Parental controls

This article is about computer options. For the TV series, see Parental Control. For the software included with Windows Vista, see Windows Parental Controls.

Parental controls are features which may be included in digital television services, computer and video games, Mobile phones and computer software. Parental controls fall into roughly four categories, content filters, which limit access to age-appropriate content, usage controls, which constrain the usage of these devices such as placing time-limits on usage or forbidding certain types of usage, computer usage management tools, which allow parents to enforce learning time into child computing time, and monitoring , which can track location and activity when using the devices.

Content filters were the first popular type of parental controls to limit access to Internet content. Also television stations began introducing V-Chip technology to limit access to television content. Controls are now being applied to content ranging from explicit songs to objectionable movies available for purchase online. Usage controls are increasing in sophistication; examples include turning devices off during specific times of day, limiting the volume of the music playing in the car, and with GPS technology becoming affordable, it is now possible to know where a child is at curfew.

Overview

Several techniques exist aimed at creating parental controls for blocking websites. Add-on parental control software may monitor API in order to observe applications such as a web browser or Internet chat application and to intervene according to certain criteria, such as a match in a database of banned words. Virtually all parental control software includes a password or other form of authentication to prevent unauthorised users from disabling it.

Techniques involving a proxy server are also used. A web browser is set to send requests for web content to the proxy server rather than directly to the web server intended. The proxy server then fetches the web page from the web server on the web browser's behalf and passes on the content to the browser. Proxy servers can inspect the data being sent and received and intervene depending on various criteria relating to content of the page or the URL being requested, for example, using a database of banned words or banned URLs. The proxy method's major disadvantage is that it requires that the client application to be configured to utilize the proxy, and if it is possible for the user to reconfigure applications to access the Internet directly rather than going through the proxy then this control is easily bypassed. Proxy servers themselves may be used to circumvent parental controls. There are other techniques used to bypass parental controls.

Computer usage management method, unlike content filters, is focused on empowering the parents to balance the computing environment for children by regulating gaming. The main idea of these applications is to allow parents to enforce learning component into the computing time of children, where children must earn gaming time while working through educational contents.

Parental controls on mobile phones

The increased use of mobile phones that include full featured internet browsers and downloadable applications has created a demand for parental controls on these mobile, smart handhelds. In November 2007, Verizon was the first carrier to offer age-appropriate content filters as well as the first to offer content-generic content filters recognizing that mobile phones were used to access all manner of content from movies and music to short-code programs and websites. In June 2009, on the iPhone OS version 3.0, Apple Computer was the first mobile device company to provide a built in mechanism on iPhone and iPod Touch devices to create age brackets for users that would block unwanted applications from being downloaded to the device. The introduction of a safe mobile web browser, called Surfbalance Kids browser for iPhone in June 2009, filled a need for parental web controls in the mobile phone arena. Mobile phone software from My Mobile Watchdog enables parents to restrict which applications their child can access while also allowing parents to monitor text messages, phone logs, MMS pictures, and other transactions occurring on their child's mobile phone.

Parental controls on the iPod Touch

There are also parental controls on the iPod touch. Parents can block the icons for some apps, block going on the internet or YouTube, and restrict the apps and movies that may be downloaded.

Commonly used methods to bypass parental controls

Several methods of bypassing parental controls are commonly used. If the filtering software is located locally within the computer, all Internet software can be easily bypassed by booting up the computer in question from alternative media or with an alternative operating system. However, if the computer's BIOS is configured to disallow booting from removable media, and if changes to the BIOS are prohibited without proper authentication, then this approach is not available.

Another technique involves using external proxy servers or other servers. The user sends requests to the external server which retrieves content on the user's behalf. Filtering software may then never be able to know which URLs the user is accessing, as all communications are with the one external server and filtering software never sees any communications with the web servers from which content really originated. To counter this, filtering software may also block access to popular proxies. Additionally, filtering systems which only permit access to a set of allowed URLs will not permit access anything outside this list, including proxy servers.

Criticisms of parental controls

An argument that is present is that: children will get access to questionable content, either through friends or by cracking the software. Parenting organizations feel, especially with older children and adolescents, that the best way to keep kids from viewing questionable content is by teaching kids about the hazards of viewing such content.

Video game systems that have used parental controls

Listed in chronological order

• PlayStation 3
• PlayStation 2 (only for DVDs)
• PlayStation Portable
• Xbox
• Xbox 360
• Wii
• Nintendo DSi
• Nintendo 3DS

Operating systems with parental controls

Below is a list of operating systems which currently have parental control features:

• Mac OS X (10.3-10.6)
• Windows Vista - http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Set-up-Parental-Controls
• Windows 7
• Mandriva Linux (via drakguard)
• Linux using DansGuardian either on the machine or, with Windows or Mac machines, as a server/proxy.

Tools for parents for social networking sites

Here are some tools available for parents to monitor their children's activities within social networking sites:

• GoGoStat Parental Guidance
• SocialShield

See also

• Content-control software
• David Burt
• Internet censorship
• Motion picture rating system
• Television rating system
• V-Chip
• Videogame Rating Council

External links

• Parental Control Software: Keep Your Kids Safe Online
• Cable Providers and Parental Controls
• Deal of the Day: New Technology to Keep Track of Your Kids, by Kelli B. Grant, SmartMoney, 16 Mar 2007
• Windows 7 Parental Controls Setup
• An FBI report about child Internet safety
• Text message lingo
• A number of Corporate Sites on Parental Controls: Parental Control Tools Education site, Use of parental controls on iPhone mobile deviceParental Controlled Browser and Social Network
• An Open Source project: mTime at SourceForge