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Blocking websites in Safari?
- Thread starter aricher
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If you make the kid a username on the computer, you can block websites in the Parental Controls section in the Accounts preference pane.
You can enable parental controls to give them access to only a limited list of sites.
http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/family/
http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/family/
aricher said:
If the kid is more than 10 years old it will not work.
Here is the #1 simplest "kid trick": Let's say the kid wants to look at kidieporn.com and the parent and every school and libray in town has that site blocked. So some other kid who has a computer on a DSL or cable connection set up what they cal a "web proxy server" and then gets a free account on dyndns.org that reads "eatallyourveggies.com" Now "eatallyourveggies.com" can proxy for any number of "bad sites". This is actually very easy to do with free software that will run under Mac OSX. (Apache makes a decent proxy and it is already installed on every Mac SOX machne) Most of it has a point and click interface. Word of these proxy sites gets out fast and if you try to block them 40 others spring up over night. Names of the proxies are passed around in chat rooms forums email list and wherever.
In simpler english: Someone makes a site called "good.com" by copying all the content from "bad.com". Parent blocks "bad.com" but smart kid points brower to "good.com"
But blocking "bad.com" makes ther parents feel good so you might as well.
What to do? (1) physically supervise the kid and watch him. (2) install home firewall that logs all access both comming and going. Periodically peruse the logs and look at the sites that are actualy visited. If you notice "good.com" is loked at a lot look at it your self.
ChrisA said:
But Safari's technique is to allow sites, not block them. It makes the Internet a lot more restricted to them, but they can't look at anything you haven't personally added to their "OK" list. So you'll have to go look at "good.com" before your kid can see it. Yes, you'll constantly be bugged by your kid to add sites to the "OK" list, but if it makes you proactive about it and makes you interact with your kid more rather than using the Internet as a babysitter.
You can block hosts on a one-by-one basis by adding them to the /etc/hosts file, with an IP address of 0.0.0.0. If you're not familiar with the terminal then I don't recommend this route 
Is there a site that outlines this process step-by-step?Nermal said:You can block hosts on a one-by-one basis by adding them to the /etc/hosts file, with an IP address of 0.0.0.0. If you're not familiar with the terminal then I don't recommend this route
edit - never mind. I found this step-by-step. Very easy. Took me a minute to block several sites. Not sure if I can recommend to my friend this process or even the parental control route. Entering in parent-approved urls is a HUGE pain - it would be easier for him just to supervise. Doesn't somebody make a locked-down kid-friendly browser for the Mac?
Help
What you can do is download Firefox for mac and once you've downloaded and opened Firefox, click on this link for ProCon Latte (in Firefox). After you download ProCon Latte it will appear under Tools on the top of your screen (your toobar when firefox is opened) and you can assign a password, add websites you want blocked etc. Just click on the tab that says Main Filter (once you have ProCon Latte open), check the box that says "Enable Explicit Material Filter" then you can add or take away words/websites to be blocked. It's really easy. Hope this helped.
Jefferson
If anyone needs any help with it, just message me, I'll be glad to help
What you can do is download Firefox for mac and once you've downloaded and opened Firefox, click on this link for ProCon Latte (in Firefox). After you download ProCon Latte it will appear under Tools on the top of your screen (your toobar when firefox is opened) and you can assign a password, add websites you want blocked etc. Just click on the tab that says Main Filter (once you have ProCon Latte open), check the box that says "Enable Explicit Material Filter" then you can add or take away words/websites to be blocked. It's really easy. Hope this helped.
Jefferson
If anyone needs any help with it, just message me, I'll be glad to help
I know that the original question dealt with blocking a "genre" of sites but for those who just want to block a specific site there is a way you can do that by modifying the Mac HOSTS file. It's very simple.
This link tells you how (in detail): http://www.thefakegeek.com/2009/04/how-to-block-a-website-in-safari/
Hope this helps.
This link tells you how (in detail): http://www.thefakegeek.com/2009/04/how-to-block-a-website-in-safari/
Hope this helps.
Use OpenDNS
http://www.opendns.com/
Use the DNS adresses in your network settings and get a free account.
Here's a screenshot of the OpenDNS dashboard on my account:
http://www.opendns.com/
Use the DNS adresses in your network settings and get a free account.
Here's a screenshot of the OpenDNS dashboard on my account:
If you want to block specific sites, you can use glimmerblocker. You just add a new filter, then put in the host site, then below that, either the exact path or what the path contains. It works like a charm and you can be specific if that's your intent. You can also edit your hosts file, but apparently there are some cases where that doesn't even work.
If you block all the social networking
You wouldn't have to worry about the kids even wanting to use the computer. Makes that top option a winner
Use OpenDNS
http://www.opendns.com/
Use the DNS adresses in your network settings and get a free account.
Here's a screenshot of the OpenDNS dashboard on my account:
You wouldn't have to worry about the kids even wanting to use the computer. Makes that top option a winner