How to keep kids from tampering with Internet Explorer history on Win8

[sKunKbad]

Like many parents, I'm challenged with keeping my kids from browsing the evil parts of the internet. My son is 11 and my wife caught him deleting IE history the other day. The computer he uses is a Windows 8.1 laptop, and it is not Pro. How can i let him use internet explorer on his own user but keep him from tampering with any of the history ( or settings for that matter)?

 

Is there a better solution? I found some internet history logging software online, but I didn't feel comfortable with the source, and fear it may contain viruses or other malware.

[gristoi]

I have the same with my kids, Personally, what i do is remove IE completely from the pc, install chrome as the browser of choice, and set up seperate chrome user accounts for the kids.  So they can only go to sites i have whitelisted, and if they try to go to anything else I receive an email to white list or reject the site

[sKunKbad]

I have the same with my kids, Personally, what i do is remove IE completely from the pc, install chrome as the browser of choice, and set up seperate chrome user accounts for the kids.  So they can only go to sites i have whitelisted, and if they try to go to anything else I receive an email to white list or reject the site

 

I've been checking this out, but need to ask something. How do you keep your kids from having access to your chrome supervisor account? I created an account for my son, then closed the browser, but when re-opening the browser it never asked for login or to choose a user.

[ManiacDan]

Do you have a Linksys router?  DDWRT can be flashed onto your router and there are mods out there for doing basic logging and whatnot.  You can also proxy all the computers in the house (or even the internet connection itself) through a server you control and log everything that way.  It's a bit much, obviously, but using network hardware is the best way to keep tabs.

[Zane]

If your child is using the same computer as you, then just setup a limited account for him.  He doesn't have to use the same account as you, that would be the source of your problems right there.  The honor system is a horrible security measure.

 

Another option is to edit your hosts file, automatically redirecting bad sites to nothing.  That would also mean that you couldn't go to them, so if you don't want your children checking our your favorite porn/weather site, you might have to write a script that will edit your hosts file on the fly.

 

There are several ways to accomplish this, but ..... they will all take a lot of time and effort on your part.  This generation of kids have grown up with the Internet, they do not know what the world is like without it, they are essentially better than us at using the Internet anyways.  Several young people make quite a bit of revenue simply from uploading their cell phone videos.

[ManiacDan]

I edit my own hosts file to prevent myself from muscle-memory visiting sites that take too much of my time (like reddit and until recently phpfreaks), it's effective unless the kid knows how to edit host files.

[sKunKbad]

Thanks to everyone for replies. I have looked around quite a bit today, and I have found a program that looks pretty good. It's called Any Keylogger, from http://anykeylogger.net

 

It is $29.00, and I want to read some reviews and try it out, but it has a lot of features.

[jazzman1]

You wanna pay $29.00 for virus Do you know what a keylogger is? I am with ManiacDan here to flash your home router with dd-wrt. Here's a list of all supportive routers -  ftp://ftp.dd-wrt.com/others/eko/

[Philip]

I edit my own hosts file to prevent myself from muscle-memory visiting sites that take too much of my time (like reddit and until recently phpfreaks), it's effective unless the kid knows how to edit host files.

 

I do this way too often, haha

[Zane]

My son is 11 and my wife caught him deleting IE history the other day.

 

 

If your son is capable of this, then it shouldn't take long for him to google around your keylogger, or firewall.  Kids are much more inclined to excel in the digital age than the generation from a decade ago.  The internet is always crawling with trolls, naughty pleasures, and debauchery.  I don't want to tell anyone what to do with their children, but IMO, if you don't want him to witness the evils of the internet, then don't let him use the internet.  He will eventually find a way to get access though because the internet is everywhere.  He's just one question away from using any restaurant or book stores' or libraries' wifi,...... "Can I get the wifi password?"  If they say no, then just head down to the next hotspot, lather, rinse, and repeat.

[ManiacDan]

With any "preventing kids from getting porn" program, you're pitting half a dozen (usually disgruntled) programmers against the sex drive and technological acumen of the 13 year old boys of the world.  The programmers will always lose.  The block my parents put on our family computer included a 15 second timeout for every wrong password attempt.  During that timeout the program refused to respond to anything, you couldn't escape or interrupt the countdown no matter what you did.  However, that meant if you hammered enough keys, Windows would assume the program was unresponsive and task manager would gleefully kill it every time.  Reboot before they get home and it came right back.

 

If your son has access to the machine in question, it's likely he'll figure out a way around the software on that machine, even if it only lasts 5 minutes.  An external machine that he has no access to (aside from SSH which will be locked down tight...right?) is the only really secure solution.

 

A keylogger virus that you pay to install is still a keylogger virus.  It will store your bank account passwords and emails somewhere, likely somewhere your kid will be able to find (unless the logs are stored encrypted of course).  It will also force your kid to do something drastic, like an USB Boot Drive with Ubuntu on it, which takes 5 minutes to boot and gives you unfettered access to all the wonders of the internet while your expensive virus sits dormant on the hard drive.  

 

Not to say that managing a linux-based firewall and proxy is super duper easy and we can all do it in 10 seconds, but your son will try for MONTHS to get around whatever you do.  Whatever you do should probably take YOU more than 15 minutes.

[sKunKbad]

We've tried to do all of the recommended usuals, especially keeping the computer right in the living room. At any given point in time he only has a number of seconds before one of us is walking around the corner, looking at him from across the room, etc. I know what you're all saying about a kids desire to defeat parental controls. I think he's still young enough that he's really not doing anything all that bad, but I know that many of the bad elements of the internet present themselves to you; you don't have to look for them. I'm mostly concerned with porn.

 

I have a responsibility to at least try, so I will give it my best shot.

 

I was able to find out how to use the group policy editor to keep him from deleting history ... until he figures out how to defeat it.

[ManiacDan]

Good luck!

[jazzman1]

I spoke with my friend few days ago he is a sysadmin using windows systems and he told me to use the parental control provided in windows 8.

[Zane]

Install and exclusively use Google Chrome

Install a Adblock AND Adblock Plus, to keep tempting clicking of ads with chicks with really nice racks and nice everything else... raw.  Well not just to keep them from clicking it, but from having it appear at all on the webpage.

 

You can also install VNC and remotely access the computer from somewhere else, like your batthroom, sitting on the toilet with your laptop with nothing on your mind other than what your son is falling witness to on the evil Internet.  By adding all of these obstacles to your son's internet experience, you are forcing him to educate himself further and further into how to bypass security.  Whatever you tell a kid not to do, is exactly what they will do.  Perhaps you could just sit down with him while browsing these evil areas and traumatize him with awkwardness, sort of like how parent's make their kids smoke an entire pack of cigarettes to teach them smoking is bad.

[mikosiko]

......  Perhaps you could just sit down with him while browsing these evil areas and traumatize him with awkwardness, sort of like how parent's make their kids smoke an entire pack of cigarettes to teach them smoking is bad.

 

Wow... you help me to bring back some old, not wanted, and painful memories :tease-03: ... the image of those cigarettes packs, and the nasty taste and odor kick back in someplace deep in my brain ;D ... my dad did that to me... was harsh I think... but 100% effective :birthday: