that may be a workable approach.

July 17, 2007 9:38 am #

Matt said...

1. Our computer is visible from three rooms.
2. Password protected admin account for my wife and I. (Windows XP)
3. Password protected limited account for every kid. (Ages 6-11)
4. Screensavers set at 5 minutes of inactivity and require login.
5. Block all internet sites and add them with an admin password. I wish this could be done with all browsers.
6. Kids don’t have their own email address.
7. IM chat only with people you know in real life.
8. “Eject Button” rule: if something inappropriate is displayed, turn off the monitor and tell a parent. We will see what’s shown (without kids present,) determine how it got past the rules, fix the problem and then talk about it with the kids. Nobody gets in trouble unless they were looking for trouble.

With our boys not yet teenagers, this has worked fine for us. The “Eject Button” rule has never been used at our house but is there because of websites they’ve seen at friends’ houses; the parents thought their filters were working. Some websites look like games on the first level but there is inappropriate material when you explore. (eg. language, suggestive or cartoon images, not actual photos.)

The next step is to get something that will log instant messaging. Our oldest has been asking for IM this summer to chat with his friends. We’ve set it up but as he gets older, I want to see what’s coming and going. As a Branch President, I tell parents it’s not just enough to track the websites - you need to see who they’re chatting with online and that it’s appropriate. Blindly entering public chat rooms is like sending them into an adult film store to pick up the USA Today or to a prison to make a phone call.

July 17, 2007 11:20 am #

Dan Sage said...

I use a program called We Blocker which not only blocks inappropriate material, but keeps a log of all websites visited. Only the individual with the master password can login and see the log of sites visited. It’s a free download at their website. Only problem is that, last I checked, it only works with Internet Explorer. If you’re running Firefox, it doesn’t seem to pick up anything.

July 17, 2007 12:26 pm #

Anonymous said...

I think all of the above are great ideas. I have a radical one.

What if there were a new internet? A totally separate one. Kind of a “members only” type of thing. Different network/backbone structure and its own websites that must meet cleanliness requirements.

Sure, this wouldn’t really be THE internet anymore, and you’d need people to populate it with content. But with the user-driven content movement and wiki approach to web publishing, this could work with lots of like-minded folks. I guess I’m thinking of a Millennium Internet, where the Saints make their own and Babylon’s contributions are long-gone. I guess I’d like to see it happen before the Millennium.

All of society’s filtering solutions are band-aids to something Satan has a good handle on. I want to surf the Lord’s Internet.

July 17, 2007 5:57 pm #

John said...

I am not a fan of any software solution.
I have been looking for a hardware solution that will work for any OS/device/computer connected to my network. Most devices that will do this run over $1000. However I found Astaro has a solution that is in the same space as these other appliances but they offer a FREE home solution http://www.astaro.com/about_us/news/astaro_to_offer_free_home_user_license
(No I don’t work for them)
I don’t know if it is too complex for the average user or not at this point since I haven’t installed it yet. But it looks like it has everything I would want. And you can get a home license for free. It is limited to 10 computers/IP Addresses and I believe 1000 concurrent TCP connections. (This is all from memory so you should verify those counts)

July 17, 2007 6:28 pm #

John O. said...

We’re in the process of relocating, so we’ve been slow to build our protection beyond keeping the computer in a public place. When we settle down, we’ll be using Microsoft’s Windows Live security product, which relies on Windows Live logins. My wife will have admin, my kids and I user permissions per the recommendations of several church leaders.

Joel’s question got me thinking… 30 years ago our parents struggled to protect us from pornography in print, video, and other formats. There was always a work-around. I look at the filterin and such much like I do locks on our windows at home. They keep honest people honest, but they don’t keep out the bad guys. I want to prevent my children from having pornography pushed at them. I want to make it difficult for them to get to it at all but I don’t think I can prevent it entirely. I think if they learn about and want to use anonymizing proxies, they will.At that point, it all comes down to testimony and strength. Do they ultimately want to do what’s right?

So our protection has to be a realistic level of protection on the computers and within the network. There should be a trust-but-verify element of logging and log scanning (we are behind a Windows Server 2003 Small Business Server with ISA, so logging and reporting *should* be simple; I just have to configure it). And there must be instruction. Above all, we need to be working on our children’s testimony and desire to do right. I’ve been blessed so far–my children are approaching the age when they’ll start to look at this. Today, this month, so far they’re uninterested. But we’re running out of time!

July 17, 2007 7:25 pm #

Rob said...

I have to second the vote for Astaro. I’ve used it now for 2 years and it is fantastic. It is a gateway solution so you don’t have to maintain filtering software on multiple computers if you have more than one in your home. You do have to have a PC to run it on, but not the latest hardware. You can recycle an older PC to use as your gateway/firewall.

Just download Astaro Security Linux from their download site:
https://my.astaro.com/download/

The download is for a 30-day fully-functional evaluation copy.

Then, to activate all of its advanced filtering features for home use, get a Home use license - see:
http://www.astaro.com/products/astaro_security_gateway/home_use_licence

July 17, 2007 8:29 pm #

MesaJeff said...

I teach an Internet protection and monitoring class. I have taught it for the Preparedness Fair in my stake and surrounding stakes. I teach them not only how to block but how to research and detect problems. I am willing to share my research somehow if it would help. I have been asked to teach another two classes in October for a neighboring city.

I trust that everyone leaving comments will not mind if I incorporate their ideas into my presentation. Most I have presented or heard, but there are some great ideas in here. The problem is we must remain ever-vigilant and update our defenses periodically as technology advances — and kids advance as well.

