As technology continues to improve one thing is certain, the Internet will soon make it’s way into every area of our lives. We bank online, shop online, work online, and even date online.
The Internet is growing exponentially. New content pops up every second and, with “high speed” Internet service becoming a staple in most homes, that content is more readily and rapidly available than ever before.
While this is great news it also comes with a few caveats… for every kid friendly page we see on the internet there are probably a hundred pages most parents would rather their kids never find.
It’s no secret; kids are curious. If you put a group of adolescent boys alone in a room with a computer it won’t take too terribly long before a Google search for the word “boobies” is entered. So what can parents do to keep their kids from viewing content that is not age appropriate? Parent’s can’t watch and monitor their kids every second of the day. Parents need an “always on” solution that will help filter the content their kids see. Fortunately there is a solution to this, and best of all it’s free.
OpenDNS is a free service that acts as an “always on” content filtering system. With OpenDNS you set up a free account and then configure the type of content you’d like to allow or disallow. You can filter by category or even specific web pages (ladies you can even keep your husband off those “questionable” sites… but don’t say we mentioned it!).
On a very basic level here’s how it works…. Computers use a DNS server to change a name to a numeric value. So when you open up the web page yahoo.com a DNS server translates “yahoo.com” to its numeric IP address (or 209.191.93.53). Since yahoo.com is a heck of a lot easier to remember than 209.191.93.53 these DNS servers are pretty handy things to have.
All Internet service providers (ie.. Cox, Qwest, Charter, Comcast to name a few) also provide DNS servers for their customers to use. Basically when you use OpenDNS you simply use their DNS servers instead of the ones given to you by your ISP.
So if you have concerns about where or what your kids are looking at on the web check out OpenDNS.
As technology continues to improve one thing is certain, the Internet will soon make it’s way into every area of our lives. We bank online, shop online, work online, and even date online.
The Internet is growing exponentially. New content pops up every second and, with “high speed” Internet service becoming a staple in most homes, that content is more readily and rapidly available than ever before.
While this is great news it also comes with a few caveats… for every kid friendly page we see on the internet there are probably a hundred pages most parents would rather their kids never find.
It’s no secret; kids are curious. If you put a group of adolescent boys alone in a room with a computer it won’t take too terribly long before a Google search for the word “boobies” is entered. So what can parents do to keep their kids from viewing content that is not age appropriate? Parent’s can’t watch and monitor their kids every second of the day. Parents need an “always on” solution that will help filter the content their kids see. Fortunately there is a solution to this, and best of all it’s free.
OpenDNS is a free service that acts as an “always on” content filtering system. With OpenDNS you set up a free account and then configure the type of content you’d like to allow or disallow. You can filter by category or even specific web pages (ladies you can even keep your husband off those “questionable” sites… but don’t say we mentioned it!).
On a very basic level here’s how it works…. Computers use a DNS server to change a name to a numeric value. So when you open up the web page yahoo.com a DNS server translates “yahoo.com” to its numeric IP address (or 209.191.93.53). Since yahoo.com is a heck of a lot easier to remember than 209.191.93.53 these DNS servers are pretty handy things to have.
All Internet service providers (ie.. Cox, Qwest, Charter, Comcast to name a few) also provide DNS servers for their customers to use. Basically when you use OpenDNS you simply use their DNS servers instead of the ones given to you by your ISP.
So if you have concerns about where or what your kids are looking at on the web check out OpenDNS.
