Help with restricted net access for children

Hi guys,

I'm just in the process of setting up 2 PCs for my niece and nephew (12 & 13years old) and want to know what is the best way to restrict what content they will be viewing as they will both be getting these systems in their bedrooms.

They have both been using the family PC downstairs for the last 5 years so monitoring them has been easy as there is always someone in the room to keep an eye on them. Obviously there is a great deal of stuff out there that they don't need to be viewing.

Any help would be appreciated,

thanks

bt

What kind of router do you plan to use? because i know a great deal of router/switches come with firewalls and you can block certain stuff according to keywords and such

Hi primuslesler, thanks for your response. I will be using a netgear DG834GT wireless router using 108mb cards. I know you can block sites with keywords but not all sites will have names that correspond to what you can be viewing there.
I have installed firefox for browsing and can't find anything like content advisor that you get with IE. Maybe I should just let them use IE if it's safer in terms of the content they can look at.

bt

First I would start with, restricted user accounts on both pc's that would not let them install software. I know this doesn't address your issue about browsing but it is a place to start.
Now for browsing - several options
IE has the content 'filter' Firefox and Opera don't
The router has filtering but a PIA to administer
There is NetNanny, how well it works, I dunno. Installed on ea PC. Can it be disabled by a restriced account? I dunno. Check out netnanny.com and some of the articles on the main page.
Another possible solution, if you have the resoucres, IPCop w/cop+. IPCop is a linux based firewall that runs on a 'spare' pc, old P2 etc, that would replace the netgear router. Cop+ is an addon that allows for content filtering (dansguardien) and can be configured to download 'blacklists' on schedule. Blacklist is basically a listing of bad places to go. Smoothwall is another linux based firewall and you can add the content filtering as well. (dansguardien) Both are easy to setup and don't require much linux knowledge. There are support forums for both, and you can get help here as well. Many here run smoothwall or IPcop, and can help.

I run IPcop with some addons that scan web pages for malicious material, ftp downloads and virus scanning that updates every 4 hours. I don't have any content filtering. My children are away at college.

Hope this helps.

Forgot to mention, smoothwall and IPcop are free.