Top 2025 Parental Control Apps: My favorite is Host Minder!
To continue our current series of publications on Top apps for this year 2025 in this current month of May, today we will take the opportunity to bring you a new "Top 2025", this time focused on the best and most well-known programs of Parental Control as Host MinderWhich we consider quite appropriate, since, regardless of whether we are at home, at school, or in the office, as adults or as children and adolescents, it is always best for every computer with Internet access to have exhaustive and effective control over what can and cannot be seen in the web browser.
And while it's true that there's a wide range of software options in this area of web content filtering, the truth is that these IT solutions are often server-based or centralized. And when they're for desktop or laptop computers, they're not usually as easy to configure or manage. For example, and in my personal case, using the MX Linux distro, it comes with a small tool called “Block Propaganda” (Advert Block), which, with just a few clicks, allows me to block (filter/deny) access to various websites (domains) by choosing different levels of complexity. Whereas, if I need something more advanced, but not more complex, I usually use “Host Minder”.
Top 2025: The Best IDEs for a GNU/Linux Distro
That said, and before getting into this new post about this Useful Top 2025 about some programs of «Parental Control as Host Minder, we recommend as usual, after finishing reading this present publication, to explore a suitable previous related publication:
Top 2025 Parental Control Apps: My favorite is Host Minder!
Before starting this little Top 2025 Parental Control Apps, I find it important to point out that from the first to the last to mention are sorted by their simplicity of installation, configuration and use, and not because of their complexity and extensive capabilities. This Top 10 is intended to showcase IT solutions that are as convenient and simple as possible for the average home, school, or office user, rather than advanced and complex applications worthy of IT users specializing in customer support, server and system administration, and software developers.
That said, here is our New, useful and small Top 2025 of the current month.
Host Minder: My Favorite Parental Control App for Web Content Filtering
Hots Minder eIt is a very effective software solution that focuses on blocking unwanted web domains, which is originally from the Distro Ubuntu Christian Edition (Ubuntu CE). And to do this, it offers a simple graphical user interface (GUI) that allows you to easily update (change) the file «
/etc/hosts» from any GNU/Linux Distro (Debian-based) to one of four (4) consolidated hosts files from StevenBlack/hosts. These allow you to block websites gradually (incrementally) among several categories, such as: Ads, Porn, Gambling, Social Networks and Fake News. Finally, it stands out for being very easy to install (.deb installer package), run, configure and use (enable/disable) by any common user of Linux-based operating systems.
Timekpr-nExt: My favorite Parental Control app for time control
Timekpr-nExT Host Minder is an innovative, simple, and easy-to-use application for managing a user's screen time on a computer with Ubuntu/Debian-based distros. Therefore, it is very helpful when it comes to optimizing the time that subordinates, children, or oneself spend in front of a computer. Consequently, this application is primarily aimed at parents or supervisors with the goal of optimizing or limiting the time they spend in front of the computer as deemed appropriate or necessary. For this reason, it is designed to control computer use, which involves forcibly terminating user sessions and/or applying other restrictions and limitations. This makes it an ideal complementary software solution to Host Minder. Furthermore, it is easy to download and install because it comes in a ".deb installer package".
CTParental: Parental Control App for Web Content Filtering and Time Control
CTParental It is a robust and comprehensive web content filtering solution (based on nftables, dnscript-proxy, e2guardian, privoxy, lighttpd, systemd timer and the University of Toulouse blacklist) and computer usage time management. Therefore, it is an ideal way to avoid using two separate apps, such as Host Minder and Timekpr-nExT. Furthermore, connection scheduling management is also integrated into a web interface (accessible via the URL https://admin.ct.local), allowing for quick and easy configuration of everything necessary. Interestingly, the administration username and password combination is created during installation, but can be changed later with the command "CTparental -uhtml". And its installation is easy and fast because it offers a ".deb installer package"Finally, its most notable features include filtering by blacklist or whitelist, by category, by custom websites; configuration of authorized connection times per user and maximum browsing time per user; setting the maximum number of connection minutes allowed per day; setting privileged user groups not subject to web filtering; notification to users every minute for the last 5 minutes before disconnection; and the use of e2guardian (extensions and MIME types configurable through the interface) and Privoxy (configuration not available through the interface).
10 Other Complementary and Alternative Parental Control Programs
- Little Brother: Package .deb
- Mint Nanny: Package .deb
- E2guardian: Package .deb
- privoxy: Package .deb
- NetxDNS: Package .deb
- Peer Guardian
- DansGuardian
- SquidGuard
- HBlock
- Maza Ad Blocking
If you don't tend to prefer robust, specialized applications for one or more programming languages, but rather prefer something more basic, simple, and universal for programming and software development, we invite you to continue reading this Top 2025 so you can enjoy our excellent selection of advanced text editors.
Summary
In short, we hope that this new Top 2025, like all the previous ones in their respective categories (topics covered and areas addressed), will serve to meet a need or solve a requirement, regardless of whether it is in a home, school, or office. And as usual, in case you know or use Other alternative Parental Control Software projects that you think are worth knowing, spreading and supporting within our growing and immeasurable Linuxverse, We invite you to mention them via comment to add them to this Top.
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