Filtering Software for Kids Network

[Daniel Hazelbaker]

On Oct 10, 2007, at 5:18 PM, Alex Satrapa wrote:

> On 11/10/2007, at 03:47 , Mike Friedman wrote:
>
>> I am about to start on a project to set up a computer lab with  
>> around 20 workstations for children (ages ranging from 3-5 up to  
>> 13-15) and wondered what filtering software people have used and  
>> how successful it has been, how difficult to manage, etc.
>
> I've found the best protection for an unsupervised computer lab is  
> an airgap firewall.  Failing that, a proxy server with a  
> "whitelist" approach.
>
> If the content filter lets your users get to Google, it's useless.

Not necessarily.  Some filters (such as dans guardian) actually use a  
content scoring.  So even though they might hit google cache or  
whatever, the actual content displayed is scored and if it exceeds a  
pre-determined score then it blocks the entire page.  While I am sure  
there are always ways to defeat any filter, you can only do so much.   
Beyond that, anybody who is really trying to break your filter/ 
firewall will find a way, short of the solution you mentioned which  
permits only specifically allowed sites through.

To Mike: If you (or your supervisors) are extremely worried about the  
content viewed in the computer lab then I suggest the solution  
mentioned by Alex and you create a specific list of sites (without  
search engines included) that are allowed to be viewed, but that can  
create a lot of headaches of keeping that list up to date with what  
the kids need access to.  If, on the other hand, you are more worried  
about just keeping the "average kid" from walking in and trying to  
surf garbage, then a scoring content filter should suffice.

Remember, (in general) if you make it difficult kids that are really  
trying to surf garbage will just go elsewhere where they can do it  
easy (friends house, internet cafe, etc) rather than spend time  
trying to get around a decent filter.  The ones that are determined  
to do it at your lab, well, not much you can do about them except  
unplug the computer.

> Alex

Daniel