One thing that really works well though it is easy to defeat for the technologically advanced kid is the ‘hosts’ file in Windows. The Hosts file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. It is usually nearly empty. This file is loaded into memory (cache) at startup, then Windows checks the Hosts file before it queries any DNS servers, which enables it to override addresses in the DNS.

This prevents access to the listed sites by redirecting any connection attempts back to the local machine. Another feature of the HOSTS file is its ability to block other applications from connecting to the Internet, providing the entry exists.

The ‘hosts’ file I use is quite large and contains a GIANT list of unwanted sites - not just porno sites but advertisement sites, etc. These are re-directed to a local IP address so they fail to load. It is great to be able to restrict and deflect the flow of unwanted web addresses to my computer.

BEWARE!!!! The hosts file is filled with the most vile and disgusting web addresses (in order to block them) so its use is not suited for everyone. In other words, don’t look inside the hosts file if you are easily offended. Just set it and forget it. It will do its work in the background without being any trouble at all.

I am happy to provide more information.

July 17, 2007 9:26 pm #

Gary said...

We use multiple protections, some of which vary depending on whose computer it is. For every computer in the house, we have DansGuardian running as a transparent proxy at the firewall, and all of the computers are in open areas of the house. Beyond that, the one token Windows machine has multiple anti-spyware programs and a good anti-virus, in the hope that we can avoid unwanted pop-ups, and the various Macs have parental controls enabled and set at an appropriate level for the age of the person using the computer — my 4-year-old, for example, can only visit one web site, which both parents have checked out and believe to be safe. Of course, she’s more interested in using Tux Paint than in visiting web sites anyway

July 18, 2007 6:53 am #

Mike Heath said...

I’m a software developer and very technical so my solution isn’t something that your Joe Average user could install. I have a Linux based Internet router that I’ve customized to log all web traffic. My wife and I monitor these logs. I also produce a special report that shows what’s being searched for at Google, Yahoo, MSN and the other big search engines.

Like others here, I believe in a trust but verify approach. I’ve taught my kids the gospel and I’ve taught them about the dangers of the Internet. I trust them to use the Internet for good but I still monitor their use to be on the safe side. I also appreciate my wife monitoring my Internet use to keep me from being tempted. Fortunately my kids are still young and I haven’t had any issues with their Internet use but I try to be careful.

All that being said, technology is not the solution to keeping our kids safe on the Internet. The key is educating them and always talking with them about their Internet usage. If they know what’s right and wrong and want to do what’s right, that’s what they’ll do. If they want to do what’s wrong, no amount of technology is going to stop them. They can always go to a friend’s house and I can’t monitor the Internet usage of my kids’ friends.

July 18, 2007 3:02 pm #

Christopher said...

We’ve taken a “Big Brother” approach, installing applications like VNC or PCAnywhere on all computers in the house. Everyone knows that “Big Brother” can and will pop in at anytime of the day or night and watch what is being viewed or talked about in chat sessions. If anyone is caught tampering with the settings, then computer privileges are revoked.

July 18, 2007 3:47 pm #

Paul Brugger said...

I have no controls whatsoever on my system, which is used by both my children and grandchildren. I have taught them respect for the human body, and He in whose image it was created, and taught them to recognize the differences between pornography and art. They enjoy Michelangelo and other classic artists, and neither enjoy nor are attracted to the stuff foisted upon us by the Hugh Heffners and Larry Flynts of this world.

Telling children [of any age] to merely “turn it off” is like telling an alcoholic to not drink. There needs to be respect and understanding of the body, and the purposes for which it was created, and an openness between them and me so that they can come to me with any questions or problems.

Does “Teach then correct principles and let them govern themselves” ring a bell with anyone? It should, and if it doesn’t, then your children are not being taught how to make decisions and value judgements. If you make all the decisions for them, they will never learn how to make their own.

July 18, 2007 6:31 pm #

Stan said...

I’m surprised that some still do not recognize the need to put additional protections in place to protect our families in our homes. With all the respect I can convey in a brief blog comment, the ideals described are well intentioned, but seem naive. I don’t want to be harsh to any of the well meaning commenters here, but this is a serious issue that if not understood will not be appropriately addressed. It warrants multiple layers of defense. If no protections are in place, how can we know none of our family members are viewing pornography?

I like this analogy: Let’s say that we get food in our homes from a fancy automated cupboard by hitting a combination of buttons that causes the system to give us what we want. What if the cupboard sometimes delivered to our children cocaine instead of marshmallows if they accidentally pushed the wrong buttons? What if there was no way to know it was cocaine until it hit their tongue? Would we be comfortable just educating them on the reasons to not ingest it if it doesn’t seem right after they taste it? What if there was also no way to know what had been dispensed?

It’s a flawed comparison, but to me it describes what we’re talking about: an addictive substance that can hit our innocent, curious children when they’re not expecting it. There is obviously no way to block out everything everywhere, which is why open discussion is definitely an important layer of protection. But we should also do whatever else we can to safeguard our families in our homes.

We all might benefit from reviewing Elder Oak’s warnings during a recent conference:

“Pornography is addictive. It impairs decision-making capacities and it “hooks” its users, drawing them back obsessively for more and more. A man who had been addicted to pornography and to hard drugs wrote me this comparison: “In my eyes cocaine doesn’t hold a candle to this. I have done both. … Quitting even the hardest drugs was nothing compared to [trying to quit pornography]”

“We must act to protect those we love. Parents install alarms to warn if their household is threatened by smoke or carbon monoxide. We should also install protections against spiritual threats, protections like filters on Internet connections and locating access so others can see what is being viewed. And we should build the spiritual strength of our families by loving relationships, family prayer, and scripture study.

