Glubble is a very impressive browser plugin that adds parental controls to Firefox. Glubble transforms Firefox into a locked down environment where kids can only surf approved sites, while parents can easily log into a restriction-free account for normal web surfing.
Glubble also re-skins Firefox with a simple and appealing kid-friendly look while logged into a child account. The browser under Glubble is a completely controlled environment, meaning all of your bookmarks and most of your other plugins are hidden while logged into a child account (some plugins, like Flash for example, will still work -- a good thing considering how many children's sites utilize Flash).
The plugin is exceptionally easy to install and set up. It's installed via Firefox's automatic plugin installation mechanism, and once you've restarted Firefox you're greeted with Glubble set up screen. From there you set up your administrator accounts and the accounts for your children. Glubble lets you set up child accounts in two flavors: for kids who can read, and kids who can't. The main difference is that the pre-read accounts, as they are called, don't display a URL and search bar, so kids instead navigate by clicking on icons and links to pre-defined sites.
The Glubble sign on screen is the first screen users see when starting Firefox.
Once Glubble is set up, every time you start up Firefox you'll see a family sign on screen. Children can set Glubble to remember their passwords, but parents (administrators) cannot. Glubble comes preloaded with a set of approved websites. These include kid friendly sites like Fisher Price, Barbie.com, Animal Planet, Disney, and Nickelodeon. It also appears that every site in the Yahoo! Kids Directory is available for kids protected by Glubble (at least, every site I clicked on worked). Yahoo! Kids lists over 57,000 web sites in its directory, so there are a fair number to get started with.
Glubble comes installed with two search engines: Google and Yahoo! It filters results from each so that only kid-friendly or pre-approved sites are shown. When a child attempts to visit a site that isn't on their list, Glubble will ask for an administrator to approve the site before the child can see it. From within any administrator account, you can also update and manage the list of sites your child can view. When adding a link, you can choose to add it to the entire family or to a specific child's account. You can also choose to only let a child view a specific web page rater than the entire site.
Children must get permission to visit unapproved sites.
A few caveats: The addon appeared to treat links with and without the www. separately. So when I added "wikipedia.org" to my child's list of approved links, surfing to "www.wikipedia.org" caused it to ask for approval again before showing the page. Further, even thought I thought I had approved the entire site, "en.wikipedia.org" (where all the English content is stored) seemed to still be blocked. Speaking of addons, Glubble disabled a bunch of mine even while logged in as administrator, which was rather annoying.
In all, though, Glubble is a very well made Firefox addon and a great free parental control suite. The pre-approved sites it comes installed with appear well-vetted and control over other sites is fairly complete. Unlike other parental filters, Glubble displays only content from approved sites, rather than trying to check against a list of bad ones. This is, in my opinion, a much better concept and greatly decreases the chances that bad content will slip through.
The Glubble browser skin is simple and kid-friendly.
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Children Control over parents
I wonder how long it will take before we will see Children control plugins. Most children know more about the web when they are 9-10 than the average parent.
I would not be surprised if we will see add-ons that enable children to control what their parents see when they browse. and most parents wont have a clue that the child is controlling the browser.
Watch out parents!!! Maybe we should invest in educating our children instead of cultivating the false hope that we can protect them from the web
Posted by: Avi Charkham | July 5, 2007 2:16 AM
Hi Avi,
I completely agree with you that we need to educate our children about the good and the bad ones. However would like to leverage the kid-friendly or pre-approved sites offered as part of Glubble. What you say?
Regards,
DSarathy.
Posted by: DSarathy | July 5, 2007 3:32 AM
@DSarathy
I didn't say that pre approved websites are bad. I just say that once a child understands (and that happens faster than we want to think) that he is blocked he will somehow find the counter program to release the block.
I do think that this offering is great for very young children 4-7 max 8 that are experiencing their first steps on the web. Children who are older will not be fooled easily.
Posted by: Avi Charkham | July 5, 2007 5:52 AM
It looks really nice and the pre approved sites are a good method, but is there anything at all that would prevent the child from clicking on the Internet Explorer logo?
Posted by: Els | July 5, 2007 8:20 AM
@Els
Sure! Just install Linux :)
Posted by: Mick | July 29, 2007 10:39 AM
@Avi and others: the problem is that you are thinking of this as a way to defeat/fool/trick/whatever kids. If someone is a the stage where they are having to "fool" their kids to such a degree, then this is but one of their problems.
The beauty of Glubble, and other such tools, is found when you honestly tell your children what you are doing, tell them why you are doing it and let them know that you are there to listen to any objections they have. Of course, there are going to be exceptions to the rule. No one thing works with all our kids. But as a guideline, my children know what we believe, why we believe it and are capable and comfortable challenging those beliefs if they want to. When I tell them I don't want them to see something, they know it is because I want to keep them safe and they understand that. That does not always stop them, but more often than not, it all works out fine.
Obviously, for this type of relationship to develop, you have to start at a very early age. If you are just now trying to reel in children who are at an age where defiance is just what you do when you wake up, it is going to be tough (and it does not matter with some kids - they are just little buggers to begin with *s*). Glubble, and other similar programs, are also not the answer, but tools to help along the way, possibly. That is, if you want to protect your children from certain things and you your relationship is one that they are not constantly trying to circumvent your attempts, then this will be a good tool. If they will simply "look for a way around" then there are other issues that should be dealt with and if they are deliberately going to sites you don't want them on, unplug or install linux or use a better encrypted protection solution.
Posted by: Dan | August 3, 2007 2:08 PM