Protect your kids from unsafe and malicious websites with OpenDNS.com

Posted on Wednesday, January 16th, 2008 under Children, Computing, Parenting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

My sister called me today. She wanted to know if there’s an easy and effective way to make Internet surfing safer for kids. That means blocking websites with adult content, violence, unsafe chatrooms and virtually any stuff that’s deemed unsuitable for kids. Her children, aged 7 and 4, are very computer savvy. Browsing the web is literally child’s play these days. It’s very important to keep unsafe content out of their reach.

I thought I’d share with you a simple way to prevent your kids, and everyone else in the house, from accessing malicious websites. For adults, weeding out pornography sites is easy but phishing websites are much harder to detect. Phishing refers to dummy websites setup by pranksters to steal your private data like usernames, passwords, credit card details and such.

I recommend OpenDNS.com, a free DNS service that filters out malicious websites. The website describes how a DNS server works and how OpenDNS.com can protect you by routing your URL requests to their own DNS server instead of your local ISP provider’s.

However, you’ll need some technical knowledge on how to login to your router’s administration panel and replace the default set of DNS addresses with the ones provided by OpenDNS.com. That’s it. There’s no need to install any softwares in your computer.

OpenDNS.com may not be a 100% fool-proof way to keep malicious websites away. But it is very effective and works without fuss. I wouldn’t hesitate recommending it to friends and family who wants parental control over the internet for their kids.

Safe computing, everyone!

Tot's Mom writes ...

My kid is still too young for this. BUT, the time will come…

Tot’s Mom’s last blog post..Chinese Superstitions

January 16th, 2008 at 8:29 pm

ShadowKnight writes ...

What an excellent article. Well done and I will be filing that for later use as our nieces are constantly using our PC’s to access the web.

As another suggestion I am a believer in putting the computer in an open place where parents and others can see/hear what is being accessed. Good for those dodgy sites with video, or chat rooms.

For chat rooms I would advise parents to ensure logging is on and review the logs. If you detect the child is in danger then take measures to prevent access to the site.

I also encourage adults to constantly ask what the child is doing. There are 2 benefits here:
1. The child thinks that you are interested, even if you aren’t.
2. The child knows that you are keeping tabs on their use.

Again great article and informative around OpenDNS whom I had not even thought about prior to this. Thanks!

ShadowKnight’s last blog post..Favourite 5 Meme

January 16th, 2008 at 9:27 pm