Protecting a Young Child on the Internet

My niece ( whom I am the primary care giver to ) is turning 10 tomorrow and the only thing she has been wanting for months is her own PC. Over the course of about 6 months she even saved up $130 on her own ( selling lemonade, chores, piggy bank, etc) towards the machine.

So, long story short is that she will be getting a netbook primarily for silly children sites like Nickelodeon, Webkins, etc and I would like to make sure that none of the crazy shit that the internet is full of corrupts her innocent 10 year old mind.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Not possible. If she's determined enough, she will either get around it on your setup or just go to a friend's house with parents who are ignorant or just don't care.

I'd suggest only allowing her to use it in the living room or some other common area where you can easily monitor what she's up to. I'd almost suggest a standard desktop PC rather than a netbook because then at least it will stay in one place.

Yeah, isolating it to areas where the adults are seems to be the best option. I was mostly wondering if there were home pages/search engines setup that were geared towards filtering out all of the adult stuff and keeping it as kid friendly as possible.

Mzo reads this forum. It may already be... too late.

:lol: Good one.

The internet is like STDs, the only sure fire protection is not to do it.

Seriously. Her nudes will be on 4chan within a week.

fucking 4chan.

Wow, internet funnies from Josh, how odd. Don't you have a dead animal or granny to go cry about pussy?

I would google for "Search Engine for Kids" but am scurred that it would just turn up a bunch of pedophile porn.

Laptop = bad idea.

My oldest daughter (she's 6) uses the desktop, which is in the family room. I have parental controls activated, and she only uses it for an hour at a time. The PC is situated so that we can see the screen from the couch or the kitchen. Giving her mobility is not wise, as she'll discover that the Internet connection goes with her anywhere in the house (if you have wireless). It's better to keep her locked on a static machine that you can monitor.

Also, don't let her use search engines. I have my daughter tell me what she wants (Dora, Disney, etc.) and I find it, access it for her, and add it to her bookmarks. That way, she doesn't feel the need to search for herself, and she gets used to having to run the content through me first.

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Originally Posted by Glass Joe

Wow, internet funnies from Josh, how odd. Don't you have a dead animal or granny to go cry about pussy?

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Why would I cry about pussy? Pussy is AWESOME.

There's a great search engine for kids called Pornhub. Don't let the name fool you, it's wonderful for children.

Short of that, I agree with those saying she should use a PC where you personally can see it.

I agree with the statements about keeping it in a common area. Also one of the best things you can do is set aside some time to show your kids some awesome websites. Homestarrrunner.com and Cat face on weebles stuff is your friend. They will be all over them and they are funny as hell. And tell her that you are getting her a desktop cause its more powerfull and its what you got when you got your first comp.

Don't have a wireless network so she can only access the net in the living room.

Fuck everything about this thread.

I must have been 10 or 11 when we first got the internet. Despite AOL having their age-specific filters, porn was super easy to come by in chat rooms. Kids are going to get into everything that they are not supposed to. You are a lot savvier about how the internet works, so it will easy for you to find out if she is doing anything you would not like her to and confront her about it.

And if you are okay with her having her "own" computer, why not get an old iMac?

I remember when netscape used to save all images to the temp file. My dad used to check that to catch us. Thank god they stopped that shit

MINE TOO!

You could still go with the net book and just get a security cable to attach it to a coffee table or a desk wherever you want her to stay.

send her to 4chan. They'll set her up with webblock.

EDIT: Goddamn Josh! You expect me to post on here at night? Is that how I got to beat you to the punch?

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Originally Posted by Gymkata

Cat face on weebles stuff is your friend.

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Yeah, I did this and two minutes later she (12 at the time) found dicks on weebls. Lucky for me, her mother had a low bar on censorship and I avoided a beat down. But I'm sure if I left her alone for another five minutes, she would have found eggchute.



EDIT: She was a straight A, punctual, low maintenance student while I raised her. So, I have no idea what she did on the internet and frankly I didn't care as long as I didn't know about it and it didn't effect her grades.

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Originally Posted by Doc Holliday

Yeah, I did this and two minutes later she (12 at the time) found dicks on weebls.

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That's because Weebles the toys are spelled with an "e" at the end. :D

You could try not having a wireless network and hooking up the notebook to an Ethernet cord...

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Originally Posted by Fe 26

I remember when netscape used to save all images to the temp file. My dad used to check that to catch us. Thank god they stopped that shit

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Wait. Are you joking? Please tell me you know that both Firefox and Internet Explorer still do that.

A sufficiently persistent child will get into shit on the internets they're not supposed to. Can always just setup a router based whitelist keyed to her mac address.

Why don't you just teach her about sex, internet security and reality so it doesn't matter that much? And limit her time on it so she can be out saving whales and playing jaxx with her friends or whatever it is you think she is so innocent with. Kids grow up fast these days because of the exposure they have to information. Keep up or fail.

What the Canuk said is pretty much why my kid wasn't a problem. She still played jaxx though.

Nobody wants their kids to see a retard getting shat on in a bathtub, or 1 guy 1 jar. Teaching about sex does not make the internet child friendly.

My parents didn't want me to watch Predator. So I went to my friend Ryan's house and watched it. You are not stopping anything.

install linux on their computer and set up a local proxy software or dns server to whitelist only the sites you want her to visit (or just blacklist all the nasty sites you want)

because 1) they'll never understand linux, 2) you can manage it remotely without their knowledge!

3) You should be running Linux anyway.

4) because you're a fucking dork

5) and you hate yourself and your family.

6) Would rather not deal with the potential awkwardness of upbringing your kid properly.

7) and custom LARP skins beat aero any day.

cka is smart and stuff.

Or you just explain that the internet contains the best and worst of humanity in unequal shares and that if she doesn't abide by your guidelines she will have her soul crushed and her eyes scarred by the Cthulu-equse horrors of the internet.

Personally I'd just cue up 2 Girls 1 Cup and show it to them. Afterwards you can be sure they won't be looking for fucked up shit on the internet ever again.

For bonus points make sure you record their reaction.

bbobb, this kid probably wasn't to long ago playing with her own poo. She very well may like that video.