IDEA: inappropriate word buster

[polski8]

I work in a factory in Dickson, TN. The plant manager has a 9 year old daughter who is learning to use the internet at school, and chats with her friends online at home, on approved sites. The manager heard that I know about computers, and shared with me that he had been busy at something else, so he asked his daughter to look up a transmission shop for him. She typed in "trannies" and you KNOW what she got! They were both shocked. He asked me if there was some sort of program which is user-configurable which would catch certain words, or combination of words or numbers (house numbers, personal phone numbers, etc.) which, when caught, would immediately stop the application and flash a warning, possibly until backspace is pressed, or a password is given or key combination is pressed. He would like it to catch incoming as well as outgoing, as in when his daughter chats, he wants to know who might be asking for her number or address, as well as stopping her from giving it, and possibly stopping the question itself. There would also have to be some way to quickly by-pass the word-catcher, as there might be something totally harmless but will nevertheless be caught. He has tried Net Nanny and programs like that, but they are either too restrictive, not restrictive enough, or aren't user configurable enough.

[brotherS]

I think this goes beyond a simple AHK script... if you want to let kids use the internet it's probably best to go with a 'nanny' tool of some kind. Never used or tested any, but you should be able to find reviews online.

[Deozaan]

Tell them to use Google with SAFE SEARCH on!

[Ralf Maximus]

Tell them to use Google with SAFE SEARCH on!

-Deozaan (December 15, 2007, 04:54 PM)

Second that.  For the described situation, that should be enough.  The 9yo in question wasn't trolling for trannies so that would have prevented it.

[polski8]

Thanks, I'll sugest it to him.

[tranglos]

...which would catch certain words, or combination of words or numbers (house numbers, personal phone numbers, etc.) which, when caught, would immediately stop the application and flash a warning, possibly until backspace is pressed, or a password is given or key combination is pressed. He would like it to catch incoming as well as outgoing,

-polski8 (December 08, 2007, 05:47 PM)

The second part of your question - about stopping outgoing data - is equally important as the first. The various "nanny" programs probably incorporate this feature. I would advise your friend though to read user reviews of such software, or even check Slashdot for past threads, where many of their shortcomings were thoroughly aired. There are simple things to watch out for, e.g. if a program blocks certain words using a dumb algorithm, it will also block legitimate,  neutral queries that may incorporate those words as substrings.

Another issue is that often those programs also block certain sites or domains, and they claim their blocklists to be trade secrets, so you don't really know what else they block besides smut. In practice, and this may or may not be of concern to anyone, by sheer luck they often end up blocking sites frequented by people of what I believe is called "progressive" mindset in the US.

There are other solutions than nanny software. Some firewalls, notably Agnitum Outpost, have a feature that allows you to make a list of keywords that are not allowed to be sent out - could be names, addresses, passwords, etc. The firewall will either block the communication outright, or just "scratch out" the offending keywords. Personally I am partial to this solution, since it lets the computer owner decide what is and isn't alowed, and most of time time you need a firewall anyway. I am pretty sure Outpost also has a list of incoming keywords to block.