Parental Controls, Netnanny for a child's computer

[Stravo]

I just purchased a new rig for myself and plan to clean up my current computer and give it to her as a Back to School gift. (I wish I has a computer when I was in 2nd Grade)

Now one of my concerns is internet access. Her grandmother wants her to have internet access in her room for research for school and playing online kids' games which she plays alot of I'm told. I am very leery of letting a 7 yr old have unrestricted access to the internet in the privacy of her own room. So what are your thoughts parents (and kids) about something like Netnanny or or any of those internet access restriction programs? Are things like AOL Parental controls enough? Are they too restrictive or not restrictive enough?

On a more embarassing note is there a function in XP to nuke everything but the OS and say WORD so I can deliver to her a clean computer with just the stripped down basics and most importantly of all make sure none of my Gigs of porn still finds itself on her computer by mistake?

[Joe]

I'm going to have to recommend that you just wipe the whole thing out. I don't think that there is such a function. Try and clean it up yourself and you'll just miss something - unless you keep an inventory, there's always going to be something that you're going to miss when you do clean-up.

[Darth Wong]

Take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

As for NetNanny, to be honest I don't think that a child should have a computer in her own room. If it ever comes to an argument I will point out that I don't have a computer in my own bedroom, because bedrooms are for sleeping and fucking, not for geeking (although I might change the wording a bit).

In my opinion a prudent parent would have an area of the house (perhaps a study, or a corner of the living room) where his own computer is located, and the child's computer would be located nearby. Neither Daddy or kiddie get any privacy on their computers (although Daddy can wait till kiddie goes to sleep before viewing those "special" movies if he wants privacy).

The idea of letting a kid have a computer in the privacy of his or her own bedroom while still expecting to exert parental control over its use strikes me as almost comically unrealistic.

[Kamakazie Sith]

Format the computer, Stravo. Otherwise you're taking a risk. AOL has some decent parental controls, but nothing is 100% effective.

[Beowulf]

Put it in the same room as your other computer, so you can keep an eye on her when she's using it.

[Xon]

When installing Windows you can delete any old disk and then reformat them.

And the best version of Netnanny/parental controls for a computer is the parent. Putting a computer in her room is not a good idea.

[The Grim Squeaker]

Keep it in a central room where anyone can keep an eye on it (living room etc..).
I didnt get a computer in my room until I was 16 (this year) but I did have one in the living room, under the stairs, under my bunk bed when I shared a room with one of my sisters etc..) (for example)

[Ford Prefect]

First, format your computer, utterly. Then, slap on as many restrictions as you can. Lay down ground rules. There isn't anything wrong with giving your daughter a computer, so long as you're careful.

[Tiger Ace]

Personally, nuke it, set it up for her with limited acess, and add as many blocked sites as you can think, you probebly can't stop her from going into chat rooms, but explain to her repetedly ground rules of surfing the net.

It worked on me, kinda

[The Grim Squeaker]

Personally, nuke it, set it up for her with limited acess, and add as many blocked sites as you can think, you probebly can't stop her from going into chat rooms, but explain to her repetedly ground rules of surfing the net.

It worked on me, kinda

Let her read a few chat room/ board site horroe stories, (although dont let her see the rape ones) but make sure she has the jebesus scared out of her at the thought of someone learning where she lives through a chat room or board page, better safe than sorry after all.

[Faram]

I just purchased a new rig for myself and plan to clean up my current computer and give it to her as a Back to School gift. (I wish I has a computer when I was in 2nd Grade)

Now one of my concerns is internet access. Her grandmother wants her to have internet access in her room for research for school and playing online kids' games which she plays alot of I'm told. I am very leery of letting a 7 yr old have unrestricted access to the internet in the privacy of her own room. So what are your thoughts parents (and kids) about something like Netnanny or or any of those internet access restriction programs? Are things like AOL Parental controls enough? Are they too restrictive or not restrictive enough?

None of those programs like netnanny aol parental and so on should be trusted, the way the work is not open to scrutiny and no one knows what the block.

Also I would not trust a program to say what is ok or not for a kid to view.

My recommendation is the same as many others, put the computer in an easily surveyed room.

Also make sure that the account she is using is a restricted or guest account, which will save you a lot of hassle in cleaning out spyware and stuff like that.

You can use the history feature in the browser to see what sites she is visiting.

On a more embarassing note is there a function in XP to nuke everything but the OS and say WORD so I can deliver to her a clean computer with just the stripped down basics and most importantly of all make sure none of my Gigs of porn still finds itself on her computer by mistake?

Press shift and delete, that will nuke the files. But I would format anyways.

[Stravo]

On the computer in her own room issue, there simply isn't space in her living room for another computer. They have the 'family' computer in the living room but everyone uses it and the grandmother tells me that she can't get her work done becuase everyone else uses it to pay bills, online research, etc. and suggested that when I could that perhaps I should get her a system of her own.

I could simply say no internet access in her room and she can use the computer for playing games and writing reports and such, making the living room computer her only way to get online access thus eliminating concerns about where she's visiting.

