Ubuntu and safe web surfing?

[David Rosenstrauch]

On 04/18/2010 02:48 PM, Scott Ehrlich wrote:
> My sister's PC was gifted to her with pre-installed Windows XP.    She
> thinks it has become infected, and she has very limited funding, so I
> said either buy a copy of Windows XP or Win 7, though I'm not
> convinced the system can take Win 7 and Win XP is being phased out.
> Therefore, I would recommend Ubuntu, and 10.04 is around the corner.
>
> She has a 10 year old son who is getting more interested in web sites.
>    What options for web filtering exist and are easy to use and manage
> to protect her son, my nephew, from accessing improper sites?
>
> She lives far enough away that her husband and she would have to do
> most all the management and neither is technically adept - something
> comes up, they either throw out the PC or call me.
>
> Thanks for any insight/help.    I just can't think of any easy answer
> to Linux web content/page/url  filtering/management.   Maybe one of
> your answers will be something I simply lost track of...
>
> Scott

I've heard Dan's Guardian is good, though I haven't used it firsthand.

There's also a company called Kidzui that makes a kid-safe browser. 
(Again, haven't used it firsthand.)  Kidzui also runs a site called 
ZuiTube, which is a kid-safe YouTube-like site.  That I have used, and 
it's great.  I let my 7-year-old surf on that site all he wants.

I also use a Firefox plugin that restricts my son's browser to certain 
sites that I've whitelisted for him.  Can't recall the name of the 
plugin OTTOMH, but I can look it up if you're interested.

HTH,

DR