!!!!!!

flyer

Hi all. Our provider is Virgin and I have selected parental control, which, I'm assured means my children can't access !!!!!!. Unfortunately, they have and Virgin have told me that if they use Google cognito they bypass the parental controls! Surely that shouldn't be possible and how can I sort this?

Emmia

Put all computers/internet devices in public places like the lounge etc. rather than allowing them in bedrooms etc. and as parents you should set an example on this.

You should also talk to your kids about accessing "adult content"

flaneurs_lobster

Do you mean Google Chrome incognito mode? If that's all it takes to bypass VM's parental controls then they are clearly nothing of the sort.

I'm not familiar with how these filters (supposed to) work, most nannyware I know of works at the device level. Where is the filter set? 

QrizB

Agree with Emmia.

How old are your kids? Under 12 or so and they should be under proper parental supervision, over 15 and you'll never stop them if they're determined. It's the three years in the middle that are the tricky ones.

There are technical solutions that mostly work but you'll need to learn more about network security than it's probably worth.

Edit to add: I'm assuming this thread is about pr0n; if it's about something else that the forum software filters out, my post might make no sense 🤣

fatbelly

So much for the online safety act then

la531983

fatbelly said:

So much for the online safety act then

Easily circumvented with a VPN which any 13 year old is going to easily be able to use.

GrumpyDil

Unfortunately bypassing security and exploiting security weaknesses to access banned sites is something kids seem to be very good, including at school according to my now 21 year old son. 

flyer

I entitled this thread !!!!!!, but someone must have changed it. I would be grateful if people didn't judge me. I was simply asking if it is the case that incognito bypasses VMs parental controls and, if that is the case, what can be done. Surely it makes a mockery of the parental controls?

Emmia

flyer said:

I entitled this thread !!!!!!, but someone must have changed it. I would be grateful if people didn't judge me. I was simply asking if it is the case that incognito bypasses VMs parental controls and, if that is the case, what can be done. Surely it makes a mockery of the parental controls?

MSE automatically changes certain words to !!!!

I'd imagine they would include

a term for adult images beginning with a p

A four letter swear word beginning with f or s. 

Edit: The device that cuts water to your plumbing, a stop c**k  is often caught by the filters over on the DIY boards.

*I'm sure there are others.

Parental controls are not all an encompassing one and done solution (sorry). Feasibly your little darlings can already, (or will be able to soon) bypass them, via different profiles, VPN, etc.  hence my suggestion that internet enabled devices are only used in "public" rooms...

I'm not judging. This is a difficult area to broach with anyone whether they're your kid, friend, spouse - and the content you don't want them accessing can come from multiple sources - adult websites, WhatsApp, email, social media etc., and in volume - we're not talking about a small stash of top shelf magazines any more (which was the case when I was a teen, and just feels incredibly quaint now).

Your kids may feel pressured to participate by friends - either by viewing the content, or I'm sorry to say providing "images" of themselves which are shared. This is why parental guidance is really important.

wongataa

flyer said:

I entitled this thread !!!!!!, but someone must have changed it. I would be grateful if people didn't judge me. I was simply asking if it is the case that incognito bypasses VMs parental controls and, if that is the case, what can be done. Surely it makes a mockery of the parental controls?

Parental controls should still work with incognito mode.  If they don't then they are useless and not worth using.  You can easily test this yourself.  Of course the parental controls could be working just fine with incognito mode on as there other ways to circumvent parental controls.

Vitor

- how can I sort this -

Based on responsible parenting, not tech.  That said, have a look at Microsoft's Microsoft Family Safety controls or the  Apple equivalent of Screen Time. Linux Mint users can access a firehose of filth😮

- Surely it makes a mockery of the parental controls? -

Virgin support telling OP “incognito bypasses controls” is lazy nonsense. The OP's children will have likely set the DNS lookup on their device to be Google (8.8.8.8) or similar, bypassing Virgin's DNS level web filtering. The kids will be using Incognito mode to avoid leaving a web-site history and cookies on PC.