Worried About Your Kids' Online Safety? OpenDNS Can Help.

OpenDNS has launched a free web-filtering service that parents or network admins can use to block web sites based on content.  Sites with topics ranging from drug and alcohol use to social networking to dirty dirty porn can be filtered out by anyone who takes the time to set up a free account with OpenDNS and change some settings on their machine so that they use OpenDNS' DNS server instead of their ISP's.  Huh?

Here's more about how DNS server's do their thing from Security Fix at WashingtonPost.com

OpenDNS filters out Web page requests at the domain name system (DNS) level. DNS is responsible for translating human-friendly Web site names like "example.com" into numeric, machine-readable Internet addresses. Anytime you send an e-mail or browse a Web site, your machine is sending a DNS look-up request to your Internet service provider to help route the traffic.

Most Internet users use their ISP's DNS servers for this task, either explicitly because the information was entered when signing up for service, or by default because the user hasn't specified any external DNS servers. By creating a free account at OpenDNS.com, changing the DNS settings on your machine, and registering your Internet address with OpenDNS, the company will block whatever content you have specified.

You can change the DNS settings on each computer in your home. But if your network is behind a wireless router, a speedier and more reliable solution is to change the DNS settings on the router (see this link for instructions broken down by router model). That should cover all of the systems that connect to that router.

 

What OpenDNS is offering would be an amazing tool, both for parents and for administrators at companies who need to restrict web access on a budget.

Of course, there's opposition.

When I last wrote about this filtering service, I received quite a few comments from readers who took issue with the idea of parents deciding what sites their children should be permitted to visit online. Most who were critical of this approach said parents should instead focus on explaining to their kids why such sites are inappropriate and should be avoided.

But for a lot of parents -- particularly those with very young children -- that approach only goes so far. As nearly anyone who has been online for any length of time can attest, it is often quite easy to start out online at one completely innocent site or simple Web search, only to end up in the back alleys of the Internet's red light district with an errant click.

 

Are you kidding me?  Were any members of the opposition ever children?  Can they say that they never did anything stupid or dangerous even though their parents said not to?  Do we expect parents to watch over their kids' shoulders every second they're online?  It's so ridiculous that parents have a service available to them, for free, that can protect their kids and someone would have the audacity to admonish them for it.  I wonder if anyone opposed even has kids.  Even a kid. 

They way I see it, OpenDNS' system is like the V-Chip.  It's there.  If parents want to use it, fantastic.  If they don't care or if they think that they can convince their kids to "do the right thing" without technological aids, more power to them.  For the parents who want to use the technology available to help protect their children from content they don't want them seeing...please do.  I'd rather have parents limiting what their kids can view as opposed to the government getting involved and blocking content from everyone, thanks to some loud-mouthed buffoon whose kid only saw porn because mommy was too lazy to do anything about it herself.