Giving a 10 year old his own laptop

[Zak33]

The kid will get picked on and bullied at school.

it's Linux...not a Mac

[schmunk]

The kid will get picked on and bullied at school.

As I recall, Mr Fishcake (and therefore by implication, Junior Fishcake) is in the Ginge club, so that base is already covered...

[cleaverlch]

What browser will that laptop use? If possible, some kind of ad blocker should be installed on it e.g. adblock plus for firefox. It will solve alot of the advert problems.

[Mike Fishcake]

As I recall, Mr Fishcake (and therefore by implication, Junior Fishcake) is in the Ginge club, so that base is already covered...

...?

Ahh, hang on - I did have my hair dyed red (that's red, not ging) for a while, and one of the dyes I used once did make it look a bit orange in the wrong (right?) light, but my hair colour is naturally brown. As is the boy's.

So yes, I see where the VICIOUS ACCUSATION came from.

*calls lawyers*

;-)

[Mike Fishcake]

What browser will that laptop use? If possible, some kind of ad blocker should be installed on it e.g. adblock plus for firefox. It will solve alot of the advert problems.

Ahh yes, good point - as much as I don't like to use ad blockers myself, I'll stick one on there.

Any other decent FF plugins you can think of?

(heh, the poor sod's not going to be able to do anything on it by the time I've finished )

[Phage]

No Script.

[mikerr]

also use opendns - if you signup, they have quite comprehensive filters.

[schmunk]

...?

Ahh, hang on - I did have my hair dyed red (that's red, not ging) for a while, and one of the dyes I used once did make it look a bit orange in the wrong (right?) light, but my hair colour is naturally brown. As is the boy's.

So yes, I see where the VICIOUS ACCUSATION came from.

*calls lawyers*

;-)

So, whilst you may not be a member of the ginger fraternity, you have gingerist sympathies and have dabbled in their 'colourful' lifestyle...

[Phage]

also use opendns - if you signup, they have quite comprehensive filters.

That's interesting. I'll look into that for myself. Cheers.

[EvilMunky]

also use opendns - if you signup, they have quite comprehensive filters.

This is a very good suggestion.

Been using them (not for the filtering) for a while now and those options might help you quite considerably. It is a good reliable service too.

[Mike Fishcake]

So here I am, sat with his new Windows 7 laptop in front of me, playing wi... I mean SETTING IT UP.

Anyone have experience of OpenDNS then? I've been having a look at their support pages and forums, and the forums especially just appear to be full of people whining, so I may just stick with McAfee instead

[[GSV]Trig]

opendns?

[0iD]

I run all our kids lappy's thro the hardware firewall than I can control ports as well as blocking instant messaging (if i'm feeling harsh) and sites, IP ranges etc. Plus OpenDNS, limited user accounts and MS's Windows Live Family Safety software.

Also, if they're on the net, they're not tucked away in their room, they're where I can see what they are doing.

[Lunar Wolf]

I would say do all those things but still keep it in the family room for a year or two yet.

You can do all those things but there is no guarding from the fact that as soon as he figures out that typing "big tits" into google brings up more than the ornithological results, he will.

^ this X a million.

[Fortune117]

Its good that you're not going too overboard with the protection.

Is it just me that thinks if a kid cant do something they will try their hardest to get around to doing it?

I mean, when I was 10 I can remember having my first computer (In my room) with no anti-virus or pop-up blockers. I was told if there was any viruses or the computer broke I wouldn't be getting a new one. Sure enough this kept me from doing stupid things on my computer and therefore expanded my knowledge in computers as I wanted to keep it running fast and virus free. this then spurred my interest in IT

However I think the first step to keeping children safe online is EDUCATION. For example even in my College some girl arranged to meet up with a guy on facebook and was found dead in a field within the week. The college has since then started handing out Credit Card size leaflets on how to stay safe online.

You've got to remember. Kids are getting smarter, eventually no amount of parental controls will be able to stop them

[IBM]

If you can get Windows 7 on it, try out the guest mode (not guest account) which is excellent for this type of thing.
Link via Lifehacker

Just tried to do this....turns out that M$ took it out before release - frickin' idiots, thought this was actually a decent feature....