With 4 kids, 3 of which are teenagers, I have been dealing with parental controls for quite a few years now and I can tell you it is a neverending job and it is hard work. Even as an IT person I have struggled to keep on top of it and my kids have managed to get round my security on several occasions. There are all sorts of potential dangers online, from cyber-scammers to stalkers and grooming gangs. But all your average teen sees is loads of funny videos, endless Buzzfeed quizzes and...
Kids & Parenting
Home Learning resources for kids stuck at home during coronavirus epidemic
Since schools have now shut down and kids are stuck at home 24/7, parents need to keep their children entertained and their minds engaged. Luckily there are plenty of online resources to help with this, as long as you have an Internet connection and a computer, laptop or tablet. I thought it might be helpful to put together a list of learning resources for kids stuck at home during coronavirus epidemic. Planning a learning day will help reduce the stress and anxiety for parents and kids. Even...
Bitdefender is not safe for kids
I have been a BitDefender customer for many years, using it on all my devices, both personal and business and recommending it to friends and clients. For business and personal use by adults, BitDefender is an excellent security product with lots of great features and one of the top scorers in the industry for malware detection. I regularly recommend gravity zone to clients and I run it on servers I manage through my MSP business. But if you plan on using the home edition (family pack) for...
Review: CleanBrowsing – DNS Content filtering
Deploying an effective parental control solution is hard, in fact it seems to be getting harder as technology in this area does not seem to be progressing to cope with the ever-growing number of internet-connected devices we have in our home. In my house, we have over 25 internet-connected devices. Multiple Amazon fire devices, tablets, phones, games consoles, and PC's. All of which I have to make sure are kid-safe by default. In the case of my Fire TV/sticks, there is no simple solution, as...
BitDefender Parental Controls Review
I have been using BitDefender Total Security for some years now and as a cybersecurity, anti-malware solution it is very good and I recommend it to all my clients. In fact, it is generally considered the #1 solution is all AV tests I have seen. Sadly the same cannot be said for the parental control features they shoehorned into the product a few years ago. In fact, it is not actually part of the product, it is a completely separate installation that you have to initiate via the BitDefender...
Free content filtering for your kids and family
I have been on a mission for quite a long time now to find a reliable parental control solution and content filtering solution and created a detailed post on the subject a few years ago. I have tried all kinds of software, most of which has been lacklustre or simply unreliable as it will randomly stop working (Microsoft Family Safety, Bitdefender Parental Controls) or simply doesn't do what it claims and gives you a false sense of security (Qustodio). Avoid iPhones Many parents cannot afford...
Parents Beware: Playstation4 is not suitable for kids
A couple of years ago my son Bret was begging for a PS4, based on the premise that most of his friends had or were getting a PS4, so he would be able to play online with them, so I bought him one for Christmas, and it has caused nothing but problems due to the ridiculous dictatorship that Sony imposes and the terrible attitude of Playstation support towards its users. Now don't get me wrong, I am not particularly a Microsoft or an XBOX fanboy either, I could complain all day long about...
A Parents Guide to Cyberbullying
An Introduction to Cyberbullying. Digital technology is quickly becoming ubiquitous in our society. The vast majority of individuals now travel with at least one device on their person. This has its advantages, as people can gain access to real time information as well as communicate with social contacts and business associates. It is also useful for day to day activities such as travel times, geolocation and weather information. And this trend is going to continue as new technology continues...
Qustodio Review
Qustodio seems like a popular choice for many parents due to marketing and the endless amounts of affiliate clickbait reviews. Read my "honest" Qustodio review to find why you should NOT be using Qustodio for your parental controls. If your kids have multiple devices on different OS's (Apple, Android, Amazon, Windows, Mac, Linux), then parental control can be a real nightmare, as most apps are not available on all platforms. For desktop security, I was using Microsoft Family Safety...
Drugging your kids to make them behave is not the solution
Proving once again that medication is not the answer to getting inattentive kids to do well in school, four Fort Worth area public schools are finding success with the LiiNK program. This revolutionary approach to schooling and counteracting ADHD is based on the idea that offering kids more unstructured play can help them focus and do better in the classroom.
It seems silly to label the concept of allowing kids to be kids as “revolutionary,” but we have gotten so far away from letting children enjoy life that the idea is indeed raising a lot of eyebrows. In fact, some teachers in the school districts involved initially resisted the idea because they feared they would be unable to teach the children everything they needed to learn in the amount of time available until they saw the results. Although this again is another case of common sense not kicking in, since how much of that time do teachers actually spend teaching vs dealing with disruption and bad behaviour.
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