• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Filtering solution for Ubuntu?

Mayhem

Android Expert
My wife caught one of our sons looking at a picture on the internet of two women kissing.

Greeeaaaat.

Not that I can't appreciate a couple of hot women making out, but my 7 yr old doesn't need to be seeing that.

I know of products you can buy for use under Windows, but does anyone know of anything that runs under Ubuntu that will keep my kids from seeing certain things on the 'net? We do have the machine out in the open so we can keep an eye on what they're doing, but obviously this doesn't block access to sites like that.

Thanks.
 
I'm pretty sure that such options are built into the browser. I use chrome, but any browser that runs linux should have similar options.

Chrome has a safe search lock option which you can use as long as you have a google account. Which I assume you do since you're on the Android forum.

Good luck.
 
I'm pretty sure that such options are built into the browser. I use chrome, but any browser that runs linux should have similar options.

Chrome has a safe search lock option which you can use as long as you have a google account. Which I assume you do since you're on the Android forum.

Good luck.

Thanks for the info. I have Chrome installed here at work, but admittedly do not use it.

I did a quick search for Safesearch in the Help and it looks like that will do the trick.
 
Well, attempting to filter at the browser-level didn't work.

I did, however, find this link with instructions that did.

It tells how to achieve filtering using dansguardian and squid.

I'm just replying to my own message in case someone else asks in the future.
 
[General] Mayhem;2186822 said:
Well, attempting to filter at the browser-level didn't work.

I did, however, find this link with instructions that did.

It tells how to achieve filtering using dansguardian and squid.

I'm just replying to my own message in case someone else asks in the future.

Why didn't it work for the browser?
 
I would go for the squid server. Filtering at the browser level is only good for things like terminal thin clients where the only thing allowed to be open is the browser. Otherwise, it is like blocking a road by putting a thin pole in the middle. Sure, you can no longer drive down the center of the road, but you can still get around it very easily. Then again, this is a 7 year old, but the squid server is scalable. When he is 15, you can still use that server and have a log of all websites requested, so you can still make sure he is not doing anything that you do not like even if he has his own laptop in his room.

-Nkk
 
I would go for the squid server. Filtering at the browser level is only good for things like terminal thin clients where the only thing allowed to be open is the browser. Otherwise, it is like blocking a road by putting a thin pole in the middle. Sure, you can no longer drive down the center of the road, but you can still get around it very easily. Then again, this is a 7 year old, but the squid server is scalable. When he is 15, you can still use that server and have a log of all websites requested, so you can still make sure he is not doing anything that you do not like even if he has his own laptop in his room.

-Nkk


Exactly.

None of my kids are going to be using any computer that is anywhere other than in an open area in my house. And there won't be a single web cam anywhere in the house either. Kids (hell, adults too) do stupid things with web cams. I've seen censored examples.

The thing with my 7 year old is that he's really into tech and I imagine that I may have a difficult time keeping the hardware locked down when he gets older. Explaining right from wrong will always be done, but the only sure-fire way to limit exposure is to block it.

Then there's the issue of friends houses, etc. but this isn't the forum for that.

I could really throw him for a loop and install OS/2 Warp Connect. If I could actually find the media. I'd say probably 1 in 30 people have ever used it and even less would know how to configure it. I worked as a Level 2 Network Support Rep at IBM in the mid-90s supporting OS/2. =D

God I loved that OS.
 
Back
Top Bottom