internet filter

[NytWolf]

Did you have access to porn when you were his age?

If you block his access to it, he will find it elsewhere ... or find something else. Is that you want? Unless he is abusing it, I wouldn't block him.

[Brianguy]

As already mentioned above, https://www.opendns.com/ is free and effective. Install their program to monitor ip changes.

More free protection to supplement opendns is the built-in content filtering in IE and firefox add-ons such as https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/fir.../procon-latte/

Make sure he's setup on a standard windows account and obviously don't tell him the pw for the admin account

[Petra]

This thread is absolutely hilarious... Which is great, because I needed a good laugh.

Anyone with even a modicum of intelligence, technical ability, and creativity would be able to circumvent absolutely everything that's been suggested. That said, it's fun for things to be a bit of a challenge sometimes.

[njineermike]

Wait. You think your going to stop an engineering student who wants porn from getting porn. That's hilarious right there.

[the86d]

Did you have access to porn when you were his age?

If you block his access to it, he will find it elsewhere ... or find something else. Is that you want? Unless he is abusing it, I wouldn't block him.

I did, but it was Cindy Crawford and such on floppy...
Laura's Lair BBS required ID on file for access and I was underage, so sneaker-net was only one option... unless you knew someone with a BBS and they bumped your access to their personal stash.

[gabe123]

Unless you have the resource of a company IT department, it is almost impossible to block anything at home 100% reliably. Open DNS is a good option, and available for most router. Just do a little home work on your part. Its not difficult to do. Just know that kids nowadays are very tech savvy. By the way, if you go for the router option, make sure your kids dont have access to your neighbor wifi.

[Vetteodyssey]

+3 for OpenDNS. Anything you install on the computer can be circumvented in 5-4-3-2-1.

It's so easy to use I talked the grandparents through setting it up over the phone.

[LAmike]

OP,
-OpenDNS
-A router with content filtering and timed access
-an administrative account on the laptop
-etc.

Those are all good options but can be circumvented and can be time consuming and a hassle to deal with. The best thing is to let your son know what kind of content is acceptable and what kind of content is not. Check periodically. My guess is that because you sound like a conscientious dad, your son is probably a good kid. Trust but verify.

[five.five-six]

If he's a smart kid, he'll find a way around whatever you put on there. I know I did.

Walled garden, but yes all can be seen with proxies.

[Jason95357]

OP,
-OpenDNS
-A router with content filtering and timed access
-an administrative account on the laptop
-etc.

Those are all good options but can be circumvented and can be time consuming and a hassle to deal with. The best thing is to let your son know what kind of content is acceptable and what kind of content is not. Check periodically. My guess is that because you sound like a conscientious dad, your son is probably a good kid. Trust but verify.

OpenDNS is rather effective if you have your router block outbound DNS to anything other than OpenDNS's site. Also, you need to have OpenDNS block Proxy/Anonymizer sites.

It's not perfect, but it does a pretty decent job.

Further, you can look at OpenDNS stats to see if attempts are being made to access filtered sites. Then you can have a sit-down talk. Well, start with a sit-down talk, and about trust, and about you trying to protect him (or help him guard his time, or whatever), but then you can have a follow-up conversation as needed.

So in order to block all other DNS access except OpenDNS, My D-Link DIR-825 has these options configured via these menus:
Advanced - Access Control, and then I added two polices:
Policy Name: NonOpenDNS-block
Choose a schedule to apply to this policy: Always
Select Machine: Other Machines (I have other policies, so this matches everything)
Select the method for filtering: Block Some Access
Apply Advanced Port Filters (checked)

Then I have ranges listed next (which will be blocked):
dns-1 0.0.0.0 - 208.67.220.219 Protocol:TCP Dest Start:53 Dest Port End:53
dns-2 208.67.220.221 - 208.67.222.221 Protocol:TCP Dest Start:53 Dest Port End:53
dns-3 208.67.222.223 - 255.255.255.255 Protocol:TCP Dest Start:53 Dest Port End:53

dns-4 0.0.0.0 - 208.67.220.219 Protocol:UDP Dest Start:53 Dest Port End:53
dns-5 208.67.220.221 - 208.67.222.221 Protocol:UDP Dest Start:53 Dest Port End:53
dns-6 208.67.222.223 - 255.255.255.255 Protocol:UDP Dest Start:53 Dest Port End:53

(basically, all IPs except OpenDNS's 208.67.202.220 & 208.67.222.222)

[five.five-six]

OpenDNS is rather effective if you have your router block outbound DNS to anything other than OpenDNS's site. Also, you need to have OpenDNS block Proxy/Anonymizer sites.