“Please heed these warnings. Let us all improve our personal behavior and redouble our efforts to protect our loved ones and our environment from the onslaught of pornography that threatens our spirituality, our marriages, and our children.”

July 19, 2007 9:26 am #

Will said...

I agree that education is crucial, and building testimonies is key, but we have been also been counseled to use technological preventions as well by our leaders. For example, read Elder Ballard’s talk about the media Let Our Voices Be Heard” where he tells us to install internet filters and keep computers in common areas, or this month’s article My Battle with Pornography. Elder Oaks also spoke to this point:

“We must also act to protect those we love. Parents install alarms to warn if their household is threatened by smoke or carbon monoxide. We should also install protections against spiritual threats, protections like filters on Internet connections and locating access so others can see what is being viewed. And we should build the spiritual strength of our families by loving relationships, family prayer, and scripture study.”

People are weak. Anything that keeps temptation a little further away us has some value. Using filters and other tools is definitely not fail safe, and no one should believe all the marketing hype from the companies that sell them, but if it prevents a single situation where an addiction could start it has value.

July 19, 2007 5:24 pm #

Paul Brugger said...

And whose plan was it to remove all temptation from God’s children, so that none would be lost?

While I believe that certain safeguards are advisable and useful, I also believe that our children, who are commanded to be “in the world” will not be well served by us keeping them from the world. The best of filtering software is fallible, and for that bit of objectionable material that might penetrate whatever defenses we erect, if our children are not properly prepared, they will not know how to deal with the threat. It will surely come, in some form or another, and pretending that we have completely closed it off from our families is tantamount to putting our heads in the sand.

Read the article in July’s Ensign that deals with the need to have open and candid dialogue with our children about sexuality, and teach them reverence and respect for the body [God’s greatest creation]. Any vacuum we leave in their education will be filled - if not by us, then by the philsosphies of the world. We need only ask ourselves where we would like them to get their information. We cannot pretend that they will not get it somewhere, and if not from us, likely in a format that is inconsistent with what we would like them to receive.

July 19, 2007 9:50 pm #

John H. said...

I don’t want to turn this post into a public debate, but Paul’s comments left me feeling the need to reply, and I am choosing not to resist.

First of all I want to say I agree with everything that you promoted to help your children and grandchildren. If someone wants to find trouble they will. So first and foremost should be the effort to instill within them the desire to avoid anything unwholesome. I am afraid that your arrogance (in my opinion) may burn you later. I truly hope it doesn’t.

The subject at hand is close to my heart having served a few years as a missionary in the LDS Family Services Addiction Recovery Program mostly working with pornography addicts. From my experience most of these addicts got involved at a very young age, many through exposure to it by someone else. With the advent of the internet the chances of accidental exposure has greatly increased. Even the best of kids are curious and the anonymity of the internet makes it very easy for the curious to get in trouble. It isn’t like when we were young. You don’t know what the kids at school might be telling them. Peer pressure can be a powerful thing even when opposed by the wisdom us old ones. Even if they had all the knowledge and respect available regarding lions I wouldn’t leave my posterity to wander the Serengeti unprotected.

One of the special problems with pornography is that Satan has taken a God given desire (one that is very strong as Elder Packer pointed out in that old film strip) and twists it for his use. In this respect it is unlike any other addiction with the possible exception of food addiction. We do have to eat. We don’t have a natural desire for drugs or alcohol, but we do for intimacy. One thing that can help protect our children that I believe no one has mentioned so far is to love our kids. Show them affection. Somehow they need to know that we love them unconditionally. That regardless of how big the mistakes in their lives may be, we still love them. When they do have exposure to what is out there the first thing Satan will do is try to make them feel ashamed so that they won’t tell anyone who could help them. Even if the exposure was accidental Satan will try to make them feel guilty and ashamed. I know some who have turned to Satan’s cheap imitation of love, because they were lacking it in their home life. Logging tools may give you clues when a child won’t open up to you.

This particular problem can be very subtle, and because of our God given desire may ensnare those who would never consider many other temptations. The average pornography addict in the LDS program is active in the church, a return missionary, and they want to serve the Lord. In the main meeting I worked with there were men (addicts) who had served in every type of calling in a stake with the exception of the stake presidency and patriarch. These are good men. They never planned to become addicts. No one ever plans to become addicted. Because of the nature of this beast I consider it the greatest threat to bearers of the priesthood that exists. Even David, my childhood hero from the Bible was not beyond this temptation. I bet he later wished someone had put a higher fence between him and his neighbor. I don’t believe he fell all at once though. He probably crossed many lines before that fateful night, such as his many wives and concubines.

Many people even in the church draw the line of what is OK way too far to the left. Many addicts that I know got started down the wrong road with things that wouldn’t be legally classified as pornography. I’m talking about things like the Sears catalogue and Archie comics. I would strongly disagree about accepting everything Michelangelo created as art. Just because something is very old and/or highly valued by the world doesn’t declassify it as pornographic. World values don’t have a very good record for being something you can base a righteous life on. The best definition of pornography that I have found is:

“Legal, academic, and other definitions of pornography vary widely, but in a practical sense, pornography is any visual or written medium created with the intent to sexually stimulate. If the work was not intended to stimulate but nevertheless causes sexual arousal in an individual, it constitutes pornography for that person.

