Is it possible to block certain sites - for example youtube

[nishka]

Here's the situation ...

I have an old HP model NX9010 laptop which has 1gig ram and a decent hdd. I want to set up frugal puppy on it for use by my 11 year old granddaughter. The laptop is intended to be used to do homework on such as math and essay's and yes to find answers to homework questions via for example google. The catch is that there is no landline in the household and I am going to give them a usb mobile dongle such as either a vodafone k3715 or a 2degrees-mobile unit (haven't decided yet pending coverage research) and do not want the kids to get sidetracked and go youtubing for video's and other such high data usage stuff so I want to know if I can block access to youtube and or any other site I (or her mother) deems not appropriate for the 11 & 6 year old kids to get to.

If I can do the above .... HOW ? keeping in mind that I am a noobie puppy user and although smart enough to pick things up rather quickly still need a helping hand in the where do I start department

Any guidance gratefully received and thank-you in advance for help offered ....

Location = out south in the rural outskirts (about an hour out) of Auckland, New Zealand

[Rupp]

edit /etc/hosts with your preferred text editor. Add the following

Code: Select all

127.0.0.1 youtube.com

loops back that address to your computer.

[Lobster]

Maybe something like:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... safe-site/

[Bruce B]

Unfortunately kids learn things, how shall I say it? Out of sequence.

I started learning the 'facts of life' when I was about 10. Of course I didn't believe a word of it. My dad would never do anything nasty.

Then about 11 years old, I started wondering, "Could all the other kids be wrong?"

These days a six year old can turn on the TV and tell you things it took me until I was eleven to learn.

~

[Béèm]

Alternatively, your modem/router might have a URL blocking facility.
Password protect the access to the administrator part of the modem/router.

[DPUP5520]

@Béèm
He's using a 3G dongle ie no router

[aarf]

I was going to NZ but at the boarding gate they said "no shopping trolleys allowed on the plane so i cant go". They also said no refund of any part of a return ticket so now i dont buy kiwi fruit at all. I've also stopped buying airtickets.

[Béèm]

@Béèm
He's using a 3G dongle ie no router

Yes ok.
But those dongles can't be configured in such a way?
I must say I never used one.

[puppyite]

My How-To might shed more light on using HOSTS file to block sites.

[DPUP5520]

WTF

I was going to NZ but at the boarding gate they said "no shopping trolleys allowed on the plane so i cant go". They also said no refund of any part of a return ticket so now i dont buy kiwi fruit at all. I've also stopped buying airtickets.

No unfortunately they cannot be "set up" in any way, at least not any ones that i've used, i've seen one that my uncle used to use in his business that could be configured that was using verizon but i'm not quite sure what the limitations/configuration options you had with it.

[Moose On The Loose]

edit /etc/hosts with your preferred text editor. Add the following

Code: Select all

127.0.0.1 youtube.com

loops back that address to your computer.

You can set up your own little web site on the computer to look a lot like the official youtube one. Any click within it could then take you to a kids friendly site.

You can also make the page look nothing like youtube but just be a short bit of JavaScript that sends the kid off to the kid friendly place.