It's not perfect, but it does a pretty decent job.

Further, you can look at OpenDNS stats to see if attempts are being made to access filtered sites. Then you can have a sit-down talk. Well, start with a sit-down talk, and about trust, and about you trying to protect him (or help him guard his time, or whatever), but then you can have a follow-up conversation as needed.

So in order to block all other DNS access except OpenDNS, My D-Link DIR-825 has these options configured via these menus:
Advanced - Access Control, and then I added two polices:
Policy Name: NonOpenDNS-block
Choose a schedule to apply to this policy: Always
Select Machine: Other Machines (I have other policies, so this matches everything)
Select the method for filtering: Block Some Access
Apply Advanced Port Filters (checked)

Then I have ranges listed next (which will be blocked):
dns-1 0.0.0.0 - 208.67.220.219 Protocol:TCP Dest Start:53 Dest Port End:53
dns-2 208.67.220.221 - 208.67.222.221 Protocol:TCP Dest Start:53 Dest Port End:53
dns-3 208.67.222.223 - 255.255.255.255 Protocol:TCP Dest Start:53 Dest Port End:53

dns-4 0.0.0.0 - 208.67.220.219 Protocol:UDP Dest Start:53 Dest Port End:53
dns-5 208.67.220.221 - 208.67.222.221 Protocol:UDP Dest Start:53 Dest Port End:53
dns-6 208.67.222.223 - 255.255.255.255 Protocol:UDP Dest Start:53 Dest Port End:53

(basically, all IPs except OpenDNS's 208.67.202.220 & 208.67.222.222)

All defeated by a smartphone with teathering.

[Jason95357]

All defeated by a smartphone with teathering.

My cell phone family plan has porn filtering as well. Speaking of, I have to go edit it, because the violence filter or something is blocking gun-related sites.

But, yes, if someone wants to get to porn, they will. The unblockable location is the public library.

[Jason95357]

T-Mobile

Argh, so T-Mobile doesn't have granular filtering like OpenDNS does. They have 3 pre-set categories:

Child: Recommended for all ages. Content in this categories contains little or no sexual content, situations, or themes; no strong or coarse language; no alcoholo, tobacco or drug use; and no gambling. Some websites may contain minimal cartoon or fantasy violence.

Teen: Recommended for age 13 and up. Content in this category may contain mild or infrequent violence; sexual content, situations, or themes; profanity or crude humor; alcohol, tobacco or drug use (not intended to encourage use). This category may also contain simulated gambling.

Young Adult: Recommended for age 17 and up. Content in this category may contain frequent or intense graphic violence, sexual content, profanity, and crude humor.

So my wife and I are set for the Young Adult filter. Calguns.net is blocked "Content restricted" but no details on why. I guess I'll have to bug T-Mobile as to why the site is blocked. I don't see anything of the filters above talking about firearms. The child and teen filters mention levels of violence allowed, but firearms aren't violent (but perhaps T-Mobile thinks they are). I can't see why Young Adult would block based on violence at all - in fact, I'm not even sure what Young Adult does filter on (I think I picked it hoping for some basic malware protection).

[spamsucker]

The ONLY filter that's ever really going to work is good parenting and you're too late there. You either have or have not instilled the judgement, values and morality that you desire. Just give him the computer and tell him he's responsible for his behavior. You might also mention that if he wants to surf porn he should install a virtual machine instance running Linux and surf porn from there. At least it won't infect the host OS with eSyphillis or iHerpes.

[Jason95357]

The ONLY filter that's ever really going to work is good parenting and you're too late there. You either have or have not instilled the judgement, values and morality that you desire. Just give him the computer and tell him he's responsible for his behavior. You might also mention that if he wants to surf porn he should install a virtual machine instance running Linux and surf porn from there. At least it won't infect the host OS with eSyphillis or iHerpes.

I agree that good parenting is the foundation. But curiosity and a young boy are a tough mixture. If I can make it so that my sons (or daughters) don't accident stumble into smut when looking for something legitimate, I'm going to do so.