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Update: Gnome Nanny is unmaintained. I recommend Timekpr for recent Ubuntu versions.

gnome nanny parental control linux ubuntu

Gnome Nanny is an easy way to control what your kids are doing in the computer, under Linux. You can limit how much time a day each one of them is browsing the web, chatting or doing email. You can also decide at which times of the day the can do this things. Gnome Nanny filters what web pages are seen by each user, so you can block all undesirable webs and have your kids enjoy the internet with ease of mind, no more worries!

Using Gnome Nanny (Parental Control), you can control which websites you children can and can't access and for how long for each day of the week they can access the computer, the web, email or an instant messaging client.

Installing the latest Gnome Nanny version in Ubuntu Linux is very easy, as there is a Launchpad PPA available. To add the PPA, simply paste the following command(s) in a terminal:
-Ubuntu Lucid and Karmic:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nanny

-Ubuntu Jaunty:
sudo bash -c "echo 'deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/nanny/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main' >> /etc/apt/sources.list" && sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 132D48BA
Then, install Gnome Nanny in Ubuntu Lucid / Karmic / Jaunty using the following command:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install nanny
Once installed, you will find Gnome Nanny under System > Administration > Parental Control.

Using Gnome Nanny (Parental Control) is very easy, simply select the user for which you want to enable the restrictions, then chose what you want to restrict: pc use time, web browser, mail client or instant messaging and select some hours on a certain day to restrict the access for the selected user. You can also select and drag using you mouse to set the restriction for multiple hours or a whole day.

You can also simply set the number of hours your kids can use per day (for each category: web browser, mail, etc.), without selecting the interval:

gnome nanny parental control screenshot

And finally, under the Web Browser tab you can also select web content filtering and restrict access to some websites. Additionally, you can import website blacklists by going to System > Administration > BlackLists.

[via Luís Cardoso @ ubuntued.info, special thanks to Claudio Novais for the tip]