Pornography Filter/Software/Blocker - Updated Advice?


NeedleinA
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Looking for advice on effective software / device / blocker to filter out your electronics, namely pornography?
Brand name? Universal system (Wi-Fi) router that blocks all devices at home?
I'm aware of Bluecoat K9 which we have our computers, anything newer, strong, better? Anything that can simitaniously handle Rokus, Computers and Phones.

Besides cutting out all electronics, anyone finding success elsewhere? Thank you in advance.

Edited by NeedleinA
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I have never used a filter.  To be honest, I haven't felt the need - in my experience it is in extremely rare and unusual circumstances that I will inadvertently stumble upon pornography (maybe once a year).  

I don't know, maybe filters really help some people.  Maybe I should be using a filter.  Maybe my way wouldn't work for someone with an addiction.  For me, though, I feel like the best way to avoid pornography is to just decide not to look at it, not to rely on some filter to keep you safe.

it also helps to never "surf" the internet - use it with a purpose in mind, go to where you are going and not to just wander around online.  I visit basically five sites - foxnews, cnn, lds.net, lds.org, and steam games.

On the other hand, I do have a daughter who is 5 and will eventually be online, and maybe I should get a filter for her sake . . .

Edited by DoctorLemon
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5 hours ago, DoctorLemon said:

 5 and will eventually be online, and maybe I should get a filter for her sake . . .

My concern comes as a direct result of pornography already having entered our home because my recently baptized 8 yr old boy (to my disbelief) has accessed it.

Quick overview of how it happened. Even unable to still type most words, my 8 yr old does know how to use "Ok Google" voice commands on his mother's cell phone. He used "Google" voice command for "girl butts", a phrase he swears he heard other kids at school use. Well "girl butts"  then turns to "teen girl butts", which then turns to "naked teen girl butts" and then so on...

Presto, pornography is now on wife's phone. It comes up in the suggestions and history now. (FYI: Google records all those little voice commands on your phone). I was able to listen to the audio clips played back with his little voice breaking my heart. When I first found the pornography, admittedly my mind went to my teenager boys 13 & 15. I was utterly taken back to discover the audio clips belonged to the 8 yr old instead.

No more head in the sand for this dad. I'm trying (asking here) for any ideas to stop this now, the best we can.

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DeseretBook's inability to accurately describe product makes me hate them sometimes - though maybe I should hate the manufacturer - it's not that hard to cater your information to both (forgive me, but I don't know how else to say it) ignorant users and people who understand technology (both).  Per Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073DGML4C?th=1), this (the Mini, not the discontinued one) is a physical device you plug into your router - I'm guessing maybe you turn off the router's wifi and use this instead.  Some of its features should already be available on your wifi router / cable modem / DSL modem, just not the filtering.  This thing does topical filtering, perhaps other types.  Please note that no filtering is ever perfect.  Multiple layers will help - e.g. if you didn't know google has a "Safe Search" option, go to google and look around - it's in there - but your kid probably knows how to turn that off (this device says it will make it so you can't - would have to see it to figure out how it manages that).  One of the user questions, asking about subscriptions, gives us this:

Quote
 
No, there is no subscription fee required! All of the features listed here and on our website (https://routerlimits.com) are included with the purchase of Router Limits hardware. We do offer another product called Router Limits Everywhere that protects mobile devices away from home. Everywhere is enabled with an app that is installed on the phone and requires a small monthly fee.

That would protect not only from outside your home, but in your home with the phone's wifi disabled (thus using the phone's cell signal and data plan - the main product wouldn't protect if not using wifi).

While there's no way to be sure without buying it, it looks like a decent product.  It may help if you have an actual IT person (someone who knows what you're  talking about when you say "configure the router", not some pimply teenager or wanna be Elder-geek), to help you walk through the UI - unless you're good at navigating around and exploring the various features of software (which is what the device's user interface is).

Edited by zil
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3 hours ago, NeedleinA said:

My concern comes as a direct result of pornography already having entered our home because my recently baptized 8 yr old boy (to my disbelief) has accessed it.

Quick overview of how it happened. Even unable to still type most words, my 8 yr old does know how to use "Ok Google" voice commands on his mother's cell phone. He used "Google" voice command for "girl butts", a phrase he swears he heard other kids at school use. Well "girl butts"  then turns to "teen girl butts", which then turns to "naked teen girl butts" and then so on...

