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Creative Intelligence @ Your Service |
Site Map +1 214 234 9283 | Send Email |
Machines are stupid. Or more precisely, not sentient. They do what they are told, without wondering if a command's intent is for good, for evil, or just plain benign.
Unlike books, movies, or even television, the Internet offers us a gateway to the entire magnitude of human expression. Good, evil, and benign. And this gateway is controlled by machines. Non-sentient machines that can't determine if a particular access is appropriate or not.
Parents have reason to be concerned. Not everyone on the planet has their children's best interest at heart. Parents must set guidelines for Internet access. This can be a tad difficult without knowing how machines can help in the process.
This tip addresses various topics on the subject of parental Internet control:
Machines give parents three basic tools to control Internet use. Those are access control rules, content filtering, and logging. Let's talk about each of these in turn:
Access control rules grant or deny Internet connections based on various parameters. Those parameters include:
These parameters are expressed as a rule that evaluates to true or false. If the result is true, the access is granted. If not, the access is denied.
Access control rules are the easiest method for implementing parental controls. Unfortunately they are the most limited in that they grant or deny access to the entire Internet, as opposed to blocking specific access requests.
Sometimes parents want to grant children partial access to the Internet: perhaps it's not when but what they access that is of prime concern. Another tool is needed to implement our wishes.
Access filtering deals with the partial case. There are static filters, which must be constantly updated, and dynamic filters, which occasionally block legitimate access.
Static Location Filtering
As its name implies, static filtering tries to block or grant access to domains in a black or white list, respectively. We have a choice of denying access to all sites in the black list or only allowing access to sites in the white list.
Static filtering has a drawback: the lists must be maintained. If there is a small set of sites we need to visit, setting up a white list is simple. But trying to maintain a black list of known problem sites is a more difficult problem. Most of the cost associated with static filtering is for subscribing to a list maintenance service, not the filter itself.
Dynamic Content Filtering
Since web sites do move from domain to domain and many times a user may have no idea what the consequences of clicking on a link might be, we might try to block access to a particular site by analyzing its contents. The most common way of doing this is by keywords: if a site contains too many words in a stop list, we don't load that particular page.
Content filtering is more complicated to implement then a simple access rule or block list. And because of the limits of trying to simulate sentience with logic, sometimes we get false positives: the classic example is blocking a page from the American Cancer Society because it contains the word "breast" too frequently.
As a parental control tool, logging may have the least utility. We actually don't try to limit Internet access with a logger, but merely record activity. We can record the content and destination of instant messaging and email traffic, for example. We can also record the location of what web pages we visit.
Logging has a more complex psychology then either control or filtering. We discuss this aspect of the technology in a later paragraph.
There are three places where the aforementioned control methods can be implemented: in the computer hardware itself, in a software program, or as a feature of the Internet service provider. Let's dicuss typical implementation methods of all three:
Many people access the Internet through broad band or high speed connections guarded by a firewall or router. Routers implement a fairly sophisticated set of access control rules: a particular computer can be blocked from accessing the Internet for a given date and time range.
Routers can perform access filtering, although only the more expensive models can subscribe to a white or black list maintenance service. Routers can also log traffic, but again recording access to a specific web site is limited to the higher end models. Very few routers provide content filtering, as checking a web page for keywords is a memory and processor intensive task.
Hardware controls are usually fixed for a specific computer. This can present a problem with a shared computer. Suppose, for example, Jan has a different set of access criteria then John but both children use the same computer. The router probably will only grant or deny access based on the computer's Ethernet address, and not which child is logged in at a given time.
All of the major anti-virus software publishers now offer some form of parental control software. These include access control and both static or dynamic filtering. And software does take into account which person is logged in at the moment so it's easier to apply different groups of rules, or policies, to different people.
Logging software is also available, but it might be an extra cost program. Some programs do not try to regulate access, but only record Internet use. Less sophisticated loggers take a snapshot of traffic at regular intervals, say once every five minutes. Higher end loggers record not just each and every Internet connection, but all of the data transferred in and out as well.
Many Internet Service Providers, such as AOL, Comcast, Earthlink, and SBC, offer some sort of access control and filtering included as part of the monthly subscription fee. There is generally no additional cost to use the parental controls, but the controls themselves may be limited.
Advantages of ISP controls is the burden of maintaining black lists or tweaking content filters is already paid for. Disadvantages include a need to use the particular ISP's control software, which may or may not work in all environments. In particular, some ISPs do not offer parental control software for Linux and Macintosh computers.
Logging user traffic increases fixed and marginal cost to ISPs substantially. So in general, ISPs do not log traffic going into or out of the network.
Beyond the technical side of parental control, there is also a psychological side. Different methods have different technical capabilities and generate different psychological inferences.
Access control is the most cut and dry of all three methods. We set up a series of rules, such as no one can get on the Internet after ten on a school night or web access is only allowed from the downstairs computer. The rules may apply to the entire family without exception. This has a psychological benefit of appearing unbiased.
Access filters also are cut and dry, but they are not as transparent. In some cases children will have to log into a machine twice, and there may be some visible indication that a filter is in place.
Logging is the psychologically most intrusive control method. If a child knows she is being logged, she may also feel untrusted. This is especially true if only one child in the household is logged, even if for a legitimate purpose such as an established track record of abuse.
Parents must be aware of two limits when using any form of Internet control: first, children with administrative privileges can override any software controls. And second, software controls can present incompatibilities with other programs.
When creating user accounts, parents may grant a child administrative, or full, access. There is also an option to only grant user, or limited, access as well. Be aware that any administrative user can defeat software parental controls by simply removing the program from the hard disk. Note also that administrative users are vulnerable to spyware attacks as well: see our defensive security article for more details.
Be aware that installing parental control software may cause another program to stop functioning. This occasionally happens with computer video games. Obviously if the child wants to play the game, the controls must be turned off.
One question we parents need to ask is why do our children need, as opposed to want, Internet access in the first place? Or perhaps a different phrasing: what other institutions or technologies can substitute for the Internet?
Thanks to the Internet, most home phones can now have unlimited long distance calling for $20 a month. When the email craze first started, one justification was the cost savings when communicating with relatives out of town. At the time, long distance was ten cents a minute, or less then three hours for $20. Also many cell phone plans have free long distance nights and weekends. With changes to the cost structure, perhaps encouraging children to use the telephone is more sensible.
We now understand decent Internet content cannot be supported by advertising, but only by subscription. Four or five years ago there was a different argument, and many web sites offered excellent content. Today free web sites usually offer repackaged content to pull in a different advertising stream. The best content still comes in books. And the best place to read books is the library.
What's more ironic then an ADD child maintaining six or seven simultaneous "conversations" with instant messaging? Whatever happened to meeting friends in person anyways? We still romanticize the idea of a toddler having a tea party with stuffed animals. Why not encourage our older children to invite their friends over for an afternoon snack?
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Just contact us with any comments, concerns, or questions about items contained in this document. Or IT issues in general. Or call us at the telephone number below.
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