The internet can be a fantastic place to learn, have fun, talk with old friends and much more!  It can also be a dangerous place full of sin and corruption.  One of the best ways to prevent you and your family from having to deal with the dark side of the internet is to install an internet filter.  In Part I of our look at how to install an internet filter, we looked at how to install a browser-based filter for Internet Explorer.  This is a great place to start since Internet Explorer is installed on all most every computer.  However, in recent years, several other great internet browsers have been developed that have been adopted by users as their primary choice for surfing the web.  The top two of these alternate browsers for Windows are Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome.
As I mentioned in the previous post, while Chrome is a fantastic, light-weight, and fast browser, it does not fully support extensions.    While Chrome does support extensions in the developers and beta build, I would not recommend installing these unless you want to develop extensions for yourself or are ok with a buggier browser.  Until Chrome more fully supports extensions to the public, I would not recommend using it if you desire to use a browser-based filter. I will be covering in the next post how to install an filter that is system-wide that will let you filter any browser.
This leaves us with Firefox.  One of the greatest developments of Firefox is the extensibility of the browser.  This means that if you want to add a feature to the browser, you can simply create an extension that will preform the task you desire.  You can find an extension for just about anything: from blocking ads on webpages to downloading youtube videos to finding the best deal on a purchase to finding new websites.  We are going to look at an extension to filter out inappropriate content.

Mozilla Firefox

If you do not have Firefox installed on your computer, you can download it for free from Mozilla’s site. (_link_)

Installation

ProCon Latte
The extension we are going to be using is called ProCon Latte.  There are two ways to install extensions, also called add-ons.  The first way is to go to the Tools menu and select Add-ons and search from the Add-ons dialog box for extensions.  The second way, the way I will cover, is to visit Mozilla’s Add-ons for Firefox site and search for the ProCon Latte add-on.

You will notice that this is an experimental extension so you need to check the box that says “Let me install this experimental add-on.”  Once you have checked that box, you are able to click on “Add to Firefox.”

After agreeing to the ProCon Latte End User License Agreement, the installation process will begin.

(Click Install after the timer has ended)

After installation, Firefox will need to be restarted so make sure any work you have opened in Firefox is saved and hit Restart Firefox.

Configuration

When Firefox comes back up, you will be presented with the Add-ons dialog box.  Scroll down to ProCon Latte and click on Options.  You can also access ProCon Latte’s options by selecting ProCon Latte under the Tools menu.

This is the ProCon Latte main settings screen.  The first thing we want to do is set a password for the filter so that it cannot be disabled except by those who are supposed to be able to disable it.  Click on “Set Password…”

As I mentioned in Part I, make sure you use a password that is not easily guessed to keep the filter secure.

Now we need to turn on the filter.  To do so, click on Main Filter at the top.

Main Filter

Enabling the filter is as easy as checking the box that says “Enable Explicit Material Filter”, so do that.  If you would like to view or edit the list that it filters against, click on “Edit List…” (Warning, it contains explicit words, that’s how it knows what to filter)

I like to add a custom warning message.  I usually have it give a reminder as to what should be put in front of our eyes:

I will set nothing wicked before my eyes;  I hate the work of those who fall away;  It shall not cling to me. ~ Psalm 101:3

The degree of filtering can be quickly set by using the Presets at the bottom.  Here’s a brief overview of the options there:

• Secure allows only the sites that are on the Whitelist (we’ll look at in a moment) to be visited.  This is locks the internet down and restricts all traffic to only that of the Whitelist.
• Moderate allows the filter to work normally on any website.  If the user browses to a website that contains an item on the Explicit Material List, the site is blocked.
• Light allows only specific sites to be blocked.  This leaves the internet completely open except for the sites the you want to block.  Seeing this mostly defeats the purpose of having an internet filter, apart from a handful of sites, I would not recommend using this setting.

Whitelist

There are always some websites that will be flagged as containing explicit material but it really doesn’t.  Often you see this on news websites. When there is a story dealing with, for a lack of a better way to say it, the depravity of man, and because of the subject the site will be blocked.  To get around this we have the Whitelist.  The Whitelist flags any website that you enter as not being filtered.  This can be very helpful in accessing some sites but needs to be used with care as over use can allow sites that should be blocked to get past the filter and defeat the purpose of the filter.  If you want to use the Whitelist, check the Enable Whitelist box.

Profanity Filter

(Warning: The Profanity Filter screen shows the list of profanity it filters)

The Profanity Filter takes a website with profanity on it and replaces it with any text you would like.  You can enter the text you want to replace the profanity.  By default it is set to replace it as “***”.  To enable the Profanity Filter, check the Enable Profanity Filter box.

