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Best Free Parental Filter [1]

Introduction

Parental control software makes it harder to find inappropriate material on the Internet or to do things that "parents" don't want. The criteria I've used includes these four main components of parental control plus compatibility with browsers and operating systems:

  • Block addresses – to avoid specific Internet addresses (URLs or IP addresses);
  • Filter content – to identify inappropriate material;
  • Manage usage – to limit Internet access by setting time limits and time quotas
  • Monitor activities – to see what has happened with alerts and reporting.

Most of the products and services I've reviewed provide similar levels of blocking. They do very little, if any, online filtering for other content. This is because the block lists are created offline from content filtering done on the providers' servers.

I'm separating the discussion into two groups to clarify a key difference based on the breadth of activities that can be managed:

  • Gateways or Proxy Servers only need simple configuration changes on your PC or router. They don't manage usage nor a wider range of device activities. They also have a major weakness which makes the controls easy to sidestep: the DNS configuration can be changed just as simply as it was setup.
  • Software is installed on your device to provide a wider range of parental controls. Time limits and quotas are usual. Some can filter or monitor much more than just web surfing: email, instant messaging, internet chat, and games. Plus there are a few more features to deter users who want to avoid the controls. For example, passwords are usually required to alter the configuration or uninstall the product.

Parental Filter Gateways

[3]

OpenDNS [3] [4]

Find web pages for you and check its database to find out if the webpage needs to be blocked

Our Rating:
3
License: Free (Private/Educational use)
Web based service works with all platforms; fast, effective blocking; faster browsing for many.
Too easy to avoid; one profile on each PC; some technical knowledge required; no desktop controls.
Read full review... [4]

Parental Filter Software

[8]

Norton Family [8] [9]

Parental filtering and monitoring for web surfing, social networks, email, instant messaging and contacts

Our Rating:
3.5
License: Free (Limited features)
Comprehensive; multiple profiles on each device; settings stored with your account.
The paid version is needed for time quotas and useful reporting; unblocking is time-consuming.
Read full review... [9]
[13]

K9 Web Protection [13] [14]

Simple and effective web filtering with safe searching

Our Rating:
3
License: Free (Private/Educational use)
Simple and effective; highly customizable.
One profile on each device; slower browsing; no controls for email, IM, games, etc.
Read full review... [14]
[17]

Windows Live Family Safety [17] [18]

A part of Windows Essentials from Microsoft for free

Our Rating:
2.5
License: Free
Filtering works well; consolidates reporting across multiple PCs.
Controls depend on your Windows version (and its parental controls) and using Microsoft products.
Read full review... [18]

Other Parental Filters

This is the extent of current programs I tested:

  • SafeSquid [20] for 1-3 users is a free version of a corporate product that is not for non-technical users. Once you have installed it you must customize It to make it useful. There is a lot of documentation to help you and there are some useful downloads to get filtering and safe search working. I tried it and found the filtering very effective. You can run it on a gateway or individual desktop and there are numerous network configuration options.
  • FortiClient [21] has a Web Content Filter component that can be installed without the complete package. Again, this is part of a corporate product. That's probably why it has the best and largest selection of filter categories that I have used: 83 categories in total. Blocking performance was comparable with the recommended products but it didn't enforce safe searching and reporting is limited to a log file.
  • Microsoft Windows Parental Controls [22] built into Microsoft Windows are increasingly more comprehensive but virtually useless in Windows XP. The only safe way to use it is with unrated pages blocked which means you will go crazy with the Content Adviser pop-up asking if you want to view the unrated page. Windows Vista and Windows 7 are far more useful being the basis for Windows Live Family Safety.

I don't recommend using browser add-ons for parental control because they are so easily bypassed. They do not work with all browsers and don't have enough features.

  • Parental Control Bar [23] is a good example. It has website filtering with block lists and allow lists but no reporting, alerts, time restrictions, or filtering of email, internet messaging, etc. It installed a faulty add-on to Firefox, the KidTrackmonitor didn't work, and it has not been updated since September 2007.

I also looked at the following free child-safe browsers. I cannot recommend any of them for their parental controls.

  • KidzCD [24] has a range of child-friendly browsers and they recommend Kidz Protection which manages access to software.
  • Kido'z [25] has a trial version that you can use indefinitely but which does not provide access to the parental controls unless you pay for a subscription.
  • Kidrocket [26] which appears to be unsupported.

Related Products and Links

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Editor

This software review is copy-edited by Glyn Burgess [34]. Please help edit and improve this article by clicking here [35].

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[1] https://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-parental-Filter.htm
[2] https://www.techsupportalert.com/users/midnightcowboy
[3] https://www.techsupportalert.com/content/opendns.htm-0
[4] https://www.techsupportalert.com/node/8143
[5] https://www.opendns.com/
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[7] https://plus.google.com/118396188147577447707?rel=author
[8] https://www.techsupportalert.com/content/norton-family.htm
[9] https://www.techsupportalert.com/node/8144
[10] https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/norton-family-parental-control/id1019061388?mt=8
[11] https://family.norton.com/familysafety/loginStart.fs
[12] https://onlinefamily.norton.com/
[13] https://www.techsupportalert.com/content/k9-web-protection.htm-0
[14] https://www.techsupportalert.com/node/8145
[15] https://itunes.apple.com/app/k9-web-protection-browser/id407657840
[16] http://www1.k9webprotection.com/getk9/download-software
[17] https://www.techsupportalert.com/content/windows-live-family-safety.htm-0
[18] https://www.techsupportalert.com/node/8146
[19] http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/essentials
[20] http://www.safesquid.com
[21] http://www.forticlient.com/standard.html
[22] http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Set-up-Parental-Controls
[23] http://www.parentalcontrolbar.org/
[24] http://www.kidzcd.com/
[25] http://kidoz.net/
[26] http://www.kidrocket.org
[27] https://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-web-browser.htm
[28] https://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-web-site-link-checker.htm
[29] https://www.techsupportalert.com/content/best-internet-safety-check.htm
[30] https://www.techsupportalert.com/content/safe-computing-under-hour.htm
[31] https://www.techsupportalert.com/how-to-secure-your-pc.php
[32] https://www.techsupportalert.com/safe-surfing.php
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