Presto, pornography is now on wife's phone. It comes up in the suggestions and history now. (FYI: Google records all those little voice commands on your phone). I was able to listen to the audio clips played back with his little voice breaking my heart. When I first found the pornography, admittedly my mind went to my teenager boys 13 & 15. I was utterly taken back to discover the audio clips belonged to the 8 yr old instead.

No more head in the sand for this dad. I'm trying (asking here) for any ideas to stop this now, the best we can.

I am sorry to hear that happened to your family.  Definitely get a filter!

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12 hours ago, DoctorLemon said:

I have never used a filter.  To be honest, I haven't felt the need - in my experience it is in extremely rare and unusual circumstances that I will inadvertently stumble upon pornography (maybe once a year).  

I don't know, maybe filters really help some people.  Maybe I should be using a filter.  Maybe my way wouldn't work for someone with an addiction.  For me, though, I feel like the best way to avoid pornography is to just decide not to look at it, not to rely on some filter to keep you safe.

it also helps to never "surf" the internet - use it with a purpose in mind, go to where you are going and not to just wander around online.  I visit basically five sites - foxnews, cnn, lds.net, lds.org, and steam games.

On the other hand, I do have a daughter who is 5 and will eventually be online, and maybe I should get a filter for her sake . . .

 

6 hours ago, NeedleinA said:

My concern comes as a direct result of pornography already having entered our home because my recently baptized 8 yr old boy (to my disbelief) has accessed it.

Quick overview of how it happened. Even unable to still type most words, my 8 yr old does know how to use "Ok Google" voice commands on his mother's cell phone. He used "Google" voice command for "girl butts", a phrase he swears he heard other kids at school use. Well "girl butts"  then turns to "teen girl butts", which then turns to "naked teen girl butts" and then so on...

Presto, pornography is now on wife's phone. It comes up in the suggestions and history now. (FYI: Google records all those little voice commands on your phone). I was able to listen to the audio clips played back with his little voice breaking my heart. When I first found the pornography, admittedly my mind went to my teenager boys 13 & 15. I was utterly taken back to discover the audio clips belonged to the 8 yr old instead.

No more head in the sand for this dad. I'm trying (asking here) for any ideas to stop this now, the best we can.

I completely get you DoctorLemon and I feel for you NeedleinA.  We've been through this too.

My son - 8 years old I think he was at the time, googled some rare beanie baby that he wanted me to buy.  One of the top results was a forum discussion about the beanie baby in a porn site.  He clicked on it saw the images and ran to his parents knowing it was a bad thing.  Although he knew it was bad, that image is now inescapably planted in his brain.

But we didn't use a filter.  Instead, my husband locked down the internet so it can only access the websites he has on a list - everything else is blocked.

But now that they are teens and have their own mobile devices with its own internet service, we just kept with the self-filtering option.  Their devices are linked to ours so we can see their texts and websites.  They don't have much of a presence in social media.  Although my oldest son does know how to wade into 4chan.  So then yesterday,  Jennifer Lawrence posted an anti-Trump tweet and some guy replied that at least you can always wipe down a martini to the face where he can always google "Jennifer Lawrence's <body part>"  to see that body part.  So, of course, all their friends are googling "Jennifer Lawrence's <body part>".  My sons refrained.  We were talking about it and my son said, it's very hard to go looking at body parts when you just spent an hour of your precious morning in seminary.

Anyway, I apologize I don't have a good answer for your question Needle.  Hope you find a solution soon.

 

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15 hours ago, NeedleinA said:

Looking for advice on effective software / device / blocker to filter out your electronics, namely pornography?
Brand name? Universal system (Wi-Fi) router that blocks all devices at home?
I'm aware of Bluecoat K9 which we have our computers, anything newer, strong, better? Anything that can simitaniously handle Rokus, Computers and Phones.

Besides cutting out all electronics, anyone finding success elsewhere? Thank you in advance.

I use Netgenie.  I like the function that allows you to not only filter during the day, but shut it off almost completely at night.  This is mainly because I have an older son who has insomnia.  I'm ok with him staying up and reading.  But if he gets on the internet for that long (even without malintent) that's just wrong for the brain.

