And yet as a parent concerned about the exposure my kids have to the distracting and harmful influences of the internet I have felt reticent to allow them open access. It seems almost impossible to use the internet without wanton, inappropriate influences bearing down on our home.
I'm talking about more than just pornography, although that is the #1 reason. Other reasons? Viruses, spyware, malware, identity theft, coarse/raunchy language, and misleading information about important things (like my religious beliefs), just to name a few.
We all need access to the internet. Banking, email, research, social interaction, relaxation and fun... I want my kids to learn to manage themselves so they can apply those choices to adult life. Managing our family's access to the internet is about making our home a haven from the outside world.
Another slightly less invasive option is to limit access to the internet. This includes mobile and private options; the kids have ipods, and those ipods have restricted internet access through settings restrictions and also a protected browser called K9. The family computers are in open areas. We stay connected to their digital worlds as much as we can. I monitor facebook.com. We limit late-night game play. I recommend searching and read suggestions on how to manage the internet in your home. Here is an article along those lines (scroll to the bottom, "Avoid Internet Dangers").
I believe the biggest technical risk is poor internet filtering.
Enter opendns.com. We've been using this filtering service for years. What does it do? It filters the internet by domain name.
Now you have control! You can tell opendns.com which website or categories of websites are allowed in your home. It has been a wonderful service. The kids hated it at first, and learned to live with it later.
Recently I began to notice the opendns.com idea has limitations. A few:
- Lack of cross-site control. Put another way, websites showing other website information. I can do a search on google.com and return thumbnail images of other sites that are inappropriate. Even though a pornographic site is blocked from access, some of its images are stored on legitimate search sites.
- Inability to dynamically filter content. Wikipedia.org is a great reference site, but if you search nude beach or some other questionable reference you'll quickly find yourself reading and seeing worrying material on the same site.
- Inflexibility of whole-site restrictions. I might want to allow partial access to a site, but the above worries would whittle the internet down to a stubby pencil nib.
We've been using our Pandora's Hope router for about a month now and we love it!
I can put websites into a whitelist (all content allowed), a blacklist (no content allowed), or a greylist (only appropriate content allowed). If a site is in the greylist, then a page that had "fluffy ponies" and "sunshine bears" would be allowed, but if it had "naked actress" then it would be filtered out (blocked). It just depends on what page you're looking at. This means you can still use the website but some content and images are blocked.
If I search or access something inappropriate, the page is blocked entirely, like this:
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| Pandora's Hope - Web page blocking |
On the other hand, if the web page is fine but there is an inappropriate link, it will just block that link/image (such as an advertisement, if you choose to block those).
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| Pandora's Hope - Ad Blocking |
For the record, I have no ulterior motives, no stock, no friends who work there... it's just a great product. It's the greatest filter solution out there, and as far as I've been able to tell, this is the only dynamic content filtering solution for the home that is truly dynamic and protects the entire home, regardless of what device you are using.
One disappointment with our router is that the wireless is much weaker than our Apple Time Capsule. The range is shorter, the strength weaker, and the response poor. In fact, the signal is so poor that we reconnected our Time Capsule router and we're using that wireless service instead. This is very disappointing considering the Pandora's Hope router is brand new, whereas our Time Capsule is about 3 years old.
Remember, filtering options are just part of the solution. Great solutions required family discussions, family monitoring, one on one conversations about what is important, limiting time and access, and so on. Don't leave parenting to filters. Even the best filtering options aren't perfect.
But for those of you with kids I highly recommend this product. Check out their FAQ, and happy surfing!
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Dec 10, 2012 Update
I have noticed more than one automatic update to my router since the original posting. I am happy to report a much improved user interface with many features exposed that were previously hidden. WiFi performance is working very well now. While I have retained use of my Apple Time Capsule, it is now relegated to our second floor to maximize my son's gaming experience.
I want to say THANK YOU to the Pandora's Hope people and their continued work on improving their devices long after the sale. Keep the good work comin'!
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Dec, 2014 Update
I had some problems with my router failing to update. I called tech support and they supplied me with a new one. I am amazed at their service so long after the sale. I notice improvements continue to be made to the software, and my recommendation for this device still stands.
If you click this link when you purchase your router you will send a little bit of love my way. (Notice this link came long after I became a customer, and I am not in any way affiliated with this company other than being a happy user.)
I want a Pandora's Hope Router!
