Children getting into websites you don’t want them seeing is  reality. It’s not always out of curiosity or intentional. Sometimes the sites come up by user error or on their own. This may be by popups, popunders, etc or by typing in something incorrectly. It doesn’t just happen to children.

I typed in a web address and transposed 2 letters. Suddenly, my screen was filled with pornography. It is not uncommon for sites to register a name that are close to a popular website’s name, hoping to bring people in by accident. This is called “Typosquatting”.

I recommend K9 proxy from Blue Coat. You can block websites based on content. Blue Coat categorizes sites. Some categories are adult/mature content, violence/hate/racism, shopping, for kids, and auctions. There are at least 70 categories. As you can see, they are not just the obvious sites to block. For example, you may want to block “Auctions” to prevent your child from accessing auction sites. You may want to allow “For Kids” category.

You can block sites in 2 ways. One is to add disapproved categories on the proxy (blacklisting), while you leave the the rest available. The other is to block everything except categories you list as allowable (whitelisting).

Guiding your children on Internet use is always the best. However, it is hardly possible to watch every second. You need to automate the protection for when you aren’t around to monitor.

K9 proxy is still free and can be found with this link:
http://www1.k9webprotection.com/

Thanks Angela for this important question!