How To Set-Up Parental Controls On Your Home Network

How To Set-Up Parental Controls On Your Home Network

Web filtering is a way to restrict the web, especially, for young children preventing them from roaming into the bad corners of the Internet. Parental controls can help to filter the web by blocking inadvertent access to inappropriate websites. 

There were several ways to configuring parental controls through the router of your home network to built controls on Windows or third-party software. Remember, teenagers are adept in finding their ways to break the controls, if they wish. 

Your Router: Remember, many routers doesn't supporting parental control option, but configuring parental control through a router is the best way, because the router works as a choke center where all the internet traffics of your network flows through, and setting up parental controls will allow you to perform web filtering not only to the devices on your network but also laptops, smartphones, tablets and even game consoles with built-in browsers. 

If the router has this option then it will be indicated on the box and there will a catalogue, too. Go to the router's web-based configuration pages and set-up the parental controls for your network. 

If the router doesn't supported the parental controls option, then you can use OpenDNS to set up parental controls on any router. To make activation on router, you should have to change the router's DNS server settings to use OpenDNS. 

OpenDNS is a service that allows you to set up an account and configure web filtering, which protect your children on computers, gaming consoles, mobile devices and more. Through this service you may choose different sites to be blocked and the sites you blocked were redirected a message 'The site is blocked', when trying to open from your network. For more information about changing your router’s settings, refer to its catalogue. 

Further, if you want a particular device on your network not to be filtered then change its DNS server settings manually; so, the device would not be engaged OpenDNS service.  

Windows 7 has built-in parental controls, which control timings to a user account can be logged into the system and what programs could be used. This is awesome and helpful for your kids, when they using separate user accounts on your system. But Windows 7 does not supporting web filter. However, Microsoft, still, offers a free program for Family Safety, which allows to set up web filtering on Windows 7. Installing Microsoft Family Safety program on your Windows 7 system then you could be able to manage its settings. This program is a part of Microsoft’s Windows Essentials package.
      
Windows 8 has integrated parental controls along with time limits of Windows 7 and program access controls with web filtering feature and more new options. So, you can manage the settings and view the reports from the same Microsoft Family Safety program. Make tick on the box of 'Is this a child account?', when setting up a new user account on Windows 8, then this account will be identified as a child account and managed by the Family Safety website.  

 
Third-Party Software: Most of the Internet Security Suites come with built-in parental controls and if a security suite is installed on your system then go and verify whether the security suite has built-in parental controls. 

Dedicated parental control solutions, with pay, are available on net. Many free solutions for web filtering, also, available on net. 

Norton Security offers a free Norton Family parental control application that seems to be widely recommended. Try doing a search online and you may found plenty of solutions that would be fit your needs.