“If you find yourself asking whether a work is pornographic, the question itself suggests the material makes you uncomfortable. That should be enough to tell you to avoid it.”
“The Road Back: Abandoning Pornography,” Ensign, Feb. 2005, 47

One man in denial that I shared that definition with defended his “art” collection by simply stating, “I’m sorry that it is pornography to you, but it isn’t for me because it doesn’t arouse me.” When I asked him why none of the subjects in his collection were men he said, “I’m not attracted to men.” So there was a sexual aspect to it. Much to his credit after thinking about the situation and the possible effects on his grandchildren, He has since found a creative, almost undetectable way to clothe his topless statue and has replaced the nude painting that his artist son had given him. As I mentioned before this temptation is very subtle. It often creeps up on one slowly, winding its flaxen cords about its victim, binding them fast before they even think they are getting close to danger.

As far as safeguarding our homes in addition to loving our children and teaching them correct principles I offer the following as supporting evidence that the Church/Brethren seem to be in favor of this type of action. I realize the Brethren don’t approve everything word in church magazines, and every decision at church headquarters, but hopefully what evidence I have at hand will suffice.

First off the church uses filtering software for its adult employees. I personally know one man who tested the system and failed. He no longer works for the church, but is now a recovering addict. If it is a good idea for adults, maybe it is good for young people as well. His change didn’t start until he was caught and action was taken.

The above mentioned Ensign article has some suggestions regarding safer internet use.

I got the following suggestions from providentliving.org:

“Parents can do many things to safeguard their homes from the harmful influences found on the Internet. While there is no foolproof system, some simple steps can help reduce the risk of family members seeing pornographic materials on the Internet.

1. Place computers in high-traffic areas of the home. Kitchens, family rooms, and studies usually have the most traffic. Because these rooms usually don’t have doors, they are typically less secluded than bedrooms. Position computer monitors so the screen faces out for public view.
2. Install a filtering program, and learn its features and how to use it. Good filtering programs allow you to view a history of which sites (including chat rooms) have been visited and when, as well as a record of incoming and outgoing e-mails. Information on filtering programs can be found on Internet sites such as http://www.internetfilterreview.com.
3. Teach family members about the dangers of Internet pornography, including how to escape if an inappropriate site is accidentally accessed. This usually involves shutting down the entire system.
4. Teach family members to tell parents if they encounter any form of pornography while on the computer. This will help reduce the fear or shame of accidental exposure. It also serves to open discussion about the dangers of pornography.
5. Teach family members to use the Internet for a specific purpose only. Aimless surfing makes it easier to wander onto inappropriate sites.
6. Instant messaging is a cost-effective, easy way to communicate with family and close friends. However, teach family members to avoid public chat rooms, bulletin boards, or unfamiliar areas on the Internet. Such places present an unnecessary risk for children and adults.
7. Teach children not to share any personal information online without parental knowledge and permission. Many predators pose as children to gain access and information that may put children at risk.
8. Educate yourself about your computer and how the Internet works.
9. Be aware of what your children’s school and public library policies are regarding Internet use and accessibility.
10. Teach family members to never open e-mail from someone they don’t know.”
URL: http://www.providentliving.org/content/display/0,11666,5302-1-2769-1,00.html

“Surf smart. If you have the Internet at home, ask your parents to install an Internet filtering service. But don’t rely on the filter alone; it may fail you. The only real control is self-control. Do keep your computer out of your bedroom; keep it where others will be around.”
“Danger Ahead! Avoiding Pornography’s Trap,” New Era, Oct. 2002, 34

“As citizens, join in the fight against obscenity in your communities. Do not be lulled into inaction by the pornographic profiteers who say that to remove obscenity is to deny people the rights of free choice. Do not let them masquerade licentiousness as liberty.

“Precious souls are at stake—souls that are near and dear to each of us.”
Spencer W. Kimball, “A Report and a Challenge,” Ensign, Nov. 1976, 4

“Resisting the temptations of today’s electronic media is not easy. It takes focused courage and effort. In the small town where I grew up, one had to drive at least an hour to find trouble. But today on the Internet, trouble is just a few mouse clicks away. To avoid such temptations, be like Captain Moroni of old; set up “fortifications” to strengthen your places of weakness. Instead of building walls of “timbers and dirt” to protect a vulnerable city, build “fortifications” in the form of personal ground rules to protect your priceless virtue…I know men, young and old, who have simply determined not to turn on the TV or surf the Internet anytime when they are alone. Fathers, it is wise to keep computers and televisions in the family room or other high-traffic areas in your home—not in children’s bedrooms. I also know of fathers who, while on business trips, wisely choose not to turn on the hotel television.”
David E. Sorensen, “You Can’t Pet a Rattlesnake,” Ensign, May 2001, 41

“[D]o all that you can to avoid pornography. If you ever find yourself in its presence—which can happen to anyone in the world in which we live—follow the example of Joseph of Egypt. When temptation caught him in her grip, he left temptation and ‘got him out’ (Gen. 39:12)…

“We must also act to protect those we love. Parents install alarms to warn if their household is threatened by smoke or carbon monoxide. We should also install protections against spiritual threats, protections like filters on Internet connections and locating access so others can see what is being viewed. And we should build the spiritual strength of our families by loving relationships, family prayer, and scripture study…

“Please heed these warnings. Let us all improve our personal behavior and redouble our efforts to protect our loved ones and our environment from the onslaught of pornography that threatens our spirituality, our marriages, and our children.”
Dallin H. Oaks, “Pornography,” Ensign, May 2005, 87

“I know it is an old subject and one that has been dealt with much. But I repeat it again: Guard your homes. How foolish it seems to install bars and bolts and electronic devices against thieves and molesters while more insidious intruders stealthily enter and despoil.

