Safe and Responsible Surfing
I previously blogged about the podcasts about Internet Safety by two BYU professors. They’ve just launched their 5th podcast about Safe and Responsible Surfing.
This audio podcast addresses technical issues including keylogging and peer-to-peer file sharing. It also addresses the importance of parental involvement in the personal and technical lives of their children.
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For those of us with younger children, are there measures to take when we have devices such as PS2 or XBOX in the house? I’m looking for some type of a filter or mechanism that would help to block the “bad” content from reaching my teenage son but have not been able to find anything yet.
How about it tech guys… one of you up to the challenge of writing something for this?
Tamra Hamblin,
To access the internet gaming devices (PS2, XBOX, etc.) must connect to a router (sometimes through a cable, sometimes wireless). This router is usually separate from a PC, but sometimes the PC acts as a router for other devices in the home.
All devices (PC, router, gaming devices) use Domain Name Server to translate human readable names (www.lds.org) into Internet Protocol addresses (216.49.176.33). The DNS in your device contacts a DNS server to resolve (translate) these names. The address of the DNS server is stored in your PC or router.
OpenDNS (www.opendns.com) [note: I am NOT affiliated with this FREE service - just a satisfied user] installs NOTHING on your device. All it does is help you change your DNS server address to their location. It then refuses to resolve “bad” content so if your child attempted to surf to playboy.com it would block this and return a “blocked page” message. OpenDNS has a password protected account to allow you to change the level of “bad” and to add certain normally blocked, but “good” sites.
Usually the gaming device gets the address of the DNS server from your router (and usually your router is password protected). So in most cases you only have to change the DNS server address in your router to block ALL access from your home.
Give OpenDNS (www.opendns.com) a try - I’m sure you’ll love the results.
PS. I hate to tell people to ever try to access a “bad” site, but after the kids are in bed and after you have OpenDNS setup, get on the gaming device and try to access a bad site just to make sure.
ldswebguy,
I apologize for the hyperlink reference in the above comment. I typed it in in plain text and it was converted by the comment system.
Daylan, No problem. I took out the hyperlink to Playboy above.
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