[For non-techie parents who have a computer at home and are worried about their kids safety online.]
A mother recently wrote saying she is very concerned that her young children are spending too much time on websites like Orkut, MySpace and Facebook.
Her worries are not just about children wasting time on the Internet - it’s more about the activities that children are doing on these sites. She is concerned that children could be interacting with complete strangers (or online predators) and even sharing personal information.
And with some news reports saying that criminal activities could have been planned on Orkut, the mother has finally made up her mind to restrict access to Orkut and some other websites on the home computer.
The only problem is that she has absolutely no clue about how to block websites – parental control software like Net Nanny or Norton Internet Security are pretty good but they cost money.
Now before you take this extreme step of blocking website (that is very likely to be opposed by children), try a few things:
- Educate your children about the dangers of sharing information online with strangers. Family members should talk in detail about privacy and the web.
- Place the computer in the living area of your home from where you can easily see the screen so you’ll have some idea about activities that children are doing on the computer including the websites they are visiting frequently.
- Orkut is an open social network – that means you can easily see who’s in the friends’ list of your children and what kind of text notes (or scraps) are they exchanging with each.
Finally, to block websites on your home computer without investing in expensive software, here’s the trick (for Windows PCs):
Step 1: Click the Start button and select Run. Now type the following text in that Run box:
notepad c:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
Step 2: You will see a new notepad window on your screen containing some cryptic information. Don’t panic. Just goto the last line of the file, hit the enter key and type the following:
127.0.0.1 orkut.com
127.0.0.1 facebook.com
127.0.0.1 myspace.com
Save the file and exit. That’s it. None of the above sites will now open on your computer.
You can block as many websites as you like with the above technique. If you want to remove the ban later, open the same file as mentioned in Step 1 and delete the above lines.
Pretty simple but remember, our children are also very smart. And there are some popular ways to unblock websites.
Find this article at: http://www.labnol.org/software/browsers/block-websites-from-kids-home-computer/1602/
web: http://www.labnol.org/ email: amit@labnol.org
Reader Comments
This actually is not even something that will work. It will work for the domain name, but not for the web site name (with link . in front of it), for example. It also is trivially easy to circumvent, even if you have your children run as a non-administrator on the computer system.
If you really want to block sites, then you need to do it on the level of the Internet connect, *not* on the PC that you want to block the site. Remember that anything on a local PC is vulnerable to access by people physically, which means it is trivial to break. It’s best not to promote false senses of security!
Written by Michael B. Trausch on 10.22.07
It is really great post for Parents.
Amit, Internet helps to improve kids and can destroy their life. We know that People used to visit worst sites than Good sites. They always waste their valuable time with these sites. ORKUT, Groups and Forums are created for Good purpose to develop our skills, Personality development and knowledge but we are using Internet in Wrong way.
We can understand but kids can’t. So, we have to interact with kids friendly and must tell side affects of interest. Blocking may not work perfectly because kids can do open these sites in other way. So, We have to encourage them to use Good sites and always suggest proper tips with love and affection.
Written by Ashok Kumar on 10.22.07
my boyfriend looks at porn what do i do?
Written by Madi on 10.25.07
Then what do I do for Mozilla Firefox
because this works only for internet explorer
Written by Manan on 11.06.07
How do I block websites using Norton on IE 6? Please advise. Thank you.
Written by Nicole on 11.18.07
How do you unblock websites?
Written by Joseph on 11.23.07
it is the other way around to me.. it works for mozilla but not to ie… how come?
Written by jened on 11.24.07
When i try to block the site, it always says that it cannot create the C:\WINDOWS/system32/drivers/etc/host file and make sure the path and file name are correct. I don’t know what that means, can u please explain this.
Written by Mark on 11.26.07
Might I suggest opendns link
This is more complicated but a great way for free web filtering.
Written by Charles Woodward on 11.29.07
to Madi - simple get a new boyfriend - as for the article - its more effective to block websites at your router where you’re kids can’t get at it - you simply go into your router and block either websites, or block sites that contain specific words that you can list yourself for example, rage parties; wild sex; porn; guns; whatever is your thing - you can google instructions on how to do this for your specific router or just get a techie to do it - its quick and wont cost much
Written by hummingbird on 12.23.07
i want to block a particular site in mozilla firefox what to do?
Written by Gopal on 01.05.08
excellent work done to control children seeing 18+ sites
Written by ishan on 01.19.08
Hi this is ravi i have computer in my home,
how can i block some web sites like (yahoo.comm, rediff.com like this) please tell me any one.
Written by Raviprasad on 02.08.08
ok, my mother is apparetly trying to outsmart me. she has this computer tech come and now, when i try to access a gaming website, it says “401 The web site is blocked by administrator” what do i do? the host thing says an aditional “127.0.0.1 localhost” on it. should i delete this?
