Parental Controls, are you cursed by them?

[PoorLepRecon]

My parents parental controls have made me mad enough to start a topic on them. I understand the reason they are there, and appreciate what they do to help prevent people from going to obscene/websites, but there has to be a limit. Some of the topics on this off topic forum are blocked from my view, and some I can't post on (like the subconsious acts of attraction thread, I am blocked from posting on it for some reason.) I believe that the line has to be drawn when it starts interfering with my regular browsing.

 

 

 

It blocks sites for no specific reason. Take the gamespot site. I was on it at school, just by random chance, and looked around and liked what I saw. When I get home to browse it in full, I find out that it is blocked by parental controls for who knows what reason. I feel that this is a totally unneeded feature, for me, seeing as I am 16 years old and I should be trustworthy enough to not need them...

 

 

 

Thats enough of my rant for now, what are you guys's views on parental controls and how they prevent you from engaging in normal activities. (other than what the obvious blocks would be, i.e. porn, terrorism sites, etc) Are they even necessary for when you get older?

[deloriagod]

My parents have never put parental controls on my internet access. My dad knows the sites I go to and has no problem with them, even if they are porn. I've always liked having free roam of the internet. Sure, I've pulled in a lot of viruses in my earlier days but experience is a great learning tool.

[das1330]

I believe several years ago my parents attempted to put controls on my internet usage, but every system out there can be bypassed so easily that it's almost pointless to have it on there. The school controls do annoy me, however, so I regularly circumvent them so I can read the news while i'm bored. (the system blocks anything with the word "game" in it, which includes lots of computer news)

[Jaziek]

unlucky.

 

 

 

I've always had pretty free reign of the net, my parents trust me I guess. Sometimes I think filters might be a good thing. I've seen some pretty weird [cabbage] that I'd rather not have. Inconspicuous site names can often hold VERY unwanted suprises.

[Returned3]

I can't believe your 16 and your parents still block certain parts of the internet.

 

 

 

I'm not sure if my parents would put parental control as I have my own computer which no one else uses but me. But I highly doubt that they would.

[Shiny]

Nope. My parents don't know (yet, i might add, as our computer is having a virus scan and virus protection installed at the computer shop, and the gy is going to tell my parents what he finds in the history). This tuesday coming may be the last day of free reign over y playground, teh intrawebz.

 

 

 

I'm harrassed by them at school though. It uses a "AI like" system, so when the program hich blocks sites finds your on a game site, it blocks it for the school. You can use proxys, but you get expelled.

 

 

 

Meh.

[Iamdan]

My dad learned pretty quickly that any restrictions he tries to put on the computer are quickly and easily evaded by me. I bought my own computer about a year ago though.

[BloodAngel]

Up until my 18th birthday in April 2008 I was restricted by parental controls which blocked YouTube and lots of other popular sites which was very annoying and when I got around them I was banned from using the internet for anything other than homework. The inconvenient thing is that my dad is a computer programmer so he actually knows how computers work.

 

I got a laptop for my 18th though which saved me.

[dsavi]

Parental controls is one of the top reasons for me buying my own computer. I hate them.

[dragoonson]

In 13 years of usage of the internets,I've never had any site blocked.

[Intriguing]

My parents are really, really trusting. They're the kind of parents that buy you a cigar "just so you can try it", and whatnot. Hell, my mum even buys me my alcohol so I don't have to get my adult friends to break the law. You could say I'm on a pretty long leash, but to be honest, I have earned their trust.

[Will H]

I haven't been cursed, but that's probably because my parents aren't good at running programs like that without my help. Anyway, I'd find out the password soon enough. \

[thrash-boy]

that's sucks. you shouldn't be controlled like that at 16.

 

i never had any parental controls, because none of my parents knew much about computers. im the computer nerd of the house.

[RichieMcD]

Just use a proxy to bypass the parental controls. Goods ones are:

 

1. Hidemyass.com

 

2. Vtunnel

 

 

 

IMO every teenager needs a small bit of violence / sexual stuff in their life to develop as a person normally, not discover it all at 18 and go on overkill :|

[Lenin64]

I used to be, because we used MSN as our browser and they had them set there. But then I got Firefox. I was neevr completely restricted, either, since I knew the password my dad used for it (which is the same he uses for many things) so when I found a blocked site that I really wanted to use that was blocked for really no reason, like many pages of Halopedia, I could just gain access.

[AceBeam]

there was parental controls on my computer before, so i just learned how to use it, and set it up to all of my parents websites. they learned what not to do

[SirHartlar]

My Dad had them before, it was part of a package that came with the anti-virus software. As soon as I told him I couldn't even get onto the CBBC website, he took it all off. Those things are waaay too sensitive sometimes. :P

[InkofDeath]

Never had them. If I did, I would evade them. Though if I got evading them my comp would be gone within hours.

[mrpez]

my parents dont set any of these nonsense blocks on the computer or tv.

 

 

 

but at school, i find it strange that sites like wikipedia are blocked.

[scootlaboot]

Ouch. I never had to deal with parental controls. Heck my stepfather actually gave me the names of pron sites. I did however have restrictions at school, but they had the restrictions set in the browser itself, so a quick proxy to download firefox allowed me to bypass there little barrier. They must not have realized that you can choose not to import the explorer settings.

[anonymous1234]

I used to have parental controls on Aol (I don't use it anymore *shudder*), but not internet explorer, so if anything was blocked I would just switch over. Eventually my dad raised my aol setting to Mature teen, but for some reason that blocked everything, whereas young teen barely blocked anything. I don't think he even cares what I go on as long as I don't bring in the viruses, but my mom is neurotic about the sites I go on, so whenever she comes downstairs (where the computer is) I just switch over to tipit which is like the only site she is ok with

[assassin_696]

Nope, no chance my folks would be able to figure out how to put them on even if they wanted to. I've had pretty much free reign since I started using it when I was about 11-12, but I think my parents have trusted me enough not to really worry.

[RSBDavid]

I just keylogged my moms password and got past them.

 

 

 

I would just talk to your pareents and show them you ar mature enough to not need them. My parents gave up trying to use them on me since I just kept on getting past them.

[ThurinEthir]

My parents are very trusting of my sister and I, I suppose.

 

They've never restricted anything. For a while, my dad told me not to download anything (For the anti-viral purposes, not as if I were going to download...Stuff...), but I bypassed that, as he didn't take it that seriously. Websites have never been blocked for me at home, as far a I know. I would be very careful if I strayed into any questionable sites, I would clear the website off my history, as well as constantly be on alert for rapid alt+tabbing or switching tabs.

 

Though at school, it is a bit annoying. Especially since most proxies are blocked as well. A good friend of mine and I found a way to bypass basically everything though, and I had to lawl when I found out that AddictingGames was blocked but NinjaKiwi wasn't.

[PoorLepRecon]

Meh, my dads a computer programmer so he knows about all of this stuff. I could use a proxy, but I don't really want to try it and get in trouble. It's kind of dissapointing that they have to use them actually, since they can't trust me.