Software for blocking porn sites: a crucial aid to parental controls
The pandemic has resulted in an increased usage of online resources by users of all age groups, and especially by children and adolescents, who are often unaware of the dangers of the web. In this article, we explain how FlashStart is an effective tool for parental controls and safedns.
1. Screen time: time spent in front of internet-connected screens is steadily increasing
Screen time, that is, the time spent in front of the screen of a device that can connect to the internet, has increased dramatically during recent years. This is confirmed by various statistics, which show that this is especially true for children and teenagers.
According to Elite Content Marketer, a platform which offers software reviews and educational tools, forty-four percent of five- to ten-year-olds began spending more than four hours a day on electronic devices during the pandemic, a figure that is dramatically greater than the pre-pandemic figure of around twenty-one percent.
As for teenagers, however, USA Today reports that, during the pandemic, the average time spent in front of a screen doubled, reaching nearly eight hours daily, excluding the hours spent connected for distance learning, which was necessitated by the epidemiological conditions.
Finally, the NCBI, the U.S. National Center for Biotechnology Information, conducted a study by population group, concluding that, also in the case of adults, the pandemic has led to an increase in screen time, calculated at an average of forty percent more than in the pre-pandemic period. The number of devices from which adults tend to connect has also increased, reaching two or more.
>> FlashStart is the software for blocking porn sites that offers protection from a wide range of threats ? Request a quotation or try it now
2. Greater screen time, greater dangers
The more extensive usage of network-connected devices leads to more dangers related to cyber threats. This is especially true for the first user groups mentioned above, i.e., children and teenagers, who are often unaware of the risks of the web and who, given their age and inexperience, fall more easily into the traps laid by hackers.
2.1 Exposure to dangerous contents
Inexperienced internet users have become a real target for hackers as, through them, attackers can gain access to larger networks and launch attacks with more dangerous consequences.
In fact, young internet users often connect to the web from their home network, the same network their parents use to access the corporate network and to work remotely. In the case of parents, the connection to the work environment may be via a VPN, that is, a virtual private network, or by directly accessing databases and documents available online.
In such cases, the hacker may prepare dedicated phishing attacks aimed at attracting the attention of younger users so that they click on suspicious links which are supposed to redirect them to sites that are seemingly of interest to them. These sites actually trigger a series of mechanisms aimed at allowing the criminal to gain access to the home network and, from there, through VPN services or via parental login, enter the corporate network and launch attacks with more serious, costly, and extensive consequences.
>> FlashStart is the DNS filter that protects you against malware and unwanted contents ? Request a quotation or try it now
2.2 Exposure to unwanted contents
However, cyber attacks are not the only threat to fear when giving a device to an inexperienced user. There is also the possibility of unwanted contents which, especially in the case of young users, can have unwanted and unexpected, even serious, results.
So, what is meant by “unwanted contents“? The expression means all contents that, due to their nature, may be objectionable, offensive, or shocking. They are, therefore, contents that are inappropriate for the audience that comes into contact with them and include, but are not limited to, porn sites, sites that carry violent images and contents, that incite drug and weapons use, or online gambling sites.
2.3 Specifically: exposure to pornographic contents
Research conducted in Australia in 2020 showed that fifty-seven percent of young Australians ranging from age twelve to age seventeen have been exposed to shocking violent images, thirty-three percent have seen images or videos that promote terrorism, and, according to a study by the Australian Institute of Family Studies, nearly half of children and young people between the ages of nine and sixteen are regularly exposed to pornographic images.
Various studies focus on the psychological level effects of this continuous and common exposure to pornographic images on the young minds of children and teenagers. The findings use terms such as “traumatizing” and “reality distortion.” It is, therefore, crucial for parents to use tools that block access to this type of content, ensuring a more tranquil development of their children’s psychology.
>> FlashStart is the porn-blocking software which denies the access of traumatizing contents to children and teenagers ? Request a quotation or try it now
3. The tools for parental controls and safedns
The aforementioned emphasizes the increasing need to use systems and software that are able to block porn sites and other unwanted contents and that will constantly work to prevent children and teenagers from coming into contact with images, videos, and contents that are not appropriate for their age and psychological developmental stage.
There are dedicated tools for parental controls, tools that, therefore, deal specifically with blocking contents deemed unsuitable for younger minds. Some of these tools are offered as features that can be activated in search engines and platforms which are dedicated to streaming video and audio contents. Examples include Google’s SafeSearch feature and YouTube’s Restricted Mode.
Parental controls may also be offered by the operating system being used on a given device, even if one prefers to turn to the real experts in the field, that is, to companies which have developed targeted systems to block the presentation of unwanted contents. In that case, we are talking about parental control tools and safedns.
>> FlashStart: the filter for pornographic sites which prohibits children and teenagers from exposure to inappropriate contents ? Request a quotation or try it now
3.1 Parental and safedns controls: the top 3
SafeWise, a site that reviews safety products in a wide variety of fields, recently (on Oct. 25) released its 2022 ranking of the most effective parental control apps. The top 3 are:
» Bark: Confirmed as the preferred app for parental controls, considered very easy to set up and use. This app achieves the highest scores in terms of monitoring not only social media but also email and all other instant messaging systems.
» MMGuardian: allows users to read all messages sent and received and check all incoming and outgoing calls from their children’s phones. This app also requires parental okay to download new apps.
» Qustodio: considered very good in terms of location tracking, therefore, in terms of knowing where the device given in use to one’s children is located in the hope that, given how attached young people are to technology, one’ s children will be there too!
>> FlashStart is multi-tenant and immediately installable ? Request a quotation or try it now
4. FlashStart: a complete solution for online safety for children and teenagers
Tools for parental controls meet only a part of the needs related to cyber security. Given, however, the need to include a block on all unwanted contents, especially a filter for pornographic sites, as well as a block on all malicious and dangerous contents, FlashStart has developed a DNS-based content filter which is a comprehensive solution in that it blocks:
» Dangerous contents: FlashStart is the DNS web filter against malware, phishing attempts, botnets, and various types of cyber attacks perpetrated through the web. FlashStart contents filter acts at the DNS level by banning access to all sites considered to be dangerous.
» Unwanted contents: FlashStart is the software for blocking porn sites but not only that. In fact, the network administrator can decide to block a wide range of categorized and blacklisted sites in order to provide more comprehensive protection of the browsing experience.
» Distracting contents: FlashStart can block access to all distracting contents. These include, as in the case of parental control software, social networks and messaging applications, as well as video and music streaming platforms, keeping young users’ concentration levels high and preventing drops in performance levels.
Finally, FlashStart is ideal for the whole family and for schools because the protection can be managed in a granular way, by assigning different risk profiles and, therefore, various restrictions to different groups of users.
>> To find out more, contact us. We are available 24/7, and we answer all your questions in Italian, English, and Spanish.
You can activate the FlashStart® Cloud protection on any sort of Router and Firewall to secure desktop and mobile devices and IoT devices on local networks.