“Avoid pornography as you would a plague.”
Gordon B. Hinckley, “Overpowering the Goliaths in Our Lives,” Ensign, Jan. 2002, 2

Once again referring to my personal experience, when it comes to pornography it isn’t an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. An ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure. I’ve seen the lives of those who fell into this trap. Even though there are some who recover to live happy lives, there are many more that do not. The trail is littered with the dead and dying, and I am talking about physical as well as spiritual death. I can think of at least two that took their own lives rather than live with the anguish caused by this disease. Pornography is one of the toughest addictions to avoid or overcome. I have heard from someone working in corrections that for a drug addict to recover it typically takes 9-12 months. For a sexual addict it typically takes 3-5 years. At one of the Addiction Recovery Program’s annual conferences we were addressed by a therapist who had worked with addicts of all types for 35 years. I might mention that at the time there were only two pornography specific meetings, so the vast majority of the missionaries and facilitators he was talking to were working with addicts who had other addictions. He said that he didn’t want to downplay any addiction because they are all very hard to overcome, but the toughest to recover from in his experience were pornography and gambling.

I feel that kids these days have many challenges and opportunities to make their own decisions regarding this when they are out of the house. My wife and I try to give them other opportunities to develop their agency on less harmful matters. Our job is to close the gates we can and try to make our home a safe haven.

One last thought from some modern prophets regarding a non-technical safeguard for us adults to help avoid this trap is regular temple attendance. President Hinckley mentioned it in:
“Closing Remarks,” Ensign, May 2005, 102
And Elder Dallin H. Oaks said it in:
“Pornography,” Ensign, May 2005, 87

Sorry that was so long. The defense rests.

As far as the original intent for this posting, our family uses all that is on the Provident Living list that I gave and more. Including internet buddies and disconnecting from the internet when not needed even though we have a high-speed connection.

Our current technology solution of choice is an ISP filtering service mstar.net. It is a local Utah ISP. (Sorry for those of you living off the Wasatch Front.) You have to go through their proxy server to get the filtering. We configure it on our firewall server that is between the home network and the DSL modem so that we don’t have to worry about someone bypassing the proxy settings on the local computer. We have just started using it so if there are any major flaws I’m not aware of them.

July 20, 2007 1:07 am #

JW said...

I have a unique situation/problem. I’m a recovering porn addict so the person I need to protect is me. To complicate matters my wife is fairly computer illiterate and I am an IT professional. The point is there isn’t much my wife could do to stop me if I really want to bypass our security setup. To further complicate things I am somewhat anti-Microsoft. Between that and the financial savings most of my computers on our home network run Linux.

Fortunately I am doing fairly well in my recovery. Unfortunately once you’re an addict you’re always an addict, meaning that you are always much more susceptible to that temptation again. Praying for God’s help, reading my scriptures, attending the temple very regularly, and recovery meetings are essential to my survival. I even have to be careful that I get enough sleep. Enough of that.

It would be nice if I could do without the internet, but I am afraid I can’t at this point. Early in my recovery when we had a single computer with an external modem I gave the modem to my wife and told her to hide it. That saved me from a relapse a few nights later. I’ve found that taking away the easy opportunities to slip can help a lot. Recently I acquired a laptop with wireless for our trip to Nauvoo. It helped immensely to be able to get from one location to another. Now that I am home it is too much temptation to access unsecured networks, so I decided to remove the wireless card and give it to my wife to hide. I would be concerned if your children have laptops with wireless cards. It’s way too easy to access the internet even if you have put safeguards on the computer. Once they have the hardware the software can be easy for a computer geek.

I have wrestled with the challenge of devising a system that is so bullet proof that I can’t figure out a way around it. I seem to be left with only two options: forced server based filtering through an ISP or some method that I can set up on my DSL modem. Any further inside my house and it would be too easy to bypass.

I have been unable to find an ISP solution. Based on my brother-in-law’s recommendation I am currently with mstar.net a Utah ISP that offers filtering based off proxy settings. He thought that if you chose to use their filtering the proxy was required. Since he is fairly computer savvy and has had one child who would often challenge their security measures, I took his word for it. I should have verified for myself. Mstar.net does not force the use of the proxy so if it is removed the user has free rein. I couldn’t find a way to set the proxy on our modem an Actiontec-Qwest GT701-wg DSL Modem. I can on my firewall box for my children’s protection. I’m running IPCop, a Linux firewall on a 333MHz machine. As mentioned before you can run many Linux solutions on old PC’s that would otherwise be collecting dust. I was running the same system just fine on a 120MHz machine until I decided to test out other systems that also had filter features, but the older system wouldn’t boot from the CD. Mstar’s filter seems to be quite strict. I understand that they actually check new sites when you first attempt to access them. So if you are trying to access one that no one else has gone to you may have trouble getting to it at first. I have also found that it doesn’t appear to allow any image searches from google, yahoo etc. The other night my daughter was frustrated in her attempts to acquire some pictures for her Wallpaper so she typed in “flowers” and was still denied. We disabled the proxy temporarily so she could get her pictures. We use a buddy system anyway so in these situations my wife or I usually become the “buddy” and then make sure the proxy is enabled as soon as possible.

I appreciate the mention of scrubit.com and opendns.org since I can make DNS settings at the modem I will be looking into these options.

