The content filtering over the Internet sometimes called parental controls, these are used to block any access to offensive websites. It is not guaranteed but it can be very helpful.

What is content filtering?

People find some inappropriate content like images of sex, violence or strong language on the Internet.

As Internet is a free zone anyone can post anything and there is no effective restriction on the Internet itself. As a result, many people use content filtering software and set browser settings to block offensive websites.

How to enable content filtering?

• In Internet Explorer, there is an option to restrict the web sites and access only those web sites set by a user.
• In Internet Explorer web browser select tools - Internet options - Selectcontent - Click enable
• In Google search engine there is option for a safe search filtering Click on search settings gsearch settings g SafeSearch Filters and select desired options
• In Yahoo search engine there is option for a safe search filtering Click on Advanced - Select desired option
• Remember none of these filtering features are 100 % accurate- and some unsuitable content may still slip through.
• It is important to teach your children to surf the web safely and take time to explore the Internet with them.

Parental Control Bars

Parental Control Bar is a simple, powerful tool to help shield your children from explicit websites. Simply activate Child-Mode while your children surf the Internet, and the toolbar will block access to adult-oriented websites.Ensure that your child is safe while using the Internet. Parental controls will provide you with the advantage of being able to do the following

• Enforce time limits to child Internet activity set by parent.
• Block access to materials (pictures) identified as inappropriate for kids.
• Monitor your child’s activity on the Internet by storing names of sites and/or snapshots of material seen by your child on the computer for you to view later.
• Set different restrictions for each family member.
• Limit results of an Internet search to content appropriate for kids.

Parental control Bars in Web Browsers

a. Internet Explorer

The Parental Control Bar in Windows vista OS supports for Internet Explored by default. For information on setting up parental controls in Windows Vista. Open Parental Controls by clicking the start button, clicking Control Panel, under User accounts, clicking Setup Parental Controls. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation. Then click the standard user account for which to set Parental Controls Under Parental Controls, Click On.

Once you've turned on Parental Controls for your child's standard user account, you can adjust the individual settings that you want to control. You can control the following areas like web restrictions, time limits , games, can block specific programs.

Third party parental control bar tools can be downloaded from the following links. Go to following website and download
http://www.ieaddons.com/en/details/Security/ParentalControl_Bar/

b. Firefox Browser in Windows

There are many Firefox addons or extensions, which we can download from

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/search?q=parental+control&cat=all

Some of the products/addons for Firefox

c. Glubble for Families

Glubble allows you to create a private family page where you can monitor and support your children’s online activities. Glubble provides games, chat, safe surfing, and a Family Photo Timeline service for uploading, storing, and sharing your photos online. Glubble integrates Ask for Kids, a safe search engine for children.https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/5881d. ProCon filters

Web page content by using a list of inappropriate words and replacing them with asterisks (***). Note that the bad word filter does not block websites containing the words; you must add the website to a Blacklist. ProCon can also block all traffic, making sure that only desired websites (set in the Whitelist) can be accessed. You can manage "white" and "black" lists of sites and pages. ProCon also has password protection in order to keep others from changing the settings

e. ProCon Latte

In addition to Firefox extensions, there are many third-party software packagesthat can filter content through your operating system or at the point where your network connects to the Internet.
Available: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/1803

Procedure for installing Parental control toolbar.

• Double “click parental control setup downloaded” from the website.
• After double clicking, it will ask to close any other browser windows. Click ‘OK’ button.
• Click ‘I agree’ button to agree the license agreement.
• The wizard asks for the parental control password which will be used to manage parental control settings
• Type the password and enter a question which will be used as a hint when you forget the password typed earlier. Be sure that your child doesn’t know the answer for the question.
• Type the e-Mail address, to which the parental password will be sent and click ‘Next’.
• Next the installation starts by taking appropriate files from the website and completes with in a few minutes.
  The parental control bar will be added to the Internet Explorer browser as shown above
• Below shows the ‘parent’ button showing that the browser is acting in ‘parent’ mode
• Type the website that you want to block for children and click the button ‘Block this site’.
• To block this site parental control bar asks password
• After entering the password and clicking OK. A window opens telling that the site is blocked.
• Whenever child wants to browse the website, the browser should be in child mode. So click ‘parent mode’ button, so that the browser is changed to child mode. Then the parent control toolbar appears as shown below telling that child safe mode is now active.
• Click ‘ok’.
• When the child wants to browse the blocked site, it asks for the password to open the site which is shown as below.
• Now if the child wants to view the website without entering password, an error occurs like this

