Thursday, January 21, 2016

Tabula Rosa Blog for 1/21/2016 - Netiquette For Kids - Make Your Own Kid-Friendly Home Internet Access

 

Make your own kid-friendly home internet access
January 20, 2016  http://www.smh.com.au/
Adam Turner
It's not hard to filter out the worst of the internet without installing crippling net nanny software on every device in your home.
There comes a time when every parent is forced to consider the best way to keep their children safe online. The child-friendly plug n' play hub is one solution, creating a separate filtered Wi-Fi network for the youngsters in your house, but there are other solutions if this doesn't suit your needs.
The advantage of the plug n' play hub is that you don't need to install filtering software on your end devices, which is useful because you're unlikely to find software to protect every internet-enabled device in your home such as the browser on your Smart TV. Net nanny software also has a tendency to cripple end devices as it tries to block content on the fly.
The disadvantage of the plug n' play hub solution is that it relies on a separate Wi-Fi network. This might not suit you if you're happy with your existing wireless router, especially if you rely on Wi-Fi extenders to reach the far corners of your home. The plug n' play hub also fails to protect devices which are connected to your home network via Ethernet cables rather than Wi-Fi.
Look it up
The plug n' play hub doesn't inspect every webpage on the fly, instead it relies on custom DNS servers. These are the telephony directories of the internet, helping your devices look up webpages. By default every device in your home probably uses your internet service provider's DNS settings, but it's easy to change this -- across your entire home or just on individual devices.
Services like OpenDNS and Norton ConnectSafe offer custom DNS servers which modify the listings for inappropriate webpages, serving up a "page blocked" message instead. They offer free and paid options, granting you different levels of control over what's blocked.
The paid services are linked to your home IP address, which can be a problem if your IP address changes whenever you reboot your modem. There are websites and apps which make it easy to notify the service of your new IP address, or you might find it easier to pay extra to your internet service provider for a fixed IP address. This also comes in handy if you're using DNS-based geo-dodging services like Unblock US to sneak into US Netflix.
Pick and choose
If you want to protect your entire home then it's just a matter of changing the DNS settings in your modem, so it automatically hands out the address of your child-friendly DNS server to every device.
Alternatively you can protect individual devices by just changing their DNS settings, which lets you stick with one Wi-Fi network. The process of editing the DNS settings works slightly different on various devices, but a quick Google search will help you along your way.
For example, on an iGadget you can't create a default DNS setting for every Wi-Fi network, you can only change the DNS settings for specific networks. This is useful in that you can configure child-friendly DNS settings on an iPad at home and know these settings won't cause trouble when your child connects their iPad to their school's network. Unfortunately you can't enforce your child-friendly DNS over 3G/4G or when connecting to a new Wi-Fi network.
Not a magic bullet
DNS-based filtering is handy if you want to prevent young children stumbling upon inappropriate content, but it's much more challenging to stop older children who go actively looking for it.
Tech-savvy kids can beat DNS filtering by changing the DNS settings themselves, using a VPN or proxy server to bypass the filtering or simply switching to an unprotected Wi-Fi network. You can lock some of these options down on a computer by ensuring your kids don't have administrator rights, but it's harder to do on mobile devices.
Remember that at the end of the day web filtering is not a substitute for adult supervision, so it's important to take an interest in your children's online activities and discuss the dangers. How do you keep the youngsters in your home safe when they're online?
==============================================For a great satire on email, please see the following:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTgYHHKs0Zwscoop_post=bcaa0440-2548-11e5-c1bd-90b11c3d2b20&__scoop_topic=2455618
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In addition to this blog, Netiquette IQ has a website with great assets which are being added to on a regular basis. I have authored the premiere book on Netiquette, “Netiquette IQ - A Comprehensive Guide to Improve, Enhance and Add Power to Your Email". My new book, “You’re Hired! Super Charge Your Email Skills in 60 Minutes. . . And Get That Job!” has just been published and will be followed by a trilogy of books on Netiquette for young people. You can view my profile, reviews of the book and content excerpts at:

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In addition to this blog, I maintain a radio show on BlogtalkRadio  and an online newsletter via paper.li.I have established Netiquette discussion groups with Linkedin and  Yahoo I am also a member of the International Business Etiquette and Protocol Group and Minding Manners among others. I regularly consult for the Gerson Lehrman Group, a worldwide network of subject matter experts and I have been contributing to the blogs Everything Email and emailmonday . My work has appeared in numerous publications and I have presented to groups such as The Breakfast Club of NJ and  PSG of Mercer County, NJ.


I am the president of Tabula Rosa Systems, a “best of breed” reseller of products for communications, email, network management software, security products and professional services.  Also, I am the president of Netiquette IQ. We are currently developing an email IQ rating system, Netiquette IQ, which promotes the fundamentals outlined in my book.

Over the past twenty-five years, I have enjoyed a dynamic and successful career and have attained an extensive background in IT and electronic communications by selling and marketing within the information technology marketplace.Anyone who would like to review the book and have it posted on my blog or website, please contact me paul@netiquetteiq.com.
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