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I have a colleague with two teenage boys (yes, cue cliche's about 'I have this friend see...') He's currently having issues with them browsing pr0n and wants to do a little spying on their browsing (I'm staying clear of the philosophies/ethics on this.) The kids are savvy enough to clear their browsing history when they're done. As I'm his goto for IT he has asked me if there is a way to keep a hold of the browsing history.
The family uses Macs, and the kids surf with Safari. I know that browsing history is kept here ~/Library/Safari/History.plist. I figure there should be a way to write either an AppleScript or other script (Python/Ruby/Bash) that can backup this file to a different location (/opt/local/history, etc.)
Since the kids know to clear their history when they're done should the file be periodically backed up with something similar to a cron job or something like Hazel? While that could work it seems like it would create a ton of little incremental backups.
Or is it possible to 'watch' ~/Library/Safari/History.plist and incrementally add changes to a backup file (saving a diff so to speak) but not lose any data?
Any ideas/solutions appreciated.
UPDATE/EDIT: Got the word from concerned dad that the oldest uses Firefox on a different PC, so the OpenDNS solution (preferably at the router level) is the best answer so far as it would capture usage for the whole house.
As this is probably Flash-related: after surprising yourself at http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings%5Fmanager06.html, see the introduction of "How to automatically remove Flash history/privacy trail? Or stop Flash from storing it?" at http://superuser.com/questions/1627/how-to-automatically-remove-flash-history-privacy-trail-or-stop-flash-from-storing-it
– Arjan – 2009-10-10T15:30:41.397How is this flash related? – Darren Newton – 2009-10-10T17:18:59.167
Most video sites use Flash, as far as I know. – Arjan – 2009-10-10T17:24:24.507
Yes, but pr0n is not limited to video. – Darren Newton – 2009-10-10T17:28:02.770
Correct, but I wasn't trying to say it was. (Otherwise, I might have posted the comment as an answer instead...) – Arjan – 2009-10-10T19:17:47.523
7Whatever solution you pick, if those kids get annoyed by their parents keeping such a strict eye upon them, then they will start browsing somewhere else. A friends place, a library, whatever. If kids don't want you to know something, they'll be very creative in hiding it! Educate them, talk with them, trust them! (And use OpenDNS, as suggested.) – Wim ten Brink – 2009-10-11T21:51:18.653
> the OpenDNS solution (preferably at the router level) is the best answer And you can then take it a step further by using third-party firmware on your router (if it supports it) to give you even more logging/blocking capabilities. – Synetech – 2012-11-20T01:42:00.857