How to Child-Proof the Web on a Mac

Tuts+ published an awesome video for Mac users who want to setup a safe computing environment for children.

Qustodio: Free Parental Control Software

MakeUseOf featured a free parental control application for Windows called Qustodio. The program is installed on all Windows machines, and settings are controlled from a central web site, which simplifies administration. The central control panel allows parents to restrict access to web sites based on various categories, and also allows restrictions on web browsing time. If your family uses Windows computers, and you're looking for a quick, easy, free way to implement parental controls on multiple devices, you might want to take a look at Qustodio.

Microsoft already offers Windows Live Family Safety, which is essentially the same thing as Qustodio, and is also free, and integrates nicely with Windows. We have used Windows Live Family Safety on our main family computer (running Windows 7) for a few years now and have had great success.

How to Block Inappropriate Material on YouTube

Here's a useful tip to cut down on exposure to inappropriate material on YouTube. First, sign in to YouTube using your Google account. Scroll down to the very bottom of the page and look for an option that says "Safety mode: Off/On" and click on the word "Off." Then click "Save and lock Safety Mode on this browser." You'll see a message confirming the change:

If a user attempts to turn off Safety Mode, YouTube will prompt for the password of the user who locked Safety Mode on your web browser. If the user is not signed in, he/she will have to sign in before disabling Safety Mode.  Here are some things that YouTube's Safety Mode provides:

• Hides inappropriate videos
• Doesn’t return results for adult search terms
• Hides comments by default
• Inappropriate words in the comments are hidden using asterisks

YouTube Safety Mode utilizes "community flagging and other content signals to determine and filter out inappropriate content." It isn't 100% perfect, but YouTube Safety Mode is another helpful guardrail to help you protect your family. (Source: Guiding Tech)

UPDATE (2/25/13): Here is the actual YouTube support article that details how to enable Safety Mode in YouTube and keep it on, even after you log out. If you have more than one web browser (for example, you have Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, or Safari) you must enable the Safety Mode lock for each of those web browsers, since the setting is browser-specific.

How to Lock SafeSearch in Google to Block Adult Content

Here's a helpful article that will show you how to change your Google settings to lock the "SafeSearch" setting which prevents inappropriate or adult content from coming up in Google search results. It is by no means a surefire way to prevent access to indecent material, but it is an extra step that will help prevent accidental exposure while searching online.

FamilyShield by OpenDNS

OpenDNS is a free, alternative DNS (Domain Name System) service that allows you to filter malicious or inappropriate content, as well as potentially speed up access to web sites. OpenDNS has recently released FamilyShield, an easy-to-use solution that you can either setup on one computer or on your home router (recommended). The setup instructions contain all the info you need to get started. This is an excellent way to add easy and free content filtering that will block adult sites, proxy and anonymizer sites (for web-savvy kids), phishing sites, and some virus-spreading malware sites. Get started! Or, for the tech-savvy, set your DNS servers to 208.67.222.123 and 208.67.220.123.

K9 Web Protection

If you're concerned about your family being accidentally exposed to inappropriate content online, K9 Web Protection is a free, and easy software filter that can help.  K9 Web Protection is available for both Windows and Mac platforms and offers content filtering for over 55 different categories of online content which are updated regularly.

Filter Web Content Using OpenDNS

If you're looking for an easy way to filter web content on all of your computers at home (Mac and Windows), OpenDNS is a great place to start. OpenDNS is a free service that provides DNS lookups, which is the magic that translates your request for a web page, such as www.google.com, into the actual numeric address online. Open DNS provides options for filtering content as shown here