If anyone has other ideas that would work for my situation I would appreciate hearing them.

July 20, 2007 11:30 am #

Will said...

Paul, I’m not arguing with your point that it is key to prepare our children spiritually, emotionally, and intellectually for the world by actively teaching them truths and setting an example. You’re right. And I’m not arguing that installing a filter will solve the problem. You’re right again. I just believe it is a false dichotomy to say it has to be one or the other. A soldier is given a sword AND a shield.

July 20, 2007 5:54 pm #

Mark said...

I agree with what JW was using - For those of you wanting an “appliance”, here you go:
http://www.ipcop.org/ +
http://www.urlfilter.net/ (look at the screenshots)
Mine is a Pentium Pro-180 on the “appliance” and it performs without issues.
It provides:
Transparent proxy for all computers in the house - intercepts all calls to TCP/80 and routes through proxy/filter.
Full Logging of web sites (not other apps such as IM)
Automated update of “blacklist”
Manual “blacklist”
Manual “whitelist”
About 30 minutes to install with moderate technical skills required. I find it almost as easy as a linksys router.
Can “lock down” internet on some computers and allow internet on others (haven’t done that yet, but I like the option)
Will restrict usage based on a time and time quota (shuts down after too much surfing)

Then, for fun, add in a DMZ for your wireless network and instead of locking it down, route all the dhcp ip addresses through this: http://www.ex-parrot.com/~pete/upside-down-ternet.html

This setup helped me identify a babysitter who we never asked back into the home and never would have suspected was anything other than the perfect mormon young woman.

For recovery/help of people with internet addiction problems, I stumbled onto a possible solution a few years ago. We set up an 802.11 “wan” in the neighborhood and routed 3 homes in the ward through my proxy (my ISP allowed this). I noticed inappropriate sites in the proxy log, so I asked everyone about it rather than do the forensics. After initially denying it, one neighbor called me and the others and came clean about his problem. We did what we could to help and we were all better because of it.
To block a technical person, you need someone else just as technical or more so. Let’s be frank - IT people are great liars and are very good and solving “problems”. To keep a technical person clean, do the same thing you do at work - get an auditor (Home Teacher?). Find someone who knows as much or more than you to audit your systems, take away your passwords, lock the equipment up, etc. Let them set up the system and not tell you how it’s configured. Give them remote access to your network for reviewing logs and activity. Give access to your email, etc.

Hopefully this helps someone out there. It’s working well for us just because we know what’s in our home.

I also think I’ll take a look at astaro - that sounds like websense for home users!

July 20, 2007 11:02 pm #

Gishster said...

I use a Smoothwall Express on an old PC as my router. I then added a module that allows me to setup a white list. That blocks everything except what I allow. If the kids find something they want to see I just add it to the list. This also blocks a lot of the adds on websites that I don’t want to see. I also think it is very important to be aware of everything your kids are doing on the internet. If you don’t know much about the internet become educated.

July 22, 2007 12:32 am #

R. Alvez said...

I’m an open source programmer and advocate of FOSS, so I use the tools at hand to protect my family.
1. I use SmoothWall as my router firewall. It has a built in web proxi server, and my kids know that I monitor it and will immediately spot anything in the logs even is the history of the browser was erased.
2. I have all the computer monitors facing the bedroom doors, so my wife and I can see what’s on the screen any time we pass by.
3. I have installed RealVNC in the machines in the network and use it to help the kids when they need help with some software they need configured but also can be used to monitor what they are doing at any given time.
4. Last but not list, we talked to the children about the dangers of the web and pornography and continue to do so from time to time.

July 22, 2007 9:05 pm #

John M. Shaw said...

I want to put another plug in for K9 Web Protector http://www.k9webprotection.com/ - This solution is a free product for Windows that is distributed by a Company that also has an excellent commercil solution. I am able to view all web sites visited by who, etc… I also have just begun to use the Microsoft Vista tools and think they’ve really upplied a family friendly solution there.

July 25, 2007 6:22 am #

Aaron S. said...

Like several others mentioned, I too have been very impressed with K9 web protection for windows machines. The BlueCoat service behind K9 is excellent!

Since I also run non-windows OSs, I instead use a Zyxel router/firewall that works with the BlueCoat service for content filtering and covers the whole home network. Unfortunately, I can’t recommend the less expensive HS-100W that I use due to 1) no longer sold and 2) too many firmware bugs. The ZyWall series should be (hopefully) better in that regard.

The least expensive model they currently sell that uses BlueCoat is the ZyWall2 plus, which can be had for about $170 (newegg.com), plus a yearly fee of $75 for the content filter subscription. Be warned that Zyxel products aren’t for the faint of heart when it comes to networking, and if you haven’t setup anything more complex than a Linksys there may be a learning curve involved.

My children are young enough that Chat / IM isn’t an issue yet, but they are starting to figure out how to find flash games with google, so content filtering is critical. Just knowing that a link is well filtered does a lot to reduce temptation, which is good for anyone.

July 25, 2007 8:13 pm #

Enrique Romero said...

Because software controls can be subverted we use a “router based” solution. We have a LinkSys WRT54GS router which offers Parental Controls via a subscription service (from Netopia I believe.) So for $60 I have a solution that filters contents on all the Home Computers in my home that access the web.

Here’s a link for more of the router info:
http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Product_C2&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1148435315453&packedargs=page%3DL_Product_C2%26sku%3D1148435315453&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper&lid=1545328788B01

July 27, 2007 9:28 am #

Steve said...

