I have three kids and they will be 4, 7 and 10 within the month. I always thought that keeping them safe online would be pretty easy, I sent up a windows 7 tablet with a restricted account, no email and needing to ask permission for any new site or app. But the problem is that if you restrict things too much they are asking to use my wife's laptop or tablet which defeats the object. Then we got a Fire tablet, but I couldn't see how to get web access in kids mode and now it is running as me with a parental control password on. Anyway there is an old laptop I can rebuild for them, but I am wondering what people think about what age you feel it is safe to have an email account (assuming this is hotmail under Microsoft Family)? Likewise, what web filtering do you find works safely, without being so restrictive that they can't do school projects (a lot of homework seems to involve looking things up. I'm now leaning towards being a bit more liberal but doing more monitoring, rather than being restrictive and having them on my wife's account again. Thoughts, ideas, experiences?
No experience, but what about router level blocking of your low hanging fruit like vpn, porn, tub girl and what not and vnc for live monitoring of their desktop from your preferred device. I don't think there is a sort of push the switch and walk away solution for kids plus the internet. Safe use is probably all about active monitoring what they are doing especially so young. Also I would have zero faith in any kids mode stuff. Especially in a your the product not the customer service like youtube. Parents got to curate the usage themselves I think.
If your children don't have to use email to communicate with school and teachers then don't create one for them. I would say don't rely on those kind of safe filter or kid mode on the internet, you will have to regulate the kids yourself, as if they want to access harmful websites, no software or add-on can stop.
I'd try something like opendns family shield on your router/modem - if it allows you to change settings.. its free. https://www.opendns.com/home-internet-security/
The only really effective way: Block all internet access in the router configuration outside of daytimes when a parent is available to monitor what the kids are doing. Old fashioned parent looking over the shoulder the rest of the time.
im in a similar position as op. 3 kids exactly the same age i gave fire kids hd tablet a try they hate it and prefer using my shield tablet . my 10 year old seems level headed but we still keep an keen eye. atm my gaming rig is offlimits unless i am present and laptop & kano pcs only to be used in the presence of me, thier mother or grand parents. at the same time i encorage my kids to tinker and experiment alot with things and some times feel we are being too strickt
^^This + router level access times. Edit I was trying to quote Paul but I dont know how it works on this new horrid site!
Thanks for all the replies. I think I will leave router level blocking for now. If I do need to I should be doable as I'm using a scarily overcapable Microtik kit. For now I'm a way from having to worry about even the oldest trying to get at something unsuitable, but I want to keep the environment safe and keep an eye on what's going on. If I over-restrict then they end up on my wife's kit and there's no control. The real dither at the moment is email but it will have to be available soon so better get it going where I can see it than try and hide. After all in 21 months the eldest starts secondary school and will have email there. At the moment her main use would be to send pictures of the cat to her grandmother, after all. I'm going to setup Microsoft child accounts but not block everything by default. That way I can keep them in an environment I can monitor and do so rather than have any problems arise where I can't see the.
Two 10yo kids here. They have full unrestricted access to the web on their phones or any device they grab. They also believe I have easy access to EVERYTHING they do online, and a couple of incidents when they were younger have reinforced that belief. I trust them to be okay and not push the boundaries too far, but they're good kids who I believe are growing into good humans. If they let us down, we'll think again. We used to lock them out of the web, but they need it for homework so the locks came off a year or two back. They have iCloud emails but don't send anything and none of their peers use email either. They text relatives, and have a group iMessage chat with school friends. Yes they have old iPhones. Yes it's young. My daughter had epic surgery so we wanted her to be able to keep in touch with everyone while off school, and well they're twins so I couldn't exclude my lad could I? Where I do restrict them is in online gaming etc. There's nothing they can do that will have them interacting with strangers. They go on the vive in Rec Room with <12yo accounts. They can't talk to, or hear anyone else. It doesn't stop someone kicking their butts at laser quest, but it stops them hearing the troll swear like a sailer while he does it.
