A few days ago I came across a lifehacker post on a service called ScrubIT. This service provides a simple way to provide some protection for your family from unacceptable web sites. The best part is that the basic service is free!
It is a pretty cool way to attack the problem. Whenever you type in a URL (like www.awebsite.com), your computer goes out to a Domain Name Server (DNS) to convert that name into an internet address (an IP address like 15.257.10.13 [yes, I know that IP address is invalid]). Normally your DNS servers are provided by your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and are configured automatically on your computer when it gets its own IP address (via DHCP).
ScrubIT provides their own DNS servers that check the URL your computer is trying to access before it gives you the destination’s IP address. If the URL is on their list of blocked sites, instead of displaying the destination, it will instead display a page indicating that the site you tried to go to is blocked. All you have to do is use the addresses of ScrubIT’s DNS servers instead of the ones supplied by your ISP. If you’re not comfortable doing this manually, they have a script on their web site that will do it for you (if you are running a Windows operating system).
Advantages:
- The price!
- There is no software to install on your computer.
- It works with all operating systems and web browsers.
Disadvantages:
- The list of blocked sites is fixed (but they are working on a configurable service that you can pay for).
- Anyone with some basic computer knowledge can work around it (although you can prevent this by not giving other people administrative privileges when they use your computers).
For our family, with fairly young kids, this is a great solution for now. It also prevents accidental visits to unwanted web sites. Just recently, I tried to go to a site related to a programming language, but when I accidentally typed .com on the end instead of .org, I found myself at a place that had nothing to do with computers!
Blocking schemes like this are only part of the solution. You can lock down computers in your house all you want, but your kids will have other opportunities outside your home to view sites that they should avoid. I’ll need to be sure to talk to my kids (at an appropriate age) about this problem, since the problem will only grow in our society. The real solution is self control and a desire for a pure heart before God. While the kids are in the house, another helpful strategy is to have the computers that the kids will be using (that are connected to the Internet) located in a very public place in the home.
That said, though, I think ScrubIT is a great tool to consider using in your home.
