Oh, I personally would choose AB-Solution over DNS-filtering any time. Just wasn't aware that one ruled out the other.
BTW, I apologize for the late reply, totally forgot. I have serious issues with my short-term memory, just had to take a look a this thread to reproduce what I learned from you. Yes, it's a mess upstairs, I know, but I can't help it.
As for your question regarding the parental controls: I use the Web & Apps filter to deny access to several categories for specified clients (based on their MAC-addresses), which are only the devices my son has access to. As mentioned before, he's autistic and way too curious for his age, and combined with an anxiety disorder, access to certain material needs to be regulated otherwise he's continuously feeding his own fears, with all its consequences. Make no mistake, I do not want to limit his development, but as his brain functions different, I do feel responsible to manage what content he get's to see. And if there's a subject he wants to know more about, we'll investigate together.
Furthermore, I use the Time Scheduling for the iOS devices he uses. If I don't he'll simply wake up somewhere between 3 and 4 AM and starts using them. There are iOS apps like OurPact for that, but the functionality in the router is free and works just as well without installing third party apps. Available apps and content (age-based) are controlled within iOS Parental Controls. For the Windows clients he's using, I'm using Microsoft Family Safety which actually works quite well. He's got a time limit per day within a pre-defined time frame. And I get a nice report mailed weekly how he's spend his time, what search queries he has performed and which apps have been used. That might all sound very strict to some people, but as these measures mainly provide safety and especially clarity, contribute to clear agreements which for an autistic kid means that it gives him peace of mind. All things vague or doubtful are hard to deal with as borders aren't clear. And believe me, I know what I'm talking about, yet my parents never felt the need to investigate. I found out, at my own request, when I was 40.
Every now and then we try to give him some more freedom and see if he can already handle it, if he does, that's great, if he can't, we discuss it and will try again later. He's a happy and healthy child, it's just like other kids, they come without a manual, but in this case, the sh*tload of appendices is missing too...
Ah, that's awesome. That was one of my dreams, but my physical condition is going downwards the hill so rapidly, that we decided earlier this year, that it wouldn't be feasible anymore, as I don't know how much longer I'll be able to walk and a Shepherd has become one of the breeds too strong for me to control. We had two dogs (a Jack Russell x Boerenfox - a Dutch terrier breed for which I couldn't find a translation and a West Highland White Terrier), both unfortunately died unexpectedly way too young last year. The Westie died from acute kidney failure, caused by diabetes, the other Terrier had a previously undiscovered heart issue and died on Christmas from a heart attack, which, despite CPR, costed him his life. The only domain I had to block for them both was
http://icanhas.cheezburger.com/, they couldn't care less about the rest of the internet, but it was the only way to get our iPads back.