Parental Filter

[Guest]

[panic]

Hi All,

I would like for Comodo to produce a reliable (as all their software is) parental filter that would allow my daughter to surf the net but no to access chat rooms or IM.

I am 100% impressed with the Comodo firewall and think that it is far better than the Norton firewall that I used to use (Norton being very expensive and defaulting to allowing just about everything instead of defaulting to secure!).

So please bring out something that allows me to chose where my daughter goes on the net and is as impressive as your other products.

Please keep up the good work.

Ivan.

G'day,

The next release of CFP will have password protection on the firewalls configuration. Using this, you could set up Application monitor rules to block the chat and instant messaging applications. You should also set up an account for your children that is not an adminstrator account and ensure that they use this account and not any other adminstrator equivalent account to access the internet.

Hope this helps,
Ewen :-)

[willas00]

I Think the ideal Parental filter it 1 that does not block out all these sites but allows you to chose to say you put in the word PORN in a block list and every website containing the word PORN was filtered get the idea?

I had a parental filter before but it was blocking out sites that children would never even know what the word means let alone what you do (its not porn by the way)

[Quwen]

Hmmmmm - interesting.

I agree with you that pornographic/violent sites should be blocked, yet you apparently can see no harm in chat rooms?

If you want I can give you stats from recent investigations (run over the past four years) that clearly show the escalating links between chatroom interaction and real world abuse. They are not some pie in the sky set of stats. They are not something dreamed up by ultra-conservatives. They are not something I pulled off the web.

The main thing to remember is that ultimately, they're not stats, they are kids and deserve our protection.

My own personal opinion ( and I would like to stress that it is just that - my opinion) there may be rose coloured glasses being used, but I'm not of the same opinion as you as to who is wearing them.

Ewen :-)

I didn't explain myself very clearly, I apologize.

I meant allow your children to talk in chatrooms, but only reliable ones. It would be impossible to create a safelist of every single good chatroom on the internet, but it could have some sort of  advanced keyword intelligence. Instead of blocking "Chat", it could block numerous keywords that would be in a shady chat like "let's meet". Not blocking your child from chatting on some tech support forum.

[Quwen]

I Think the ideal Parental filter it 1 that does not block out all these sites but allows you to chose to say you put in the word PORN in a block list and every website containing the word PORN was filtered get the idea?

I had a parental filter before but it was blocking out sites that children would never even know what the word means let alone what you do (its not porn by the way)

Hm... let me think of a few abuse keywords...
CHAT
GAMES
MUSIC
IM
LOVE - (could just be an internet joke, a poem, a keyword, a story...)

Why not just add
FUN
and get it over with?

As for the comment about not knowing what the word means, see post on last page with statistics. If they don't get it from the internet, they'll get it from school.

[jobeard]

Hey quwen,
Your opinion does matter, but equally so does everyone else's, even those who want a parental filter. 

IMO, Quwen appears to be a single young adult without parental responsibility, clearly an assumption,
but the profile fits.

This debate will rage on and on ---  stick to the wishlist concept and dump the rest.

[Quwen]

IMO, Quwen appears to be a single young adult without parental responsibility, clearly an assumption,
but the profile fits.

Actually, I do have a child. I am a young adult (23), but I adopted a 14-year-old (no use in increasing the world's already crowded population), and she has as many hormones as the next teenager. I care very much for her, as much as you do your child. However, I trust her not to do anything that I tell her not to, instead of assuming that she'll do something wrong. It's the upbringing fault of the parents if she does something wrong, not the naive child's.

[Melih]

Actually, I do have a child. I am a young adult (23), but I adopted a 14-year-old (no use in increasing the world's already crowded population), and she has as many hormones as the next teenager. I care very much for her, as much as you do your child. However, I trust her not to do anything that I tell her not to, instead of assuming that she'll do something wrong. It's the upbringing fault of the parents if she does something wrong, not the naive child's.

The point you are missing is not them not doing things..
its protecting them from active bad.
So can you pls tell me how I should teach my kids to avoid drive-by-download attacks? or how i should educate my kids not to click on www.kidslovefunxxx.com (just made this up..) and this takes them to a nasty site?

You are confusing the issue of Kids respecting their parents vs being an unwilling victim to an online nasty.

You are saying, hey why have a door in your house, I trust my kid not to go out because she respects what I tell her... we all know why we have doors

Would you want your kid to be subjected to a nasty website because she clicked on a link she thought was genuinue? of course not! neither do we! So we are looking for a technology to enable us to protect our kids! thats all!


Melih

[Quwen]

The point you are missing is not them not doing things..
its protecting them from active bad.
So can you pls tell me how I should teach my kids to avoid drive-by-download attacks? or how i should educate my kids not to click on www.kidslovefunxxx.com (just made this up..) and this takes them to a nasty site?