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Oops.  I'm sorry.  There goes my memory on specificity.  The Netgenie router is NOT what I have.  I just did a bit of searching and I have the NETGEAR Genie.  (Understand the mixup)  It comes free with a Netgear router.  I have the N600 Wireless Router by NETGEAR.

 

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10 hours ago, Carborendum said:

Oops.  I'm sorry.  There goes my memory on specificity.  The Netgenie router is NOT what I have.  I just did a bit of searching and I have the NETGEAR Genie.  (Understand the mixup)  It comes free with a Netgear router.  I have the N600 Wireless Router by NETGEAR.

Thank you.
Netgear makes a lot more sense as Netgenie not only has poor reviews it is hard to locate/purchase in the USA.

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I've spoken with my kids about sexual content online.  And they say they do stumble across it (even with the filter).  And they immediately shut it down.

It seems that the filters don't get everything.  Most of what they tell me is in an ad in the sidebar rather than the stuff they're actually reading. Those don't have the same labels and tags required to use the Netgear Genie.

We once tried Net Nanny.  It got nearly everything.  But it was a bit too good.  The cost was that it was blocking legitimate sites and images.  For instance, one thing it does is it looks at any image files (including website wallpaper) and calculates area of "flesh colored" pixels.  This blocked an image of a project I was working on which used a buff-mauve colored background for the layout.  This type of thing happened a dozen times a day with each person in the family.

It eventually got too onerous for us.  We figured we had to find a better balance point.  And Net Nanny wasn't it.

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6 minutes ago, Carborendum said:

Most of what they tell me is in an ad in the sidebar rather than the stuff they're actually reading.

This is why I use Firefox with Stylish and NoScript (though I'm not sure if FF mobile supports these plug-ins - I don't really use my phone for web surfing).  By default, NoScript stops all JS from running.  I enable only what is necessary for the part of the website I want - this means the JS which loads / rotates ads cannot run, so those parts of the page are blank.  Then I use Stylish to alter the page layout to hide things I don't want to see, or reshape things I do want to see. :)

For example, in case you haven't noticed, monitors have gone from square to landscape rectangles.  The vertical dimension keeps getting shorter, thus making vertical space valuable to those of us who don't like to scroll.  Meanwhile, MormonHub puts the rules at the top of every page, thus wasting vertical space (my perception) and making me scroll - and it's worse for me because whatever JS collapses that article so you only see part of it is not allowed to run on my computer, so if I don't hide it, I see pages of text before the thread.  I use Stylish to hide that portion of the page. :D

That may sound like a lot of work, but I only use Stylish on sites I visit a lot, and once I set it up, I'm done (until the designers change the site).  NoScript is not so hard for a non-IT type to use, IMO.  Stylish would require a bit more technical expertise.

My brother blocks certain domains and IP addresses at his router - known ad-servers.

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1 hour ago, zil said:

That may sound like a lot of work, but I only use Stylish on sites I visit a lot, and once I set it up, I'm done (until the designers change the site).  NoScript is not so hard for a non-IT type to use, IMO.  Stylish would require a bit more technical expertise.

Do you have to set those configs on each page, or do the settings replicate?

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3 minutes ago, eVa said:

Do you have to set those configs on each page, or do the settings replicate?

For Stylish, I always set the style to the whole domain (unless I have a specific reason to be more specific).  E.g. I have styles for MormonHub.com, Facebook.com, etc.  (NOTE: Depending on the way the site is developed, you may not be able to do everything you want, since you're essentially making custom CSS, so you still have to work with the site HTML as it comes from the server - no changing that.)

For NoScript, you use a button on the toolbar to enable JS from specific domains, and the settings are global across all websites - e.g. if you enable jQuery.com, then any JS coming from that site (regardless of which website is calling that JS) will run.  You have the choice whether to enable permanently or temporarily, and if the latter, you can revoke temporary permissions, or make them permanent at any time before you close the browser (or maybe leave the last site using that JS).  You can also revoke permanent rights, all from that button.  There are other things it can do, but I don't understand them, and haven't been motivated to figure them out.  I often temporarily enable domains until I find the one that I need, then disable all and grant permanent permission to just the one I need.

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