This topic

Parental Controls not working effectively

D1P1 — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 12:06:39 GMT

Hi, I have set up Parental Controls to Moderate to Block "Social Networking" due to teenage kids in the house. That blocked a lot of useful sites that we all use like the Online Newspapers Comments section, LinkedIn. So I went into the "Allowed Websites " box and included the websites that we as a family use like the Online newspapers, Facebook, instagram, LinkediN, Pinterest etc. But those websites do not work anymore.

So I tried another way, Kept Parental Controls to "Light" and therefore not blocking "Social Networking" but instead adding a whole list of bad websites like Askfm, ChatIb, Tinder, Snapchat etc on the Blocked Websites list. But the kids and I can still access all those websites on the Blocked Websites List.

Why are the filters not working as intended?

What is the best option for us?

Re: Parental Controls not working effectively

NeilO — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 14:25:49 GMT

Hi @D1P1, welcome to the community and thanks for posting. When were you making the changes as after setting up the filters it can take a few hours for them to take effect? Is it just the allowed or blocked websites that aren't working?

Re: Parental Controls not working effectively

D1P1 — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 14:32:19 GMT

Thank you for your replyI had updated settings yesterday but they still did not work after a few hours.

Both aspects are not working: If I put parental control on Moderate which restricts Social Messaging, then the "allowed websites" are no longer accessible. If I put parental control on Light which allows social messaging then the "block websites" are no longer blocked and everyone can access them.

Either way, the Parental Control appears to work as intended but the allow and blocked websites exceptions is not working. Don't know if that makes sense?

Re: Parental Controls not working effectively

NeilO — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 15:09:29 GMT

Hi @D1P1, yes that makes perfect sense thanks. By any chance are all the sites you're trying to block being accessed via apps? If you try them from a normal web browser are they being blocked?

Re: Parental Controls not working effectively

D1P1 — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 15:22:05 GMT

Hi @NeilO

We were accessing the blocked sites via normal browser - Chrome - and we could still access them.

Would there be a difference if they were an App? I want to make sure I don't leave any apps still accessible!

Re: Parental Controls not working effectively

NeilO — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 15:42:36 GMT

@D1P1 thanks for confirming that, it should work on both browsers and apps. I think we'll need to get our parental controls team to check this over for you, I'll send a private message in a moment so you can get in touch with the moderation team.

Re: Parental Controls not working effectively

D1P1 — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 16:05:50 GMT

Hi @NeilO

Thanks I have responded with my details