Protecting our children when they use the Internet is an issue that grows in relevance as our children grow in years. As they get older not only does their interest in topics we’d rather keep hidden from them increase, but their proficiency with a computer also improves giving them the skills to find such taboo material. By the time they reach their teens many children will be far more proficient with a computer than their parents making our task even more difficult.

This article has been written to address these dilemmas faced by all parents in this new digital world.

Taking control of your home computer and the content that you allow to enter your house via the Internet can be achieved by the use of easy to configure free software. Below I’ll review two of these products and give you my own opinion of each to allow you to make up your own mind on which to use.

K9 Web Protection

K9 is an easy to install, easy to configure Internet filtering and control solution from BlueCoat. K9 divides Internet content into 60 categories which you can choose to individually block or allow. The K9 database is Internet hosted meaning that your home computer doesn’t need to maintain resource-hungry software that affects PC performance.

K9 updates automatically to keep current with the ever changing content on the Internet. It can also provide real-time protection from spyware and other malicious software.

After installation you’re required to restart your PC and can then run the software from the icon created on your desktop. When first running the software you’re presented with the K9 dashboard where you can view your PC’s internet activity and setup the K9 filters. The default filters are fine and should be sufficient for most families but for further control you can access the custom settings and choose exactly which categories you want to block or allow.

Sites can be manually added with the choice to either block or accept them. Similarly keywords can be added which will always be blocked if discovered in a website address.

Time restrictions to control exactly when K9 filters are active, can be set from the simple to use interface.

K9, once installed, is effective across all login profiles on the PC so you can’t set one policy for you and one for your children but with the control options provided this really isn’t a problem.

Scores (out of 10)

Ease of installation	9
Ease of use	9
Effectiveness	9
Control options	7
Total	34

Microsoft Family Safety

Microsoft’s Family Safety is one of the products in Microsoft’s Live suite of programs. The installation process is simple but since it uses the Windows Live installer additional unnecessary programs are also selected by default. This may lead some people to believe they need the additional programs for Family Safety to work, this is not the case and if you don’t want them just untick the relevant check boxes.

Following installation (which takes noticeably longer than K9) you’re told that the program is installed in your start menu. On starting the program you’re prompted to enter your Hotmail or Windows live login information. If you don’t already have one of these there’s an appropriate link to create one.

On logging in with your Hotmail or Live account a screen prompts you to tell it which accounts on the computer you want monitored. After selecting these accounts you can go to the Family Safety website to configure your preferences. The preferences available for web filtering are fairly basic but the option to add particular websites for blocking/allowing for particular users of the PC is pretty useful.

If a new account is created on the computer that has administrative rights it is not automatically protected by Family Safety. This means that if you child’s account has administrative rights then he/she can create a new account and use that to login and bypass the security of Family Safety. This seems like a major oversight that I believe should be rectified by Microsoft. However, it is of course possible to set up your child’s account without administrative rights but the protection that strategy affords you must be offset against the trouble it will bring when your child is constantly asking you to install software for them because he or she doesn’t have the necessary rights.

Scores (out of 10)

Ease of installation	7
Ease of use	6
Effectiveness	8
Control options	5
Total	26

Conclusion

While these products are only two of many similar solutions available to the concerned parent they are certainly two of the best free products. However, K9 is the product you should choose if you want something that’s  effective with a  simple and friendly user interface.