Technology
Internet Parental Control – Part Two By Taff
Lovesey of LitesPC
Last month we looked at how to set up a unique user account to provide control on how your child accesses the PC. This month we will take this a step further and investigate ways that control of internet usage can be added to reduce the availability of inappropriate content.
Internet Browser Control:
The most readily available content control is to use your internet browser. Internet Explorer has parental control built-in but other browsers, such as Chrome and Firefox, require the download of additional extensions. For this reason we will focus on Internet Explorer. Login to your account (must be an administrator) • Open Internet Explorer • Open Internet Options • Click on Content • Locate the Content Advisor and click on Enable You will now be shown a list of control options • Click on each category to select it
• Move the slider to set the level of censorship required As you move the slider a summary of the level appears in the Description box at the bottom of the window. When you have set the levels that you want to use… Click on the General tab. You should now ensure that the second box is ticked and then click on Create Password. Enter a password that you will NOT FORGET but that is not known by your child. Keep clicking OK until you come back to the main browser window. You now have restricted content set up. IMPORTANT: This level of control is set on a system basis, not user, so the content restriction will be in place for ANYONE that logs in to the system. However you can use the security password to either ‘allow’ access to a restricted page when prompted, or to disable the control for unrestricted browsing. If this method proves a nuisance then there are other commercial options available (e.g; NetNanny) and even a free method for blocking inappropriate websites externally by changing your broadband service ‘name server’ to point to OpenDNS Family Shield (see www.opendns.com/home-solutions/parental-controls/ )
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DiscoveringBourne November 2012 | www.discoveringbourne.co.uk