[Clairegreen]

Is there a way that no porn is ever accessible on my Mac? What can I do to avoid accessing it? Or a password or something to block all porn?

[LincolnSpector]

Clairegreen, on 29 February 2012 - 05:18 PM, said:

Is there a way that no porn is ever accessible on my Mac? What can I do to avoid accessing it? Or a password or something to block all porn?

Your best bet would probably be parental control software. I'm not a Mac user, so my advice about specific programs is limited. However, I have been impressed with Norton Online Family, which now supports Macs as well as PCs.

Lincoln

[waldojim]

As many odd sites as there are for porn - I doubt you could ever block it all. The best you could hope for, is blocking the 'legitimate' porn sites.

[LiveBrianD]

It's just about impossible to entirely do that. Sure, as waldojim said you can block the well known ones, but there are probably lesser known (and perhaps infected with malware) ones, and a person can use a thumb drive.

By the way, I think you can use OpenDNS to block categories, as well as individual sites, if you create an account and type in your IP address.

[bcappel]

Unfortunately the OP was a spammer looking to promote their own filtering software. But there's still great advice in this thread.

[coastie65]

I don't know about Mac, but with windows, you can go into the Internet Options and set the content thing to exclude that sort of stuff ( works pretty good too ).

[ZipFolder]

I don't know about mac, but i know your browser as add ons that block porn.

[Evildave]

Call your ISP.

Many now offer free services to block at the DNS. If not the ISP you have, another one that is available will surely offer it.

It might take a new MODEM, or software update, or you might be able to have them configure it on their end, like them throwing a switch.

If you're trying to keep the family safe, having it blocked from the ISP is the best bet, and you probably won't have to pay a penny.

A small warning: Not all porn can possibly be blocked. Even a 'safe' web search can contain the odd examples of nudity.

Clever enough people can work around any 'blocking' you install on a computer. Even any blocking done with the ISP. No matter how solid a wall you construct, short of making your own tiny model of the 'internet', like Iran and other repressive regimes, you will not be able to block it all. There's no way to block every possible proxy or path to the internet.

Being evil, I could literally get through to any sort of content that you wanted to block, without circumventing a thing. With trivial effort, I could get the computer arbitrarily connected to anything at all.

And even if you somehow manage to block every naughty picture and video, you can't block the information that explains how to circumvent your protection.

So willful attempts to be naughty can't be helped, and accidental viewing of naughty content can't truly be helped, either.

It sure would be nice to educate your kids about what is out there, and what they should not do. You know, explain all the 'birds & bees & midgets in bondage' stuff to them, and about what perversion will do to them if they become habituated to it. The downsides of 'sexting'. All the little things they should know. The world is a complicated place, so would you rather the kids learn it from YOU, or learn it from their clueless f***wit peers and web sites?

You can only let a computer babysit your kids so much. Strike that. It's about a trillion times worse than letting the TV raise your kids. If they're using a computer, it should be for specific, well defined tasks, not 'killing time'. Not 'socializing'. Humans need to interact with other human beings DIRECTLY, to learn to socialize. Or you can raise a bunch of socially retarded losers. Your call.

It is far better to have a 'family' computer (or computers) in a public portion of the house, where everyone can see, than for every kid to have a computer in private.

[LiveBrianD]

Even if you block it from the ISP, you can still get around it with a proxy server, like TOR. In fact, I used that to get to facebook from school once (it's blocked there), just for fun.

[Evildave]

LiveBrianD, on 16 April 2012 - 02:57 PM, said:

Even if you block it from the ISP, you can still get around it with a proxy server, like TOR. In fact, I used that to get to facebook from school once (it's blocked there), just for fun.

Block it on the computer, and you can still get around it, too. Run a virtual machine, use a proxy server (they can never block them all), etc.

Assuming this is for an ignorant kid, it will provide temporary 'protection', but only temporary, and not absolute protection, no matter what you do, short of cutting them off completely from the internet.

[ZipFolder]

Evildave, good point bro. I totally agree with you man. I would say that you need to teach your children the dangers of porn also. I like the idea of a public area. You make a good point.