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How to Filter Porn Web Sites on Your Computer

If you're on the internet—especially when doing searches on Bing or Google, you are likely going toencounter porn. You don't need to see that, and your kids certainly don't need to see that. We'llshow you a few things you can do to stem the tide of smut, and enjoy a more humane Internet.Here's how:

Method 1: Google Safe Search

Navigate to Google.com Search Settings . At the top, you'll see the SafeSearch filter. Bydefault, it's in the Moderate position. Slide it to the right to switch to SafeSearch.

Properly setting this will block pornographic images from your searches; even provocativesearches, such as for the word "sex," will return images that may be suggestive, but nomore so than you might find on network television.

Lock SafeSearch. A filter is good, but as any 12-year-old will (probably not) tell you, gettingaround a simple setting is far too easy. To provide a greater level of protection, you can lockyour SafeSearch setting, so that it requires your login to change. From your Settings page,click on SafeSearch Lock, as shown:

Steps

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You'll need to log in with your account and password, and SafeSearch will remain activeuntil you turn it off. Furthermore, you can tell at a glance if it's active: large colored balls willappear in the top right of the screen as long as SafeSearch Lock is enabled.

Save your preferences. When you are done adjusting your SafeSearch settings, be sure toclick the blue Save button at the bottom of the screen, or your prefs won't be saved.

Method 2: Bing Safe Search

Navigate to Bing.com SafeSearch . At the top, you'll see the SafeSearch filter. By default,it's in the Moderate position. Click on the topmost radio button to enable strict filtering.

Unlike Google, setting strict filtering on Bing will block everything. For example, searchingfor the word "sex," Bing gives no results at all. This indicates that Bing is not filteringcontent of the results, but prohibiting the search completely. Depending on your ownpersonal feelings, this may either be a good thing or a bad thing. Either way, there is a veryclear difference between Bing searches and Google searches.

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Note: Bing does not offer a way to lock strict filtering.

Save your preferences. When you are done adjusting your SafeSearch settings, be sure toclick the blue Save button at the bottom of the screen, or your prefs won't be saved.

Method 3: Microsoft Family Safety

Navigate to the Family Safety website . You can do this from any computer. Follow thesteps and sign in.

Download the Family Safety Filter. This software must be installed on every computer youwant to protect. It will monitor your kids using the safety settings you select.

See if Family Safety is already installed. It's pre-installed on some versions of Windows 7.To verify, click the Start button, then click All Programs, then Windows Live, and then if it'sinstalled, Windows Live Family Safety.

If Family Safety isn't installed, go to the Windows Live Family Safety download page,and click Download. Follow the prompts to install Family Safety.

Sign in. Using your Windows LIve ID, sign in and assign the "primary parent," the person youwant to administer the settings. You cannot change this setting in the future. If you don't have aWindows Live ID, you will need to sign up.

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Select who you want to monitor. Click the check box next to the Windows account of eachfamily member you want to monitor, then click Next or Save.

To monitor somebody not listed, you will need to create a new Windows account. Microsoftrecommends that each person in a household have their own Windows account.

Disable guest accounts—kids will use that to get around the filters.

Match accounts. If this is the first time you've used Family Safety, skip this step.

If you already use Family Safety, match each Windows account to a name on the FamilySafety members list. If a Windows account doesn't have a matching Family Safety name,click the option to add it.

When you're done, be sure to click the Save button.

Add passwords. If you don't have passwords for Windows administrator accounts oraccounts you're not monitoring with Family Safety, you'll see the Add passwords screen. ClickAdd passwords.

Verify your setup. Click Next and you’ll see the Windows accounts that Family Safety is nowmonitoring on the computer.

It’s important that all of your Windows accounts have passwords. Without that, kids couldlog on to that account and bypass their Family Safety settings, get to websites you don’twant them to see, and you won't be able to see reports of their online activities.

Method 4: OpenDNS

Sign up for OpenDNS . If you want to filter what can and cannot be seen on the Internet, youcan use OpenDNS. Schools and government offices use it, and free options are available.

Create an account. Once your account is created, set your internet settings to use theOpenDNS IP addresses as your domain name servers. You will then be able to customize yourfilter preferences.

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Method 5: Commercial Software

Use a professional pornography filter. These can block unwanted websites and filterpornographic websites on your computer.

Install it from an administrator account. The administrator password is required to uninstallthe filter or to change its configuration.

There are a number of such products. Most of the decent ones should have the followingcapabilities:

Works with any web browser: (IE, Safari, Firefox, Google Chrome).

Password protected, so that only an administrator can bypass the blocker.

Come with a built-in list of filtering criteria.

Have a whitelist to manually list sites that shouldn't be filtered.

If you have an Apple Mac OS X computer, make sure the filter you purchase is compatiblewith your version of the Mac OS.

Method 6: Windows Hosts

Modify the windows hosts file

Locate your HOSTS file. The hosts file is located in different places depending on yourWindows version.

For XP/VISTA/7 it is located in the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC directory.

For 2000 it is located in the C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC orC:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC folder, depending on the nature of yourWindows install

To view the contents of this file, browse to the location of the file and double click on it.

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You will be asked whether you want to search the internet for a program to open the file orif you wish to choose from a list. Choose the list option and open the file with Notepad. Youcan now view all of the websites that are being blocked.

To manually block a site, go to the bottom of the file and on a new line type “127.0.0.1siteyouwanttoblock.com” without using quotes. This will block siteyouwanttoblock.com.Repeat the process for any other sites you wish to block, and then save the file by going toFile>Save.

Understand that teenage curiosity about sex is entirely normal. Consider open discussionsabout sex and porn as alternative to making the subject taboo—that which is taboo often has astronger attraction and fascination than that which is not.

Another option that does not require setting any preferences is to use a website that enforcesGoogle safesearch results, such as KidzSearch.com.

Most pornography filtering methods, including commercial software products that claimotherwise, can be evaded by someone who wants to see pornography badly enough, leftunsupervised.

How to Avoid Pornography

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How to Be Safe on the Internet

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