Written by anonymous on 03.01.08
I need help on blocking free on lines games it has chating games on it. Help me………
Bobby
Written by bobby on 03.02.08
I followed the instructions on how to block websites. When I went to check and typed in youtube.com I got a blank page.Wonderful! But when I went to google.com and typed in YouTube and the search results came up and I clicked on the link, it brought me to the site even though I blocked it. What happened and what do I do?
Written by GMSSheriff on 03.11.08
Well like many of you i’m tired of this pop-ups and adult websites and even though i have an antivirus program and i have my pop-up blockers on some pop-ups still appear. Please help!!!
Written by melisa on 03.17.08
this is not working for me,i had added the line 127.0.0.1 orkut.com in that notepad and saved it….
but still i can access the orkut sites..
i want to block the site as i found my sis watching sex videos in orkut..i want to block it without her knowledge..plzzzzz help me
Written by saumya on 03.25.08
Thanks heaps!!! very simple and helpful. It worked perfectly for my Mozilla on my work PC. Now i can restrict myself from visiting friendster or facebook while waiting for my lab work to finish or between lectures ! :)
Written by meow on 03.31.08
heyy, please help i tried the Run, Notepad technique and saved it, but the site opens on IE and Mozilla..the thing is that our computer is used by my father’s office people from 9-6 every day….they misuse the internet, since i have 24*7 internet connection, and also they have to access the net for official work….but i need to block gmail, orkut, etc between 9 to 6 everyday, to stop this madness…i am very frustrated!
Written by Sneha on 04.02.08
I did what the instructions said to Block Bebo.com entered it below the last line and saved it but when I went to check if it ws blocked it Was’nt PLEASE help!!!!!! How do I block BEBO.COM!!
Written by DG on 04.07.08
I want to block a website so that the website don’t open in my laptop. So, please give me an appropriate suggestion to block a particular website
Written by Rajeev Gupta on 06.25.08
Can I tell if my kids have unblocked a website? Will i get some kind of report or do I have to check the HOSTS file to know?
Written by sarah haines on 07.08.08
If you really want an effective way of blocking sites. Use a different DNS service like Open DNS that has built-in blocking. If you add it to your router then every machine will be blocked on your network. If you have a single machine, you can add it to your DNS server list in your internet options on your computer. You can even track access as well if you enable that function.
Check out Open DNS.
Written by Smooth J on 07.24.08
I got the same problem like Mark. When i try to block the site, it always says that it cannot create the C:\WINDOWS/system32/drivers/etc/host file and make sure the path and file name are correct. What is this?
Written by Marvin on 08.25.08
can you block aim to?
Written by gaby on 09.12.08
well i got the same problem as Smooth J. when i try to save that file it says ((make sure the path and file name are correct)) How can i solve this problem……
Written by Alex on 10.22.08
I have block for my Child’s website of Pentagon and Nasa. If your child’s try hack website of Pentagon of NASA your have real problem.
Written by Jeroen Roland on 11.02.08
ok i have a solution to the problem of the error”cannot create the C:\WINDOWS/system32/drivers/etc/host file and make sure the path and file name are correct”
go to: C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc
there is a file called ‘hosts’.u click on it and it displays an ‘open with’ window.
dont click on it but right click and select properties.after that uncheck read-only from the bottom of the window that will open.select ok to close the window.
NOW do all the steps written in this article and click ’save’…the file, u shall c,saves w/o a problem.u close it and next time u log into tht website it will display an error:)
p.s as a precaution close all browser windows and disable ur firewall.
i used this method for mozilla and it thankfully worked.thank you.and i hope i was of some help:)
Written by Meraj on 11.15.08
Parents are so out-gunned here it’s ridiculous. It’s like cave men trying to lay seige on a modern army. Especially if your kid is a hacker. Then you are so out of your league it’s not even funny.
Written by Ha ha on 11.17.08
You must be logged in as an administrator in order to save the file.
Written by Mike on 12.15.08
Hi!
Need block website settings in Router for traffic into few computer in home and whole computer cant access to block website.
I have TP-LINK router and I try settings on it. But not works..
How can start block?
Please help for our kids cant view risk things.
Thank You!
Sorry my spelling, Im not good in english.
Written by Camcoh on 01.15.09
Parents, here is what you do: Filter the IP addresses of the offending website in the router (look up the IP addresses using for example using ‘nslookup link ‘) and have a passwd to access the router. Game over.
Written by gamekiller on 01.22.09
what is the best website to use to block porn.
Written by rashonda on 02.03.09
How do I know if I am logged on as the administrator, I followed the instructions however facebook, myspace and bebo still open.
Please Help!!
Written by Amanda on 02.10.09
how to block the websites in IE6. please help.
Written by venkatesh on 02.16.09
How to block orkut in IE, Mozilla firefox and in google crome….
Thanks in advance.
Written by srinivas on 03.05.09