internet filter

[spamsucker]

You don't see the fail in that? It's just like hiding a gun from them. You just make it more attractive. I showed my kids that I trust them by never blocking anything. They're perfectly capable of tuning out smutty images returned from searching for "Bea Arthur" and if they aren't then I've done a bad job. The world is full of disturbing images, you'd better make sure they're able to handle them in everyday situations or you risk ending up with a pervert or a skank instead of someone that sees a snatch pic from their Bea Arthur search and doesn't panic or rail against the freedoms of speech and expression of others but just moves on. You're teaching them how to avoid unpleasantness, not how to deal with it and IMHO (which it appears we are in very different states of) you're doing him/them a massive disservice and you should have a think about it.

[Jason95357]

You don't see the fail in that? It's just like hiding a gun from them. You just make it more attractive. I showed my kids that I trust them by never blocking anything. They're perfectly capable of tuning out smutty images returned from searching for "Bea Arthur" and if they aren't then I've done a bad job. The world is full of disturbing images, you'd better make sure they're able to handle them in everyday situations or you risk ending up with a pervert or a skank instead of someone that sees a snatch pic from their Bea Arthur search and doesn't panic or rail against the freedoms of speech and expression of others but just moves on. You're teaching them how to avoid unpleasantness, not how to deal with it and IMHO (which it appears we are in very different states of) you're doing him/them a massive disservice and you should have a think about it.

I think you're making a number of assumptions here. I've been talking about porn with my boys since they were 8. We've had yearly father-son chats (on the whole sex topic in general), each year adding more info, etc. My boys and I are very open - but I keep it what I feel is age appropriate as well.

Ultimately, in the context of this discussion, I'd say it's hard-core unrealistic porn that I don't want my kids viewing. I don't want them having unrealistic expectations for their future sex life in marriage. But that's also what I teach - sex is for marriage. Wait and explore it in that context and it'll be great. Explore it before, and you'll run the risk of being unsatisfied with someone you marry - someone who other than in the bedroom is the best fit for you (but in the bedroom you had a "hot girl" way back that your spouse can't measure up to).

Just my world-view, much of it based on the Bible and personal experience, and hearing and reading first-hand experiences from others.

[Jason95357]

I'll toss this link out there too.

[jbolton]

I think you're making a number of assumptions here. I've been talking about porn with my boys since they were 8. We've had yearly father-son chats (on the whole sex topic in general), each year adding more info, etc. My boys and I are very open - but I keep it what I feel is age appropriate as well.

Ultimately, in the context of this discussion, I'd say it's hard-core unrealistic porn that I don't want my kids viewing. I don't want them having unrealistic expectations for their future sex life in marriage. But that's also what I teach - sex is for marriage. Wait and explore it in that context and it'll be great. Explore it before, and you'll run the risk of being unsatisfied with someone you marry - someone who other than in the bedroom is the best fit for you (but in the bedroom you had a "hot girl" way back that your spouse can't measure up to).

Just my world-view, much of it based on the Bible and personal experience, and hearing and reading first-hand experiences from others.

Glad to see someone else who gets it.


Being a 14 y/o young man I know he will seek out for sexual material but I feel limiting his access at home is whats best for him now. Porn creates addition. Addition to self pleasure which is a form of self worshiping. Which can also alter the way someone treats, and looks at women. I don't want our son to look at a women as body parts which is what porn promotes. God created sexual organs for a reason. For a man, and a women to produce children. To become one in flesh, and spirit. Not to look at porn and masturbate.



I appreciate everyone's suggestions on the original topic of this thread.

[johnny_22]

NetGear UTM series

I use the Netgear UTM 10 at home at at work. It is a wired system, but, they have a wireless (UTM9S) for those who like that.

The Content filter blocks not just Porn, but Anonymizers as well Nice fine tooth adjustments so Violence does not block the NRA or Calguns.

A new feature to their firmware was the Google porn search block. Used to be that searching for certain terms in images.google.com gave you what you wanted. Now, the images are filtered, and very PG rated.

At work Facebook and Linked-in are blocked. The Netgear can block not just HTTP access but HTTPS as well. Allowed me to block "the chans" as well.

[catmman]

Tell him you put a keylogger on it that will send you reports.

[rjpsb1]

Good parenting is the only way to handle it - there's no way to keep him from seeing what you don't want him to see.

[Jason95357]

My sons have plenty of good parenting. My son and I took a quick drive last week and he confessed he was searching out inappropriate stuff (I wasn't asking). My point is, my kids want to make right choices, most of the time. It's those weak times that we need the roadblocks to slow us down.

[catmman]

Good parenting is key but roadblocks are very important. Too bad there is no 100% answer to this.

[blazeaglory]

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

Yep.

Besides, you gotta let your kid grow up. If hes serious about his life, hell only watch a little bit of porn and then do his work. You gotta let him "blow off some steam" so to speak...lol

Have no fear. If hes normal hell only watch about an hour of porn per day and be OK. If hes a little weird, youll probably never see him again

[catmman]

True but wacky stuff going on. I know a guy who's best friend has a daughter that is like 15 and hooked on porn. Seems like a nice girl but parents didn't block or even attempt to filter anything for her. Strange world we live in. My generation used to watch scrambled TV channels just to try to get a glimpse of something and now it is on our phones!

[Scratch705]

watch porn with him, and makes noises and mention that you have pulled some of those moves with "mom", and that should get him to not want to watch porn for a while cause he will now think of only his parents getting it on while watching it which is a boner killer.

cause nothing kills what is "cool/fun" than having your parents do it too.

[gnatnoop]

Good parenting is key but roadblocks are very important. Too bad there is no 100% answer to this.

There is no 100% answer to this, because there is no way to stop someone from getting what they want if they are determined enough to get it. If the kid wants porn bad enough, he will read/ talk to/ learn about how to get around any restriction you put in place, even if that means buying his own laptop, using the neighbors internet connection, using a live cd or dual booting linux, using a virtual machine, using a proxy/ vpn/ tor to get around router restrictions etc. There is no way to stop the kid from watching pron 100%, unless you are watching him every time he gets on a computer.


There are a lot of speed bumps you can put in place though, and usually if the person isn't already addicted, it will make them give up before they get to it.

[jmlivingston]

OpenDNS is good as others have suggested. I'm also using Qustodio on my 11 yo's PC, which seems to be fairly decent and free. I tried to setup K9 on his system (also highly recommended) but I've locked his desktop down so tight it wouldn't run properly.

Make sure that if you use any software package, that it has the ability to enforce the "safe search" options on all the major search sites. Not foolproof, but it helps.