What are the best parental controls for computers to ensure safety?
What are the best parental controls for computers to ensure safety?
My 18-year-old son has bypassed all the parental controls I configured on his PC, installing bootable OS drives to circumvent them and using VPNs as well. I considered a Chromebox as a potentially hackproof alternative, thinking it might be affordable. Was I correct? Unless I can implement a DNS service such as Cloudflare, I’m not sure if that would work. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
So here's the main question how old is the kid if he's in his teens good luck..... Nothing is hack proof and especially to a dedicated teen. I start when I was in kindergarten my mom got a call from the school saying I was no longer allowed on their system because three times in a row I got out of the system locks so.... A teen is a lot brighter then you realize.... Only way you'll stop him for the most part is lock out the bios and make him a none admin account on the PC tell him good luck.... Make the admin password 32 character long and even the best decipher tools will struggle to crack it
DNS services offer limited effectiveness. They can be easily circumvented, and even using a VPN helps bypass them. Everyone should consider adopting encrypted DNS now that operating systems support it. This ensures no one can monitor your DNS queries—even your own devices.
If you must use a firewall, it will block all sites except those on an approved IP list. Manually adding only work or school addresses is challenging unless the list remains small. The firewall itself needs strong protection.
Restrictions based on time of day are simpler than managing site lists. The best strategy is to take a firm stance: inform him you won’t block anything, but you’ll monitor and take action if violations occur. A clear consequence is essential. Many routers provide access to IP address logs, which can be useful for tracking compliance.
Thank you for the update. I think the firewall choice is reasonable. A Chromebox would be suitable since I could manage his Google account. Unless he manages to circumvent it by setting up a new account, which I'm not aware of.
This is a social issue, not technical.
Given physical access, he can do just about anything.
Assuming this is the US, he's legally an adult now, so I don't see why parental controls really matter here unless he lives with you and you want to impose all these rules on him. Which will more likely than not create resentment.
So yeah, as with what
@USAFRet
says, this is a social problem, not a technical one.
if he’s ready to work with a portable operating system, then nothing on the computer can be changed or configured to ensure his honesty. anything would need to be handled elsewhere in the network. and he’s already proven he can bypass most of those measures as well. aside from a strong authority figure and a delay of about twenty minutes, it doesn’t seem like much can be done effectively.
I remember going through this and quickly realized that without actively resisting his attempts, the only real options were to restrict certain sites in your router or online settings, which he couldn’t access from his ISP. The proxy services used to be a major issue—they would just browse unwanted sites and then use them for whatever they wanted. One of the solutions I discovered was disabling wireless and using a network switch to control access. With modern smartphones, it’s likely he could simply connect to a hotspot and bypass any restrictions. I’d say an open conversation with your growing son is usually more effective than trying to control him. For adults staying at home, there are other ways to handle the situation. Good luck!