While it may seem redundant to have the Main Filter and the Profanity Filter, the Profanity filter allows you to disable the Main Filter but still have profanity removed from websites.  Personally, I don’t see why you would want to have the Main Filter disabled but I suppose it’s a nice option to have.

When you are finished with the Main Filter, Whitelist, and Profanity Filter, click back on the General tab.  You should now see the filters and lists that you enabled have green check marks next to them under the status section.  When you are finished, click Ok.

Testing the Filter

As I mentioned in Part I, to test the filter in a safe manner head to http://www.biblebasedwebsites.com/resources/content-filters/ and select a type to test at the bottom of the screen.  This is a safe way to test the filter because these pages only contain text.  That way if you forgot to check a box to the filter is disabled, all you see is the text and not something you don’t want to!

When a site is blocked, you should now see a banner at the top of your browser that looks something like this:

You will notice you now have some Options.  These options are to either go “Back” to the previous page you were on, “Continue” on to the site after entering the password for the filter or the view the “Preferences” for the filter.  These are nice options as they allow navigation to continue either forwards or backwards while still filtering.  Also, it is nice to able to quickly access the preferences (after entering the password) so you can quickly add websites to the Whitelist if needed.

Conclusion

I hope that through the use of this tool, you and your family will be safe on the internet.  It is good, however, to remember that no tool is perfect, therefore, some further tweaking may be needed and we still need to remain vigilant to keep our guard up against sin.  Keep growing closer to Christ!

In Part III of Installing An Internet Filter, we will look at how to install and setup a system-wide filter via a proxy server.  If you have any questions or comments about installing the ProCon Latte in Firefox, please feel free to post below!
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Sexting.

What is it?  Why would anyone do it?  What is the harm in it?  What are the consequences of it?

These are a few of the questions that parents are facing today.  Let’s take a look at these questions and examine why sexting is a serious problem, why we need to guard our teens against sexting, and why we need talk to them about the dangers of this type of conduct.

What is it?

Sexting, the sending of nude or partially nude pictures or videos via text messages on a cell phone, is becoming common among teenagers today.  In a recent study from PEW Research Center, out of 800 teens from ages 12-17, 4% admitted to having sent a sext and 15% admitted to having received one.  The study also found that 75% of the teens owned a cell phone and 66% used text messages.

Why would anyone do it?

The Pew Research Center found that there are three basic sexting scenarios:

1. Sexting between romantic partners
2. Sexting between partners that are then shared with others outside the relationship
3. Sexting between people not yet in a relationship but with at least one hoping to develop a relationship

Remember, “partners” does not mean partners in marriage.  It doesn’t even mean adults.  We are talking about teenagers between the ages of 12 and 17.  PEW describes the third scenario as “part of an experimental phase for teens who are not yet sexually active.”  It is natural for teenagers to be attracted to members of the opposite sex–that’s God’s design for their development.  It’s not God’s design, however, for them to become sexually active until they are in life-long marriage.  Teens are using sexting to experiment with their sexuality.  One high school girl from the study described sexting as follows:

“I think it was more common in middle school, because kids are afraid to do face-to-face contact sexually. In high school, kids don’t need the pictures. They’ll just hang out with that person romantically.”

She is stating that she thinks sexting is less common in high school because high school students are more likely to move past the experimentation to full sexual activity.  Can you see the progress from experimenting to enjoying to full activity?

Another reason that teens sext is peer pressure.  If you remember high school, you will remember that peer pressure is a common thing and can be hard to stand against.  As adults, sometimes we forget just how hard peer pressure can be on teens and how much it affects their thinking.  If someone you are interested in takes a notice of you, your heart does backflips inside your chest.  When that person comes over to talk to you, you feel as if your heart will crash through your ribs because it is pounding so hard.  When you hear that your friends are sexting and the person you have a crush on asks you to send him picture or sends you one, there is a lot of pressure involved.  One high school girl from the study described it this way:

“I haven’t, but most of the girls who have are usually pressured by a guy that they like or want to like them, or their boyfriends. It’s probably more common than what it seems because most people who get involved in this were probably pressured by someone to do it.”

Another said it like this:

“When I was about 14-15 years old, I received/sent these types of pictures. Boys usually ask for them or start that type of conversation. My boyfriend, or someone I really liked asked for them. And I felt like if I didn’t do it, they wouldn’t continue to talk to me. At the time, it was no big deal. But now looking back it was definitely inappropriate and over the line.”

Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”  It is in all of us to desire the things of the flesh and the things of the world.

What’s the harm of it?

In the Song of Solomon, three times, the Shulamite woman charges the Daughters of Jerusalem, saying, “Do not stir up nor awaken love until it pleases” (Song Of Solomon 2:7, 3:5, & 8:4). God has placed a desire inside each of us to love and be loved by a life partner in marriage.  This love is one of the greatest loves that we can experience in our lives – a love that is selfless and giving. However, we can awaken the desire for this love before the appropriate time for us to experience this type of love or before we can offer the type of commitment that must accompany this type of love. When the desire for love is awakened before the appropriate time, it is immature and shallow, only desiring to be self-satisfied.

