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Question

Internet Usage Restriction for teen

Mar 15, 2012 12:36PM PDT

I am a parent looking to find a program from a reputable company to restrict the amount of time that my 16-year old son can be on the web ~ period.

Currently he gets home from school around 3:00. The rest of us get home around 6:00. As a parent that used to be a teenage boy, I know that he gets online immediately and plays Xbox, Wii, or plays on the computer.

I am hoping to find a program that would require him to log in to an "account" whenever he needs to access the internet for any reason. I would guess that would require somehow control through the router or modem.

I have a Netgear router and a Zoom modem.

In a perfect world, I would like to be able to be able to:

1. Control the amount of time that he can be on the web (via computer, gaming, iTunes, etc.).
2. Control blocks of time that he would be able to login the internet to even use the time that he is allowed.
3. Track the websights that he is able to go to and easily tell the type of content on them.
4. Adjust controls from my smartphone in the event that he stays home from school or needs adjustments while we are at work.

These and other yet to be known "powers" that could be used to monitor the typical ***** teenagers internet uses would be good, too.

As I mentioned I am looking for a trustworthy program that is not too expensive, but doesn't have to be free.

Who knows anything like this?

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Can you tell us
Mar 16, 2012 6:13AM PDT

what computer OS, (Operating System), you are all using?

I don't know anything about XBox or Wii, or Mac OS, but in Windows you can restrict the time anyone is on the internet. Depending which Windows, Vista and Win 7 have built in Parental Controls in the Control Panel. XP didn't but it is easy enough to set internet time limits with a Command Line instruction as described in the link below;

http://www.exnol.com/parental-control-user-login-time-windows-xp

But now comes the difficult bits. Any youngster who knows computers or who knows how to find out more, can override anything parents can set, so the trick is to make it as difficult as possible for them.

In Windows that means letting him have just a Limited User account with no Admin privileges. But you, or whoever admins the system, must set all other Administrator accounts with different STRONG passwords. That means a password nothing less than 10 characters, using lower case and upper case letters, numbers and regular symbols like the ones above the number keys. No common names, phrases, pin numbers, dates of birth, etc allowed.

And don't forget the hidden System Administrator account. If you forget that, your son may not.

Don't forget the passwords!

The difficulty with suggesting free parental control software is that they are all different, and users will have their own preferences, so I could only suggest looking at reviews, like this one;
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-free-parental-control-software-that-will-set-your-mind-at-ease-n/

As to the other devices on the internet, eg the XBox and Wii, and also the computer itself, there are things you can do in the router to block sites or may be even block access to the internet, and I see from my own Netgear router's access pages that I could even do that remotely from the internet.

Have you ever accessed your router's setup pages? You do that from within a browser window and the manual that came with the router will tell you how. If you haven't then it is likely the login screen is still username=admin and password=password. If so you would need to change the password immediately to some strong password, (and again, don't forget it), otherwise anyone can access it.

Finally, and sadly not to put your mind at rest, a determined person, (we used to call them 'script kiddies' because they were often just teenagers), can break any of the safeguards put in place and gain access to any account.

Mark

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Try a different approach
Mar 16, 2012 6:06PM PDT

I'm a high school teacher. If you actually think you are going to control your kid with these heavy handed approaches, think again. If your kid doesn't know more about computers now that you ever will, he certainly will after learning to circumvent your attempts at control. Even if you succeed in cutting his internet time at home, he can go to a friends, the library, sometimes even stay in school. There are a lot worse things he could be doing than playing computer games - sex and drugs come to mind. My question is why is the kid home alone from 3 to 6? Why isn't he with friends? Why isn't he participating in after school activities? Why isn't he working on the yearbook or school paper? Playing a sport? Going to a jazz band rehearsal? If the kid isn't interested in school activities, how about guitar lessons, gymnastics, karate? If you don't want your kid on the computer every day for 3 hours, find something else that he will consider more "cool" to do.

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Thanks for your reply to my post
Mar 16, 2012 7:43PM PDT

I don't have children.

Mark

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Time restiction can help the child organize his/her time
Mar 23, 2012 7:41PM PDT

I have a different opinion. It is true a normally smart child will probably be able to circumvent any SW limits, now or later.

But the issue is that children could accept a reasonable limit, because they know that too much browsing or gaming is bad for school notes. So, a certain time lapse could be negotiated in some cases (probably, most cases). For more reluctants, a couple of solutions at the end of this post.

Of course any SW or HW device will not keep teens away from sex, drugs and rockandroll, but what could?

My solutions (family tested a few decades ago), not with PCs but with TVs, was to run the power plug through a locked metal box with an electronic timer inside. But now with many PCs and Laptops the power cables usually have plugs on both sides, so this is no longer difficult to replace it with a normal cable (no timer). You can work around this with some mechanical/electrical skills, but it is no longer simple as it was with TVs.

The other solution is just take the laptop away when out of the allowed time window. You must be at home and have a strong safe, but it is possible in some cases.

Finally, setting the booting password can help, albeit you must start the PC manually each time and be able to turn it off when the allowed slot expires.

No solutions are apt for fully unattended use. I mean, you must check the installation frequently and use common sense to decide if the limits have been broken (resulting in a child playing for the whole day, for example.)