You are confusing the issue of Kids respecting their parents vs being an unwilling victim to an online nasty.

You are saying, hey why have a door in your house, I trust my kid not to go out because she respects what I tell her... we all know why we have doors

Would you want your kid to be subjected to a nasty website because she clicked on a link she thought was genuinue? of course not! neither do we! So we are looking for a technology to enable us to protect our kids! thats all!


Melih

 
You are truly missing my point.
I have already said I agree with the pornography filter which can be accidental. I just do not agree with the chat room/IM/Etc. block - more intelligent blocks would be much less oppressive.

[Melih]

You are truly missing my point.
I have already said I agree with the pornography filter which can be accidental. I just do not agree with the chat room/IM/Etc. block - more intelligent blocks would be much less oppressive.

OK 

Melih

[The Journey Man]

A versatile content filter would be most helpful - especially if it was made available free-of-charge. If the filter could be used to block a wide variety of user defined content then it could fulfil a number of useful roles, one of which could be a parental filter. Another use could be to block offensive content such as pornography in the workplace. Most work environments are not tolerant of such materials and the use of proxy servers means that this type of content can persist in the work environment for a considerable period of time and potentially be used against an employee even if the material actually appeared by accident such as via unwanted pop-ups. So a porn filter that you could turn on when you were at work to ensure that nothing unwanted was downloaded would be very useful - the fact that it could also be used to protect minors would make it doubly valuable. Comodo needs to choose a product that will enhance its reputation and providing a high quality content filter would certainly do that - it would also be consistent with Comodo's aim of increasing trust on-line. Perhaps Comodo could enter into a relationship with ICRA and build upon their work to swiftly deliver a free-of-charge-FOREVER solution. I am sure the folks at ICRA would be interested...

[jon.bean]

I want to add a big YES to a parental filter. It's not just age-appropriateness but also computer safety -- WE know not to go to certain sites that might have drive by attacks, but my 8 and 12 year old daughters don't (neither does my grandmother!).

Point in case: I let my daughter use my computer for ONE day: She managed to go to sites that completely compromised my computer despite Comodo and all my other software. Fortunately, it was my junk computer but it was REALLY junk thereafter.

I don't let me children watch certain movies, and since web sites don't have ratings (PG, etc.), something like this is needed. YOU don't have to buy it, but I would.

As for the "shielding from life" argument, I always find that amusing: What is going to happen at work? The rest of your adult life? Companies filter all the time so better get used to it, baby. Besides, the lesson is that the parents care enough to put some limits on what you can watch -- even if you are randomly surfing the Internet.

[Quwen]

As for the "shielding from life" argument, I always find that amusing: What is going to happen at work? The rest of your adult life? Companies filter all the time so better get used to it, baby. Besides, the lesson is that the parents care enough to put some limits on what you can watch -- even if you are randomly surfing the Internet.

If you had actually read some of my posts, you would have seen I agree with an xxx filter and a spyware/whatever filter, and filters against bad things. But I'd like to see intelligent blocks on things like curse words, dangerous phrases such as "let's come meet" (only much better), and have it basically be a heuristics for filtering instead of adding obviously dangerous topics such as "Humor" and the ever oh-so-dangerous "Jokes". And with the work argument, you contradicted yourself by saying "even if you are randomly surfing the internet". When you are at work, that's all you should be doing - work. And if your daughters don't know the horrors of spyware, it's YOUR FAULT for not teaching them.

[acocq]

I've just signed up here and have not yet installed the Comodo FW.

Currently, I am using F-Secure 2008 and one feature I really like is the parent control, which allows me not only to limit the visited websites (content filter) but also allows me to specifiy during which times the internet may be accessed. There are three levels (adults, youths, kids) offered and besides limiting the content, I want to be able to restrict access times (I have three kides ages 5, 9 and 16, so the need to restrict varies significantly).

What' the current state of consideration for implementing this in your firewall ?

BTW, even if I don't end up using your product, I applaud you for your generosity of providing the tools free of charge    (because I KNOW how much it costs me to protect the three PCs we have at home!).


Regards,
Andreas

[pjpw]

Check out OpenDNS at www.opendns.com.  By simply changing the DNS settings in your network properties and setting up a free account at OpenDNS you can block sites by category as well as any speciifc site that you want blocked....all with no software installed.

I am in Australia and whilst OpenDNS don't have servers in Oceania at the moment (they are working on it) I have never experienced any problems or slowdown in my system since I started using it nearly 12 months ago.  In fact it seems more reliable than before.

There is also built in phishing protection available through using OpenDNS servers.

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