While it may seem like an innocent, juvenile past-time that will fade with growth and maturity, sexting can cause a lot of harm to everyone involved.  It awakens love before its proper time and opens a whole world that should never be seen.  It can lead to guilt, shame, suspension (or even expulsion) from school, addiction to pornography, sexual activity outside of marriage, harassment from peers, and sex-centered relationships instead of God-centered relationships.  When the law of diminishing returns is applied to one’s life, he finds that just sending and receiving sexually charged text messages doesn’t give him that same thrill it once did, and he goes looking for the next step that will give him that sense of thrill and excitement.  Sexting is the “gate-way drug” that leads to premarital sex and further sin.

What are the consequences of it?

What consequences can there be if this is a private matter and no one else will see it besides a boy and his girlfriend?  It may seem like a private matter but it is not.  In a study from 2008 by The National Campaign To Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy,

“40% percent of teens and young adults say they have had a sexually suggestive message (originally meant to be private) shown to them and 20% say they have shared such a message with someone other than the person for whom it was originally meant.”

Teens from the PEW survey put it this way:

“This girl sent pictures to her boyfriend,” wrote one older high school boy.  “Then they broke up and he sent them to his friend, who sent them to like everyone in my school. Then she was supposed to come to my school because she got kicked out of her school because it was a Catholic school….it ruined high school for her.”

A middle school boy wrote “Yeah, [I get sexts] once a year, [from] people who have girlfriends…usually the sender had it sent from his girlfriend and sent it to everyone…it’s no big deal and it doesn’t happen very often.”

Another high school girl explained “I’ve heard of people getting these types of pictures and usually its someone’s girlfriend but the people that receive them aren’t even the person that they are dating – they are sent to like ten other guys, for example, like the guy’s friends with something saying ‘I can’t believe she did this.’”

Another younger high school-aged girl wrote: “Yeah, it happens a lot, my friends do it all the time, it’s not a big deal. Sometimes people will get into fights with their exes, and so they will send the nudes as blackmail, but it’s usually when or after you’ve been dating someone.”

What was once meant to be “private” and “for your eyes only” often is sent around to everyone’s friends.  With the ability to send multiple text messages to multiple recipients, pictures and videos can be passed to hundreds of people in a matter of minutes.  Imagine the damage to a student’s reputation and testimony this can have, simply from one wrong choice.

In fact, this happened to an 18 year old student in Ohio in March of this year.  She sent sexts to her boyfriend while they were dating.  When they broke up, however, the former-boyfriend passed the pictures along to other high school girls.  Soon they were calling her vicious names and harassing her.  Not able to stand it anymore, she hanged herself in her bedroom.

This is not the only time this has happened, either.  A similar case happened in Florida.  A girl sent a sext to a boy she liked hoping to catch his attention.  Instead, she caught the attention of the entire school when the pictures were passed along to the majority of her classmates.  After being taunted and harassed, she, too, hanged herself.  She was only 13.

These are two tragic cases of what sexting opens our teens up to.  But the consequences can go far beyond peer relationships.

Often, students can be suspended or even expelled from their school for sending and receiving sexual text messages.  In many states, including Virginia, “sexting can result in state felony charges, including felony solicitation of a minor and creation, possession and distribution of child pornography.  In the United States, it is against the law to possess lewd photographs of minors,” according to About.com.

PEW states,

“Teens are being charged with everything from ‘disorderly conduct’ and ‘illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material’ to felony ‘sexual abuse of children…, criminal [use] of a communications facility, or open lewdness.’

If the teen is 18 or older, he may even be labeled as a sex offender and have his name and photo posted on his state’s sex offender website.

Summary

The Bible clearly tells us that there are things that are to be left only for marriage.  Sexting goes beyond what the Bible gives as guidelines and calls it fornication and a sin.  Sexting is far more than innocent flirtation.  It is a serious issue that we need to talk to our teens about and make sure they understand why it is wrong.  As with much of the technology that exists today, there are great things about it that make our lives easier.  However, there are areas that need to be monitored and protected to maintain a safe environment for our children to grow in Christ.  With the number of cell phones in the hands of teens (and younger) on the rise, and the proliferation of cameras in our daily lives, we need to make sure we are guarding ourselves and the safety of our children.  Make sure you are the type of parent your child needs – one that places his child’s spiritual growth first and foremost.  Sometimes the best type of love is the tough kind.

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As parents, we need to make sure we know what websites are children are visiting, who they are talking to, what games they are playing. We need to make sure they are unable to get to websites that open them to a world of sin. One of the best and most needed ways to make sure we protect our children and ourselves is to install an internet filter. Usually easy to install and setup, they can block all unwanted content that tries to attack your family and tear you down spiritually.