Changing the parental control settings in the parental control toolbar

• To change settings for allowing and blocking websites, click the 'change parental settings'.
• After clicking change parental settings, a window opens and asks for the ‘parent control password’.
• Type the password and click ‘ok’. After that a window opens
• You can add sites in the allowed list by clicking the ‘allowed site list’ tab
• Type the website that you want to allow and click ‘allow’ button as shown below.
• You can also add sites in the blocked list by clicking ‘blocked site list’.
• Type the website that you want to block and click ‘block’ button as shown in the below figure.
• You can also filter some type of contents by clicking ‘basic site filters’ tab.
• The following window appears after click the ‘Basic site filters’ tab.
• By default, the following types of sites are filtered.
• You can also block other types of sites by checking the ‘block’ button.

Spam filter

• Along with the content filter and website filter nowadays all the e-Mail services providers are built with spam filter.
• Click on the spam filter option and add e-Mail ID which you feel not a trusted ID or e-Mail ID of an unknown user.

Example as shown in the figure :

What is K9 Web Protection ?

K9 Web Protection is a parental control and web filtering software. When you have it turned on, it prevents the computer user from viewing Web sites that contain unwanted content. It can block more than 60 different categories of content, including pornography, hate/racism/violence, gambling and malware/spyware.

Download Link : http://www1.k9webprotection.com/get-k9-web-protection-free

• My kids wouldn't go looking for those kinds of sites. Why do I need K9 Web Protection ?

• Even when they don't intend to, most children run into pornography, gambling and even predators on the Internet. Consider these statistics:
• 70 percent of all 15-17 year-olds who have ever gone online have accidentally stumbled across pornography online, 23 percent "very" or "somewhat" often. One in five children ages 10-17 have received a sexual solicitation over the Internet. 43 percent of children said they do not have rules about Internet use in their homes.
• 17 percent of parents believe their children are posting online profiles, as compared to 45 percent of children who report doing this. We don't want to sound alarmist, but the kinds of material available today on the Internet are nothing like the Playboy magazine of your childhood. The pornography is far more explicit and much of it promotes pedophilia or a connection between violence and sex.
• Addictive gambling among teenagers is a growing problem, and many of them are learning to gamble online. Web filtering software can keep them from getting started. Social networking sites, such as Facebook or MySpace, can also pose a real danger for children. On these sites, teenagers and even pre-teens post personal information and photographs. These sites are a gold mine for predators.

What kind of computer do I need ?

K9 Web protection runs on all recent versions of Windows or Mac computers. K9 works no matter what Internet Service Provider delivers your Internet connection, and no matter which browser you use and supports all types of windows versions.

Can my kids turn it off ?

When you install the software on your computer, you will be asked to create a password. Only someone with the correct password can turn K9 off.

What kind of computer do I need ?

A "Block" Web page is displayed that tells you that this site is not permitted by your filtering software. If you want, you can also set K9 up so that Zander, the K9 Watch Dog, will bark. (This feature is nifty for parents. If you hear Zander barking, you can be pretty sure your kid has just clicked on a site that's a no-no.)

How does K9 Work ?

We maintain a database of Web sites that contain pornography, hate speech, violence, gambling and more than 55 other categories. When a computer user tries to go to a site that's in a category you want blocked, the "prohibited" screen appears, and Zander the K9 Watch Dog barks. (You can turn off the bark.) If a user tries to go to a Web site that the database hasn't seen before, it scans the content of the site for inappropriate material, and then either permits or prohibits the site (we call this process DRTR -- Dynamic Real-Time Rating). This happens so quickly that the user doesn't realize its happening. New prohibited Web sites are added to the database.

What's the difference between K9 and other filtering software ?

One difference between K9 and many other filtering solutions is that K9 is Internet-provider-independent and browser-independent. It will run on any Windows or Mac computer, no matter what Internet Service Provider delivers your Internet connection. It also works with any Internet browser.

Another difference is that K9 uses a commercial-grade filtering solution – it's a combination of a central database and dynamic page-rating technology that has been tested against the biggest players in the business, and come up on top. We see anywhere from 250 to 500 million rating requests every day. That's a lot of Internet visibility. The result is that you get the benefits of a serious solution in an easy-to-use package. Another difference is that K9 doesn't have to be "trained." You don't have to teach it which kinds of Web sites you want to block. It starts working as soon as you install it.