Parental Controls Post

First let me say for anyone who stumbles upon this, I don't have kids. So my perspective on parental controls is probably skewed towards the child more than the parent. Controls are a drag. Tracking web history and restricting others is initially frustrating and confusing for the user/kid and the administrator/parent. It does demand vigilance and participation by the parent to provide a safe environment for your family. So partially I had to adopt a mindset that was not my own.

But controls are a part of life. My company blocks websites and protocols to protect data and decrease liability. Auditing Web history and/or keylogging is a bit heavyhanded for industry but the if the circumstances warrant it to protect the company asset, so be it. The changes below are not transparent. The child/user will know they are being restricted.

Administrator to the Computer
Whether Windows, Mac, or Linux, always, always create a low privileged guest account users. It is safer and more secure for the computer and the user/child to have to ask if a program should be installed versus having to remove it later. How to do this in Vista is very simple from the start but that is not where most people approach security. So here is how to do it from the middle.

First of all the must be at least one Administrator account. In most cases, this is the only account. So instead of making the user setup all their Favorites and move documents around, we are going to setup a new Administrator and reduce the rights of the initial user/child's account.

In Vista:
Setup new Admin Account
Start-> Control Panel->User Accounts
Chose Manage another account
Chose create New account give the account a name like Admin or Dad.
Make that account an Administrator.
Log off.

Alter previous account:
Log in as the new Administrator i.e. Dad
Go back into the User Accounts
Start-> Control Panel->User Accounts
Chose Manage another account
Chose the account you wish to reduce the permissions for.
This time choose Change Account type and select user Standard User.
Then choose Setup Parental Controls
Here you can do a lot of things -
You can setup items like web filters, track activity, and prevent the use of certain programs like Limewire.

File Downloads and Program Installs
As a standard user, the child/user will not be able to install any software. Which is a good thing. Extra software means system bloat. System bloat means slower computer and more chances for viruses and malware. You will have to install every piece of software which means you "know" what applications, companies, and some extent people yours kids are interacting with.

Auditing Web History
In order to audit the web history of a user, you have to save it for some duration. This includes preventing it from being deleted.

Start-> Run
From Tech Support Forums:

There is also a "Turn off "Delete Browsing History" functionality" setting in the group policy for XP (run gpedit.msc under User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Internet Explorer) that can be set to disable this functionality.

Note: This works in Vista as well, but only effects Internet Explorer. So if the user is using Firefox, Safari, Opera, Maxthon, or any other web browser this will not work. This is why you have to prevent the users from being Administrators to the machine so they cannot bypass your efforts.

You can view the web history in activity reports in User Accounts Control Panel, or logging in as the child/user and view it in Internet Explorer.

End of Part One....

Links:
How to keep tabs on my Teens:
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/windows/en-US/Help/961FFB00-E793-41B3-BD35-B00442F6A0D71033.mspx