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Parental Controls not blocking anything

graemefraser — Sat, 02 Sep 2023 10:39:51 GMT

Good morning - I've just discovered that our parental controls arent working. Adult material is available despite being blocked in the filters. We're using Fibre Halo 2.

I've gone through all the recommendations here: https://www.bt.com/help/security/parental-controls/i-ve-got-a-problem-with-bt-parental-controls#active but the filters still don't seem to work.

Ive spoken with support a couple of times and they have assured me they are in place. I saw that @DarrenW was able to help in an archived chat.

Any help will greatly appreciated.

Re: Parental Controls not blocking anything

Crimliar — Sat, 02 Sep 2023 13:22:11 GMT

The problem is that Parental Controls rely on filtering websites using DNS (Domain Name System), and not the content itself. Your data doesn't pass through the DNS, rather DNS tells your browsers, apps, and other stuff where things are. In the case of filtering what you don't want access to, DNS points to a dead end rather than where that data actually is.

The problem with this approach is that it relies on the filtered DNS actually being used, which the BT routers do not (for good reason) enforce. What can go wrong is that devices and/or don't use the system-advertised DNS, leading to the filtering being bypassed.

It's possible to rattle on about this for pages, but it's probably better to let the thread develop naturally.

In the meantime have a look at what DNS Leak Test reports your DNS servers as being - they should be BT. Please don't get too paranoid about DNS Leak Tests, in order for your devices to work they need to be sending requests to some DNS servers.

Always use caution when following external links!

Re: Parental Controls not blocking anything

graemefraser — Sun, 03 Sep 2023 11:55:54 GMT

thank you @Crimliar I did the test and the DNS servers are listed at BT.

So how can i get the filters to work?

Re: Parental Controls not blocking anything

Crimliar — Sun, 03 Sep 2023 14:25:10 GMT

So you need to be testing the DNS servers on each device that you suspect, but if that is the case and you are still seeing too many dodgy sites slip through, then it could just be that those sites are not on the DNS filter lists! Beyond this, you start looking at using your own router (you could lose Digital Voice), with custom filtering DNS servers and enforcing DNS lookups (thanks to new protocols this is getting less easy!

Re: Parental Controls not blocking anything

gg30340 — Sun, 03 Sep 2023 22:13:17 GMT

I have notified the moderators of the forum about your problem. Once they have read this they may be able to help. They will advise you by posting on this thread.

Re: Parental Controls not blocking anything

JohnC2 — Mon, 04 Sep 2023 07:25:53 GMT

Hi @graemefraser, sorry that the Parental Controls are not working for you.
Did they work ok previously? Or is this a new connection?

I've also sent you a Private Message so you can get in touch with the Mod team for help getting this resolved.

Cheers

John

Re: Parental Controls not blocking anything

graemefraser — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 14:01:26 GMT

Hi, this problem is still not fixed even though the ticket has now been closed.

Please can this be looked into.

Thanks

Re: Parental Controls not blocking anything

NeilO — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 15:53:43 GMT

Hi @graemefraser I'm sorry about that, I can see the team looking into that for you tried calling on three occasions but were unable to reach you so the case was closed. I've reopened it so they'll be in touch again in the next day or two.

Thanks

Neil

Re: Parental Controls not blocking anything

the_grim_warden — Thu, 02 Nov 2023 11:16:46 GMT

i'm having a similiar problem - my web filtering isn't even blocking pornhub, so it's not a case of sites slipping through the cracks. deffo using BT DNS servers via dhcp on all devices too.