We don’t use Internet filtering systems at our home. We’ve found them in the past to be too prohibitive so our children couldn’t do school research as needed. We keep the “family” computer in the family room with the screen facing the room for all to see. We’ve spoken as a family about internet viewing and the good and bad of it. We’ve learned to police ourselves and police each other. The biggest problems we’ve seen on internet abuse have been very late at night when the mind seems to disengage. We’ve set a bios password on the machine and shut it down at 10:00 PM and turn it back on at 6:00 AM. Only my wife and I have the password. I periodically check IE logs to see if there’s abuse problems. Our family works to use the Internet well and be responsible with it.

July 27, 2007 10:25 am #

Carlos said...

Regarding your: “NOTE: Nothing that you read in this post should be construed as an endorsement (or condemnation) of any product by either myself or by the Church”

-while understandable and logical to do so, I really believe that it may be time for the church to start considering sponsoring a good basic filter/control program simply because the overwhelming majority of church members don’t know how or which filters to use. And all of the mormon geeks I know here in Sydney don’t seem to bother with filters like Netnanny. If the church where to officially sponsor a basic filter then I’m confident that more families would bother with them. After all the church is fighting pornography in several ways and this would only be another battle front. If not sponsoring a commercial filter then offer an ongoing ‘mormon’ filter program/history logger which normal parents could handle and keep up to date in RS/Priesthood classes.

July 29, 2007 4:32 pm #

Wendy said...

We use Safe Eyes (http://www.internetsafety.com/safe-eyes). We picked it because it was highly rated on Consumer Reports. I have computer smart kids. So, I needed a filter that they couldn’t get around. So I checked it out by doing searches on google looking for any posts inquiring how to get around Safe Eyes. I read some desparate posts of people trying. The replies were always the same — that you can’t do it without messing up your whole computer.

We’ve liked it so far. It has alerts. I can set “timers” so that the internet is not accessible after 10:00 pm. I can “allow” certain sites. I forgot part of my administrator password. I was impressed that I had to call to reset it — and I had to correctly answer several questions for them to help me. Though women can become involved in pornography, it is more often men that become addicted. Because of that, I am the password holder on our filter account. And I set up my “password questions” very carefully. I used questions that my husband could not answer (and I would know if he was prodding). It’s not that I don’t trust my husband — I do. But our Bishop’s advice to our ward was to not even trust yourself.

I like the ideas of the “buddy accounts” for husband and wife. I’m not sure I like that for kids. I don’t even want them to stumble upon questionable content. All it takes is one look and they can be in trouble.

August 2, 2007 9:21 am #

Eric B. said...

We use K9 Web Protection - free for home use and simple to use. I echo the comments about having the computers in the open — never behind closed doors. It’s also importnat to help our kids understand the rules when visiting friends homes.

August 2, 2007 9:48 am #

Wendy said...

I am using last year’s version of Safe Eyes. They have a new release (as of June 2007).

One other note - Safe Eyes does not automatically “log out” when I shut my browser. We have set up different profiles for each user. The profiles for my younger children are more restrictive. But, because Safe Eyes does not log out until a certain period of non-use, I have found my children several times using the internet with my profile still logged in (not with administrator access). My profile is still filtered but they did have access to “shopping” sites or “news” sites to which I wouldn’t have given them access.

Also, I have been able to pull up “cached” versions of blocked pages before. Usually the pictures are all blocked but I can read the text. This could be a problem at some point. I cannot navigate from the cached page, though. Any linked content stays blocked.

August 2, 2007 11:14 am #

Thomas Lerman said...

I am not really sure where to post this question, but will hope to get some kind of response. I signed up as a PAF utility developer a few years ago and have a friend that wants to do this as well. However, I do not remember where or how this was done. Can you provide me with this information?

As I understand it, PAF has no support and no fixes or enhancements will be made. I know that several companies are creating PAF look-a-likes. What are the chances of getting the source code or it going into public domain?

[Joel: I’ve forwarded your question the Family History folks who work with developers. Thanks.]

August 6, 2007 9:53 am #

Michelle said...

We also put our computer in the central area of the home. The computer is password-protected and they can only use it with Mom’s OK.

My concern, though, is that as my children grow older, they could end up at a friend’s house unsupervised. So along the way, we are trying to teach them the principles to help them keep themselves safe and clean.

We had a bishop who used to say: “We want to put them in an armored car, but we can’t; we need to help them put on the armor of God.” I love that.

August 7, 2007 3:14 pm #

James Lee Vann said...

Woow, I don’t have children yet, but I like the suggestion of an integrated router, maybe I’ll get to work inventing one… Actually, I like Vista’s built in tools, as well as K9 as a free solution for XP (Though it’s default settings go way over board and it has a habit of blocking more than it should); but I have to say that education is paramount to a parents success in keeping their children away form porn. There must be open communication between parents and children!

If your kids are going through the trouble of hacking your setup just to avoid filtering and parental oversight, you have a serious trust issue, and your kid is probobly already got some problems that need addressed… (I’m not saying it’s your fault, but you must take an active role in remedying it!)

Education, communication, and a simple implemntation of a sensible filtering solution should be proficient. Just ry not to block the entire Internet, it’s such a useful tool, and essential to proper education in todays enviroment.

August 11, 2007 10:26 am #

Daniel said...

