Genii Weblog

Any site blocking recommendations? (e.g., NetNanny CYBERsitter, etc.)

Wed 17 Aug 2005, 01:23 PM



by Ben Langhinrichs
A friend has an older son and a younger daughter, and the older son has discovered the delights of on-line porn (somewhat harder stuff that Crystal Coex in this case).  The friend isn't thrilled about this, but he is mostly concerned that his younger daughter will be exposed to this stuff, so he asked for a recommendation for site blocking software.  I found this side-by-side comparison through Google, but I wonder if any of you have an opinion?

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What has been said:


353.1. Richard Schwartz (08/18/2005 02:20 PM)

I use Symantec's Norton Internet Security for my kids' machine. Why? Because I was already using Norton Anti-Virus, and it all plugs in nicely together.


353.2. Les Z (08/18/2005 03:51 PM)

I picked Cybersitter based on a PC Magazine recommendation. It has a lot of nice functionality and does what it is supposed to do... keep my kids from getting to the wrong place.


353.3. Tom (08/19/2005 09:38 AM)

I haven't tried any of these, but don't see one I am familiar with : BSafe (www.bsafe.com). You can control multiple machines from one administrative account ...you can get antivirus and popup blocking on the account as well.


353.4. Greg Walrath (08/22/2005 11:44 AM)

Might not help much if he has friends who have unrestricted access to the 'net and a CD-R drive, as I've discovered.


353.5. Kevin (08/26/2005 12:21 PM)

In my church I head up the men's ministry and run the internet accountability program to help guys get off it.

I use a product called X3Watch that you can download and install for free. You can get it from www.xxxchurch.com and look for the link on the right.

This software doesn't actually stop you from going on the site. What it does is send an email to a designated person with the links of questionable web sites that the user may have visited. It will also notify you if they turn it off (Why did you turn off X3Watch at 11 pm Saturday night?).

I prefer this for adults because it helps provide accountability for anyone trying to get out of that stuff, while still respecting them as adults to make adult decisions.

For kids this could be an excellent backup tool to let parents know of any sites that may have slipped through the other blocking software.