The technology we use daily has had some very incredible advances just within the last few years. Your computer can read to you, there is voice recognition in our phones and cars, some cars can even park themselves, just to name a few of these advancements. But with all this advancement, there is still one thing that still takes a human touch - blocking undesirable content 1 from reaching your child.
There are two major points that support this statement:
If you want to filter out the undesirable content, then the best way is still the human touch. There are a number of technological tools to help, but they should not be relied upon as the only filter.
Problem with Software Filtering | The Human Approach to Filtering | Helpful tools
As noted above, the two major issues are (1) a machine can be circumvented, or compromised, and (2) defining what is and isn't "undesirable content" has too many variables involved.
When you use a piece of software to filter the web, then the filtering is limited to only what the software can do, and only applies for the computer it is installed on. All other Internet capable machines (another computer, a game console, a PDA, etc) would still have full, unfiltered access.
The second problem stems from each family being unique. What one family considers "undesirable", another family may consider "funny". You can even have a topic that both families consider "acceptable", but have some minor nuance about the topic unacceptable to one family. This creates a real problem for software and software programmers. Computers work in a binary world, meaning there are only two options - Yes and no, on and off, right and wrong - there is no "sometimes" for a computer.
The first problem is easy to fix, just move the filtering off the computer. One way to move the filtering off the computer is by using the "human touch", and is covered in the next section. Other ways include filtering at your router, or at your ISP. This is covered in the last section.
The only, truly reliable filtering is the Human Touch. There are some things you can do on a technical level to make it easier, but it still requires a set of eyes, and a human's brain to truly filter the Internet. Some things you can do to employ the Human Touch to Filtering the Web:
(And putting the computer in the child's room with the door open does not count.) Best place is in the corner of a high traffic area, and make sure that you can see the front of the monitor. Putting it in a high traffic area will allow you to "peek in" and see what your child is doing while making trips between the washing machine, the stove, the mail box, and all your other daily chores. During your trips, make sure to stop once and a while and ask some questions. This will show your child that you are interested in what he/she is doing, while reminding him/her that you are watching. The nice thing, is that your child will not feel like he/she is being watched.
Don't just tell your child what is and isn't allowed. Turn this talk into a discussion. Discuss things like why the undesired content conflicts with your families morals, or how this content makes him/her feel. This will help you child become his/her own filter.
This is particularly true for the younger kids. If you have talked to your child, and they have a good understanding what is and isn't acceptable, then when they find something unacceptable they will tell you about it. It is important to keep your tone simple and to the point when they do. They have actually done a good thing in telling you, don't let them think they did something wrong by finding this unacceptable material (even if they have). Find out what happened, maybe discuss what they saw or read, and then thank them for bringing it to your attention. If they did do something they were not allowed to do, make sure you isolate that event from the fact that they told you about it. Think about it this way, even a judge will take pity on a person when they do something illegal if that person has turned him/her self in and has been cooperative with the police.
As noted, the best filtering is the Human Touch. That does not mean we can not use some technology to help. Using a process below, in conjunction with the human approach is really the best way to go. Consider it the "Belt and Suspenders" approach.
By blocking in before it even comes into your house, you are making sure that every single device in your house has the filtering applied. Check with your ISP (Internet Service Provider), most provide some form of parental control/content filtering. This is truly the best way to go. You are already paying for it, you might as well use it. Another approach, is using OpenDNS. This works in a similar fashion as your ISP blocking. You can find out more about OpenDNS' Adult Site Blocking at their website.
If you have high-speed access and/or you have more then one computer in your house, then most likely you have a router. Most newer models of routers all have some level of content filtering available. The depth of the control really depends on the model, so you may want to do some research before purchasing. This is a great solution, even if you only have one computer. The fact that you have removed the filtering from the computer level, means it would be harder to circumvent. But the fact that you have moved the filter into your house, you now have some better control over it. For example you can (depending on the feature set of the router) filter all traffic to your child's computer, while still having un-filtered traffic on your own computer. You can even use a router in combination with OpenDNS, which would be a great way to either improve it's current filtering abilities, or as a way to add filtering to an older router model.
Author's Note: The "before it gets into your network" is my preferred method. Although I do not use a dedicated router as my filtering device, the principal is the same. (I use IPCop with the URLFilter and Advanced Web Proxy Filter.) I have the benefit of my filters being applied to all the devices on my network. But since the filtering is in my house, I have some fine grained control over which filtering rules are applied to different devices. I don't have to rely on my ISP's settings, or make calls to them to unblock sites that I feel are acceptable. And I use the "Belt and Suspenders" approach by not allowing any computer usage outside of the common rooms.
1. As noted in the article above, defining undesirable content is a very tricky thing. In this article I am simply referring to any material; video, audio, written text, pictures, etc, that relates to things that you would not want to have in your house. I am only limiting my definition in regrades to the delivery of that medium (be it written, visual, audio). In this article, I am only looking at content that is delivered with the aid of the Internet.