I have been struggling with an addiction to pornography, almost completely from the internet, for 8 years. I have used filters that have not worked. There are ways around them. I learned spanish on my mission and almos every filter I’ve encountered will not block out a spanish website with the same type of material. The better ones probably can do that now, but I don’t know. The problem is that these filters are being created by clean minded people, monolingual people. I think that as a preventative measure, they work great. Buy one if you want to keep your kids from accidentally finding pornography. However, if you think your kids won’t find a way around the filter if they really want to, you’re wrong. They can even find a way to go to sites that appear to be fine. They could also have innappropriate material e-mailed to them. They could e-mail themselves and you would never know. There are millions of ways of getting around filters. They only prevent someone from seeing pornography if they don’t want to see pornography. Anyone that wants to find it, will find it, whether or not a filter is installed. I know from my own experience and from the experience of other adddicts

September 13, 2007 10:45 am #

Ben said...

Thought I would add my own two cents to some already great posts…

I too used to try and find the “right” kind of filter for secure access, setting up user accounts, whitelisting, blacklisting, etc… In the end I have non-admin accounts for the kids, multiple computers in the home, main PC in an open area, and the rest are laptops (Wife’s MacBook, and my work laptop) although our children are all under the age of 11 and homeschooled, they still know they need to ask for permission and Mom/Dad have to check websites before they visit them. So far it has worked… we are very open with them. My wife has had sexual predators in her past and it has almost forced us to talk to our kids about their bodies. We too try to teach them correct principles and then have them govern themselves. I/filters can’t be there for them 100% of the time, but the Holy Ghost can if they are governing themselves appropriately. Which is the same for all us.

This is where it gets interesting… I run the IT departement at a software developement company. We we’re having problems with our filtering technology that was causing business interuptions. After speaking with the President his response was, “Turn the filters off, they (the employees) can govern themselves.” I agreed with him and our net access is wide open to this day. We have thought about piping people through a proxy such as Microsoft’s ISA server, but mostly from “who’s stealing all the bandwidth?” question.

To filter or not to filter… that is the question. My honest heart felt answer is no one knows you or your kids better than you and of course our Heavenly parents. This decision, as most, must always be decided upon with the help of the Holy Ghost. If you do decide to filter there are some great tools available to accomplish the task. Otherwise, happy surfing.

September 16, 2007 9:40 pm #

The Earl said...

I think it is short sighted to use blocking. All it takes is a good google cache, and you have problems. Try blocking google…

It comes down to dealing with the problem when it happens. If you aren’t aware of what is going on with your computer, then it doesn’t matter what sort of filtering you are doing.

This is the way I have seen most enterprises work this issue as well. Some DO block known bad web sites, but this is secondary to their primary security. If you thought of it like viri, you try to block know holes, but you run sniffers and scanners to make sure you find out about new threats as they happen. One of my employers filtered out webmail systems to prevent unknown files from entering their network.

There are good Linux based proxy and firewall solutions. I would think that an appliance PC would not be a difficult solution for most.

I would also recommend turning off access when it is unlikely that supervision is available. My child is still to young to walk, but I will probably start blocking all internet access from 11pm to 7am soon anyway, as there really isn’t a reason for anyone in my house to be playing around then anyway.

You dont really need to log the pictures and files that come across your wire, just the reference to them. That isn’t as hard as it seems, especially if you put a box between you and the outside world.

The nice thing about a log is that there is no reason to ever turn it off. If there is a big hole in the log while your spouse is on the computer, you need to ask them some questions. This works even for non-technical people, as long as they can view the logs.

September 28, 2007 4:36 pm #

Maulik Mistry said...

Using DansGuardian and Squid Web cache proxy does cost a little time in configuration, which may be out of the ability of some, but I have found that it does a robust job of filtering. I can specifically weed out inappropriate material within any page, block sites altogether, match through regular expressions, only allow listed sites, check through “grey” listed sites, etc. so that much of it can be customized to suit your desire/needs. It can even “score” pages that you request so that certain words add a specific to the score and words like “cancer” subtract from the score. Thereby, pages with a certain score can be set to be blocked. We probably could set up a good configuration for Latter-day Saints and make installers for Windows, Linux, and OS X.

DansGuardian’s ability stems from reading the pages before they get to you rather than updating a list of sites that becomes outdated. It can use those too nonetheless for a speed increase. Getting around it can be made challenging also if one allows for a box to sit in front of their connection that they do not have user/pass access to. Although, understood in a home that physical access can void this security.

October 16, 2007 2:37 pm #

JENIUS said...

hmmmm….. I think all the solutions could be bypassed via proxy server and/or online web page translator. so you would have to block any translator that could translate a web page, and somehow block proxy servers. In case you don’t belive me, hear this: I’m 12, and I have gotten past my SCHOOL’S WEB PROTECTOR to play my favorite arcade games.

November 5, 2007 6:13 pm #

somebody said...

I’m surprised so little has been said about covenant eyes.
I’ve had serious problems with porn for a long time, and am quite technically inclined too. I can’t hack in to OSX’s internals, so perhaps I’m not as savvy as others, but for me Covenant Eyes has been a spiritual life-saver. Every single bit of incoming traffic seems to be monitored and recorded. While it doesn’t block anything, the fact that my accountability partners will see my log is enough to motivate me to stay away from anything questionable.

My biggest problem now is my mobile phone, with it’s high speed data connection and full web browser. I’d really like to know how to corrupt the browser so that it doesn’t work, but hacking Symbian OS is way above my level of technical expertise…

I think more attention needs to be paid to these mobile devices. They are MUCH harder to control and much harder to live without. Filtering and monitoring software for mobile platforms is a golden opportunity for developers right now.

February 15, 2008 5:00 am #