A stupid question. If you reformat the harddrive does that kill the OS and I have to do a reload of the OS or does the OS survive the reformat? And say Dell never provided me with the Windows XP disks for that computer is there a way to copy that XP on my computer now onto some disks so I can use those to reload the XP when I reformat?

[Mr Bean]

Yes format the hard-drive and everything goes. If Dell provided some restore disks your good to go, just Format C: everything, run the restore and you'll have the default Dell configuration back.

[General Zod]

A stupid question. If you reformat the harddrive does that kill the OS and I have to do a reload of the OS or does the OS survive the reformat? And say Dell never provided me with the Windows XP disks for that computer is there a way to copy that XP on my computer now onto some disks so I can use those to reload the XP when I reformat?

You'd need installation disks. There -might- be some way you could copy it manually, but since the OS needs to configure itself to a computer's individual BIOS, it'd ultimately be easier just to get the installation discs.

[Stravo]

A stupid question. If you reformat the harddrive does that kill the OS and I have to do a reload of the OS or does the OS survive the reformat? And say Dell never provided me with the Windows XP disks for that computer is there a way to copy that XP on my computer now onto some disks so I can use those to reload the XP when I reformat?

You'd need installation disks. There -might- be some way you could copy it manually, but since the OS needs to configure itself to a computer's individual BIOS, it'd ultimately be easier just to get the installation discs.

Could I use the installation disks from my new system or would they not be configured correctly?

[General Zod]

A stupid question. If you reformat the harddrive does that kill the OS and I have to do a reload of the OS or does the OS survive the reformat? And say Dell never provided me with the Windows XP disks for that computer is there a way to copy that XP on my computer now onto some disks so I can use those to reload the XP when I reformat?

You'd need installation disks. There -might- be some way you could copy it manually, but since the OS needs to configure itself to a computer's individual BIOS, it'd ultimately be easier just to get the installation discs.

Could I use the installation disks from my new system or would they not be configured correctly?

No reason you shouldn't be able to, provided you can still use the activation keys.

[althornin]

I just purchased a new rig for myself and plan to clean up my current computer and give it to her as a Back to School gift. (I wish I has a computer when I was in 2nd Grade)

Now one of my concerns is internet access. Her grandmother wants her to have internet access in her room for research for school and playing online kids' games which she plays alot of I'm told. I am very leery of letting a 7 yr old have unrestricted access to the internet in the privacy of her own room. So what are your thoughts parents (and kids) about something like Netnanny or or any of those internet access restriction programs? Are things like AOL Parental controls enough? Are they too restrictive or not restrictive enough?

None of those programs like netnanny aol parental and so on should be trusted, the way the work is not open to scrutiny and no one knows what the block.

Also I would not trust a program to say what is ok or not for a kid to view.

My recommendation is the same as many others, put the computer in an easily surveyed room.

Also make sure that the account she is using is a restricted or guest account, which will save you a lot of hassle in cleaning out spyware and stuff like that.

You can use the history feature in the browser to see what sites she is visiting.

On a more embarassing note is there a function in XP to nuke everything but the OS and say WORD so I can deliver to her a clean computer with just the stripped down basics and most importantly of all make sure none of my Gigs of porn still finds itself on her computer by mistake?

Press shift and delete, that will nuke the files. But I would format anyways.

Check out this program:
http://www.photonono.com/

Its a neural-net analysis based way of blocking porn - it also has an editable whitelist/blacklist.
Works pretty good.

[Chmee]

Depending on how much administrative work you're willing to do, another way of supervising Internet use would be to put a firewall in front of her computer and block all access except for specified sites, which you add in to an access list as she requests them.

It's more work, for sure.

[Vendetta]

No reason you shouldn't be able to, provided you can still use the activation keys.

Actually, they'll probably be DMI locked.

Check the system for a recovery partition. For a long time now some manufacturers have been preloading recovery information into a secured partition on the hard drive rather than shipping discs with the system. Often it's accessed by pressing a button on startup (HP use F10, NEC use F11).

[General Zod]

No reason you shouldn't be able to, provided you can still use the activation keys.

Actually, they'll probably be DMI locked.

If it's Windows XP, it should let him install it a certain number of times before locking out. Provided he hasn't exceeded the install limit, the disc and/or key should be good.

[Stravo]

Depending on how much administrative work you're willing to do, another way of supervising Internet use would be to put a firewall in front of her computer and block all access except for specified sites, which you add in to an access list as she requests them.

It's more work, for sure.

If I lived with her that would be a very good option unfortunately I can't have a set up that will require my immediate attention because she lives somewhere else and I see her only on the weekends.

I need something that will require either a method that a middle aged woman can deal with right there or one that can wait until I can get there.

I'm thinking of defaulting to not allowing her internet access for now until I can investigate what other options I have. Who knows, it might work that the living room computer is the reserach terminal and she can play games, do her homework, etc on her room terminal. Certainly would ease my concerns.

[Ford Prefect]

That's not a bad idea. It shouldn't be all that bad if she can't access the interweb in her room (it certainly wouldn't bother me), but being able to one's homework in your room, without being bothered is excellent, believe me, it is bloody excellent.