There are two main types of filters that can be installed:

1. A Browser-based Filter
2. A System-wide Filter

Today, we will be looking at setting up a Browser-based Filter that will be specific to the internet browser you are using. We will be covering Internet Explorer, today, and looking at Firefox in the near future. While Chrome is a fast and very capable browser and has recently add extensions, there is currently no web filtering extension and thus, I would not recommend using Chrome if you desire to use a browser-based web filter (I’ll be writing a post, soon, about how to setup a System-wide filter via a proxy that will work great if you want to use Chrome with a web filter).

Internet Explorer

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Bundled with Windows, Internet Explorer is the most common internet browser on computers today.  While there are many shortcomings to it because it is the most common browser, there are several options for web filters.  I have chosen to look at the Parental Control Bar.

Parental Control Bar

This is an add-on that integrates nicely into both Internet Explorer and Firefox.  To download, visit the website and click on the Download Now!  button.

Once downloaded, locate the file and install it.  It’s a pretty standard install but there are a few options that you need to make sure you enter – when you are prompted, enter a password to secure the setup.

It is with this password that you will be able to switch the filter on and off so make sure it is one that other people cannot guess.

The next screen allows us to enter an e-mail address that the program will send you a copy of your password if you forget it. Again, make sure you use an e-mail address that only you can get access, otherwise, anyone can click on the “I forgot my password” link and have they password sent to them and be able to switch the filter off. If you only have one e-mail account for your family you can always set up a gmail account for free for just the person in charge of the filter.

When it is done installing, it will bring you to a screen like the one above. There are a couple of items to notice here

-There is a drop-down box of commands under the words “Parental Control Bar” on the far left (notice the small down arrow)

-We are currently in “Parent-Mode”. This mode allows us to make changes to the filter, block list & safelist (more on those two in a minute), and the rest of the settings for the toolbar.

-Two buttons to quickly add the current site to the safe list or the block list

While the Parental Control Bar is setup very nicely right from the start, there may be some fine tuning required to have it meet your specific needs. Fortunately, this is very easily accomplished. Start by clicking on the “Change Parental Settings” button on the toolbar.

The filter is fine tuned by working with two specific lists: the Allowed Site List (a.k.a. White List) and the Blocked Site List (a.k.a. Black List).

The Allowed Site List does just what it it’s name implies – it allows parents to set specific sites that are otherwise blocked for whatever reason to the allowed. One example might be a news site, like wset.com, where, due to the nature of the material covered on a daily basis, it would be blocked. By setting the news site on the Allowed Site List, the site will be cleared from the filter and allowed pass, regardless of the content. As you can imagine, this is a very powerful list and should be used sparingly and on a site by site basis.

The Blocked Site List works just the same as the Allowed Site List but instead of allowing site through the filter, it blocks them. This is handy for sites that you don’t want people to visit even through the content may not be bad. One example of this would be if you did not want your children on sites like Facebook or MySpace. By adding these sites to the Blocked Site List, regardless of the content on the site, it will be blocked. Again, this is a powerful tool and should be used on a site by site basis. Since it is possible to edit these two lists at any time, so long as we are logged in under Parent-Mode, we are able to continue to refine the filter the more it is used.

The Basic Site Filters tab allows you to adjust what items will be filtered.  To change a setting, all you have to do is click on either Block or Allow and click Ok.

Once you have your lists setup to where you want them for the time being, click Ok to go back to your mail browser window. Now that we have everything setup just the way we want it, click on the “Parent-Mode” button to change to “Child-Mode” and begin filtering websites.

When you want to change back to Parent-Mode for filter-free surfing or to adjust the settings of the filter, simply click the “Child-Mode” button. You will be prompted for your password before you can continue. This is a nice feature to verify that only those with the password are able to deactivate the filter or change it’s settings. It is also the reason you need to use a strong password. The password can be changed under the settings, if need be.

And with that, we are done setting up our internet filter in Internet Explorer! Now that we have our filter installed and configured just the way we want it, we need to make sure that it is actually filtering out material that we don’t want. While you can just go to google and search for material that should be blocked, the problem with this method is if the filter is not work correctly for some reason, the material will actually show up. This can be a major problem! Fortunately, there is a nice solution – kudos to Brian Hutchinson for showing me this one! If you visit the website http://www.biblebasedwebsites.com/resources/content-filters/ and scroll to the bottom of the page, there are several links to pages that host nothing more than text of keywords that are filtered for each category listed. This is very nice because in the off case the filter is not working, all you see is text, granted, it may be explicit text, but text is better than pictures in my opinion.

If you have any questions or thoughts, please leave a comment below!
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