DCs are at that age where i now need to protect the computers

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but I haven't a clue what to do.

Is there some parental control thing I can do which will cover the PCs, laptops, ipads and phones in one hit?

Any help would be most appreciated.

K9 is freehand excelelnt

Yes, you need to set it up on each device, but that is necessary unless you never want to look at anything deemed adult content (even MN can fall foul of that), or use age restricted pages (like FB).

That should read "free and excellent"

Thanks meditrina, I will take a look at that.

Is there some parental control thing I can do which will cover the PCs, laptops, ipads and phones in one hit?

Yes. Stand over them and watch everything they're doing

There's some good child-friendly browsers here - we use Pikluk, partly because it's the perfect price (free) and also because it overlays the desktop, so they can only use Pikluk, not accidentally delete my entire bloody desktop (again). There's also plenty of plugins for Firefox and Chrome.

For the phone/ipad, you'll have to look at their downloadable browsers - it's much harder though because you can't remove the native browser, so you'd have to hide it somewhere.

Ultimately though, it's all about education. Use the internet with them, teach them about dangers and about how you have no idea who anyone really is - and keep it in family spaces, not hidden away in bedrooms.

Hi SarabiDog thanks for your post, while standing over them would be great it's just not practical sadly! My DS often wants to use Sumdog for instance when he gets in from school and will ask to use my laptop while I am working on my PC. Now, I could just say 'no' because I don't have the time to stand over him or I can allow him to use the laptop to play maths games (which his school have asked him to do) with an element of reassurance from parental control software.

I will look at Pikluk too, thank you - he has done strange things to my browser and desktop too! He has a Google nexus which I think you can download a K9 app for so will investigate that also.

He's not a sneaky child, he's fairly sensible but he's 9.5. I have explained that he should not browse anything while I am not present and we have had chats about internet safety but curiosity is a powerful thing!

Actually you can turn the native browser (Safari) off on an iPhone or iPad - go to Settings- General- Restrictions, Enable restrictions and set a password and you can turn Safari off, also you can disallow installing or uninstalling apps, set allowed content and a few other things.

What about a router with built-in content filtering? That way it'd block access to any sites you want blocked, and would cover phones, tablets, laptops (and any other devices brought in by anyone else).

That's what I was thinking originally flatpackhamster but I didn't know if that was something I can do to my existing router as I don't really want to change it altogether. Can you tell I know nothing?!

Are you using an anti-virus software like Kapersky? It might be worth looking at it and seeing what parental controls it allows you to set up.
So far I've found that having individual user accounts for myself and the children, plus the Kapersky parental controls have been fine for my DCs.

You can also change your Google settings to switch Safesearch on which should filter out sexually explicit content.

K9 web protection but I think it only protects each individual computer at a time, unless you have them all linked by a Home Hub. So it won't affect iPod, etc.

Google Safe Search is pretty ineffective for older kids as it is so easy to bypass/ignore.

Which is why I don't suggest relying on safesearch alone.

I have McAfee piprabbit. Presumably they will have something similar? I will go and look.

So for idiot proof set up and a young not yet computer savvy child, the easiest option sounds like basic existing controls on google / McAfee and then something like K9 installed on individual machines and apps for the ipad and Nexus?

I think K9 has an ipad/iPhone version.

If you are on TalkTalk you can also enable the web following on your link.

Be warned though that nothing is foolproof and your kids can and possibly will get round it. And it will cause you Halle when there are false positives.

For example the other week I enabled the TalkTalk filtering just to see how good it was. Took me 30 seconds to workaround it using a technique for 12yr old son taught me they all use at school.

It later blocked me looking at the website for a local pub restaurant where I wanted to go as it was classed as 'alcohol/gambling'. ironically kids are welcome at the pub!

The safest way is to not give them free reign or let them hole themselves away. My eldest is 16 and only now is allowed a laptop in her room. Ask other computers are in the study. Hard to surf porn when dad is sat behind you or can come in at any moment.

To be honest porn is probably the least of your worries. The most likely thing to happen will be cyber bullying and posting inappropriate photos on Facebook. Oh and the language from some YouTube videos is appalling!

Lastly, no parental control software is a substitute for proper supervision.

On a slightly similar line to the router method, using OpenDNS (I have used it but not used the "block family less-than-friendly sites" option) on the router instead of ISP-defined DNS might be worth a go. It is perhaps also worth asking your ISP if they offer any filtering.

I came across a Christian service which offers a " cleanfeed" and there's a service from Clara.Net (visit www.claranetsoho.co.uk/content/childsafe )

(I used to use Clara.Net in dial-up service days in the 90s but they were slow to offer ADSL broadband so I moved to Plus.Net, but Clara has had an excellent reputation over the years.)

Thanks NetworkGuy, so that's something I don't need to change my router for by the looks of it. Only downside appears to be potential slowing down of web browsing if you use someone like OpenDNS? I have BT Infinity who, now that I am looking more, appear to work with McAfee (who I also use) to provide the parental controls.

Hmm no, that appears to be something you need to put on each computer..

We have a router and that has parental controls. We have also activated parental controls on each individual device.

But tbh you are fighting a losing battle. Some years ago, DS was asking DD why some game wasn't working. DD told him it was because of parental controls and 'Just hand it over DS, I'll get them turned off for you' !!!!

Now we just have to trust to their judgement. They are teens and both highly adept and can run rings around any barriers we can put up.

I accept that as teenagers they will know everything there is to know about getting round filters but I currently have a 9yo not computer savvy DS, so it's really just that extra bit of security over normal parenting while they are still youngish.

Looking at some of the BT forums it would appear you can do whole house web filtering on my router. Back to the K9 downloads then I think.

Thank you all.

Can't not can.