{"id":19317,"date":"2016-06-27T16:01:43","date_gmt":"2016-06-27T22:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"https://www.webroot.com/blog/?p=19317"},"modified":"2018-10-05T14:18:24","modified_gmt":"2018-10-05T20:18:24","slug":"how-to-block-pornography-on-internet-connected-devices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https://www.webroot.com/blog/2016\/06\/27\/how-to-block-pornography-on-internet-connected-devices\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Block Pornography on Internet-Connected Devices"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the sheer amount\u00a0of available pornographic images of child abuse \u2013 often called child porn \u2013 available online, it may seem that there is little you can do to protect your children, or yourself, from this type of content. This isn\u2019t true.<\/p>\n

Here are eight key tools and tactics to eliminate \u2013 or significantly reduce \u2013 the risks of you or your child coming across pornographic material.<\/p>\n

Eight tools to help block internet pornography<\/h3>\n
    \n
  1. Set your search engine to \u201csafe search\u201d mode: <\/strong>Google users can visit the ‘Google Safety Center<\/a>‘ to adjust the settings, while Bing users can change preferences in the Bing Account Settings<\/a>. If you use another search engine, it’s usually straight-forward\u00a0to access the equivalent settings for that specific search engine. \u00a0Also, if you child uses YouTube, be sure you have set the \u201csafe\u201d mode on that platform\u00a0as well.<\/li>\n
  2. Use the family safety tools provided by your computer\u2019s\/other device\u2019s operating system<\/strong>: Windows and Mac operating systems provide family safety settings.\u00a0Many mobile device manufacturers also provide a wide variety of safety settings within their mobile devices.<\/li>\n
  3. Use family safety tool services<\/strong>: Sometimes called parental controls, these tools allow you to set specific filters to block types of content you find inappropriate. This isn\u2019t just something to apply to youth; plenty of adults prefer to filter out pornographic and other types of content like ‘hate’ and ‘violence’.\u00a0 The appropriateness of some types of content will change as children mature; other types of content may always be unacceptable. To find the tools that best fit your family\u2019s needs, search for parental-control or family-safety-tool reviews. Keep in mind that these tools need to be installed on every device<\/em> your child uses to go online: game consoles, smartphones, tablets, personal laptops and computers. Some services have coverage for all types of devices, others are limited to just computers or phones. You may find that using a single solution<\/a> on all devices makes your monitoring much easier.<\/li>\n
  4. Periodically look at your children\u2019s browser history.<\/strong> There are a number of phrases youth use to get around pornography filters \u2013 like \u201cbreast feeding\u201d and \u201cchildbirth\u201d \u2013 and some fast-changing slang terms that filters may not have caught up with like \u201cwalking the dog,\u201d which is a slang term for sex. If you see odd search terms, give the sites a quick look.<\/li>\n
  5. Have your children restrict access to their social networking sites to only known friends, and keep their sites private. <\/strong>A great deal of pornography is shared among private albums on social networking sites.<\/li>\n
  6. Scan the photos on your child\u2019s smartphone\/mobile device\u00a0time-to-time. <\/strong>While the youngest kids aren\u2019t ‘sexting’, by the time they\u2019ve hit their ‘tweens’, there’s a chance that they\u00a0have begun participating in this type of behavior. Let your children know that you plan to sit down with them and go through the pictures they have stored on their phone.<\/li>\n
  7. Review the applications your child has downloaded to their phone or tablet<\/strong>. Mobile content filters may not catch all the potentially inappropriate apps.<\/li>\n
  8. You are your strongest tool. <\/strong>No technical blocking solution alone is enough to protect a determined child or teen from finding pornography online. Have the \u201ctalk\u201d on an ongoing basis with your children about the content your family finds appropriate and inappropriate; this exchange should never be a one-time conversation.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Teens in particular may balk at the conversations, but they do listen far more than you might imagine. To learn more about your influence on your teens\u2019 lives, see Psst! Parents! If you talk to your teen, they will listen to you<\/a>,\u00a0as well as this article<\/a> about how to talk to teens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    With the sheer amount\u00a0of available pornographic images of child abuse \u2013 often called child porn \u2013 available online, it may seem that there is little you can do to protect your children, or yourself, from this type of content. This isn\u2019t true. Here are eight key tools and tactics to eliminate \u2013 or significantly reduce […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":17975,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2985],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[3485,3737,3731,3745,3739,3753,3729,3735,3419,3747,3733,3743,3669,3749,3663,3727,3741,3751,3725,3471],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https://www.webroot.com/blog/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19317"}],"collection":[{"href":"https://www.webroot.com/blog/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https://www.webroot.com/blog/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://www.webroot.com/blog/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://www.webroot.com/blog/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19317"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https://www.webroot.com/blog/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25899,"href":"https://www.webroot.com/blog/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19317\/revisions\/25899"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://www.webroot.com/blog/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https://www.webroot.com/blog/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https://www.webroot.com/blog/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https://www.webroot.com/blog/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19317"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https://www.webroot.com/blog/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=19317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}