Here’s a quick tip on how to block a website from being viewed on your PC. So I blogged a while back with some tips on safe web browsing for kids. Well, wouldn’t you know it, I had a situation recently where I let one of my kids use Google on an “open” machine sans safeguards. They did an innocent search on “modeling” and Whoa Nelly! That led to some uncomfortable talks. Good that we talked an explained, not just the talks we were ready to have yet. But I digress…
So, if your little ones, or not so little ones, come across a questionable website, a sure-fire way to block it altogether is to amend the ‘hosts’ file. You can find it here ‘C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc’. Right mouse click this file and you’ll be asked to choose an application to open it with. Choose Notepad. Once open, simply add the offending site to the list below like this: “127.0.0.1 www.abc123.com“.
127.0.0.1 is the localhost address for your PC. If your child tries to access the offending site after amending the hosts file, it’ll never reach it as it is just looping back to the PC itself.
