OpenDNS parental controls?

[Niels Olson]

My 7 yo son finds flash games and plays them on our iMac. Most appear
to be mindless nimwittery: coolmathgames.com, gametrick.net, etc. My
limited experience suggests talking to a 7 yo about how there are
better ways to spend your time is a bit futile. My policy has been to
observe what he's doing, if I think it's just mindrot, then I will
quietly ssh in, redirect that domain name to localhost, and the next
time he can't get to it. OpenDNS on the cheap.

I've been doing this since my daughter was about the same age (she's 3
years older). She, however, was only interested in a few select sites
(barbie, a couple of others). The internet has a seemingly unending
supply of crappy flash games for boys. So it's a cat-and-mouse game
and I'm losing.

Philosophically, I find the whole problem unsavory, like being a cop
in Vegas. I'd rather my kids have unfiltered access to the net, but
there are obviously plenty of less-good choices out there. Has anyone
had experience with OpenDNS parental controls? Is it worth it? Is it
fundamentally flawed? Can you selectively override filters?

Thoughts?

[Joël Franusic]

The world in general has an unending supply of mindless amusement. If it's not crappy flash games, it's throwing rocks at fences. Sounds like there are larger lessons to be learned here.

I worry that blocking sites might be sending the wrong message to your kids? Namely, that the internet is "magical" and sites can just disappear without reason.

Why not use your son's interest in flash games as a learning experience? Break out a flash decomplier and give yourself huge scores on the games he's playing. Let him try to beat your score, then show him how to reverse engineer the game.

Or really explore the mechanics of the game, help him figure out optimal strategies for a game (games often become boring when you figure out the optimum strategy).

Also, I would try and learn how he's finding these games. Maybe it's time to teach him about advertising and business models. I for one did not appreciate learning that toy companies were attempting to manipulate me with advertising.

It might also be that he's playing those games to share a cultural experience with his friends, when they get together, they might be talking about the flash games they've been playing - just like how I would talk about Star Wars trivia with my friends.

[Niels Olson]

and that's why I ask this group. Thanks for that very sound advice.

2012/4/1 Joël Franusic <jo...@franusic.com>: