We are now opening a Pandora’s box! Mobile devices are the future of education, the future of technology and, unfortunately, the future of pornography. Parental controls are glaringly inadequate in this arena.
I distinctly remember buying my first smartphone in year 2002. It was instantly infatuated! I have been tinkering with these magical little elves since then and have learnt a thing or two. Let’s put this knowledge to good use.
Let’s immobilize porn on mobiles, no pun intended!
Security Layer One: Call your cellphone provider
T-Mobile’s web guard
Porn in an unwelcome guest on our mobiles. Let us filter it at the door before it gets a chance to check-in. Fortunately, now that you have OpenDNS on your home wireless network, mobiles are safe inside your home. However, out in the open they are as insecure as a sea lion surrounded by killer whales.
So, let us fix that by putting a security net around it. Who’ll provide that security net? You friendly neighborhood cellphone provider. Please give them a call and ask for parental controls they can setup at their end. These content filters are very basic but are a great starting-point for us. For example, T-Mobile USA has a web blocker called Web Guard. You can call them and set it up on any of your mobile numbers. This site blocker allows you to choose a level of security: Child, Teen or Young Adult.
Quick, lock the back door: Please make sure that your kids (or the loved ones you are protecting) are not setup as the primary account holder on your cellphone account. Also, they should not be privy to the online password to the account. It is also a good idea to call your provider and setup a phone password to access your account via phone. This is again an often-missed security hole but it leaves your family open to porn and internet predators. It’s like a sea lion surrounded by…. well, you get the idea.
Security Layer Two: Parental Controls on the phones
Most phone operating systems have at least a rudimentary parental control system. Please enable this to provide an extra layer of security to the mobiles.
Apple iOS: If you have an Apple iOS device you can use in-built restrictions to block content and apps. Click here to learn how.
Android devices:Android 4.3 and above tablets come with multiple user profiles you can setup. Go to Settings>Users>Add user profiles. Alas, this is not available for phones. You best bet would be to use an app to control access. Apps like ‘App Lock’ provide the same functionality.
Windows mobile devices: Windows Phone comes with a ‘My Family’ feature to control access to apps and games by their maturity ratings. Click here to learn how. (http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/how-to/wp8/apps/my-family-on-the-windows-phone-website)
Blackberry: Surprise! Blackberry is still alive! And so are its parental controls. Go to Settings> Security & Privacy> Parental Controls to enable them.
Quick, lock the back door: Please make sure that your phones are not rooted (or jail broken, in case of iPhones). That opens up a whole lot of back doors on your phones rendering it open to adult content and apps. Remember the sea lion? Good!
Security Layer 3: Parental control Apps
There is an app for that! In fact, there are several apps for parental controls on phones. So many that it can get confusing. None of these are fool proof, but are a good third-layer of security for your phone.
There are lots of choices so I’ll walk you through the process of making a judicious choice. You know what they say: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish…. and he never shows up at work and goes fishing instead! But I digress. Let’s get back and discuss the 4 features that a good parental control app should have:
- It should need a password to uninstall
- It should either monitor all browsers or have the ability to disable other browsers
- It should be able to block downloading of apps , especially other browsers
- It should send out a message (email/text/notification) if it is disabled or inactive
Now, go fish!
To get you started, here are some good fish to bait first:
- K9 Web Filter (iPhone only): https://itunes.apple.com/app/k9-web-protection-browser/id407657840
- MMGuardian (Android only) www.mmguardian.com
- Norton Family https://onlinefamily.norton.com/familysafety/nofToGo.fs
- AVG Family Safety http://www.avg.com/us-en/for-mobile
We’d be happy to know which app finally caught your fancy. Do post a comment with your expert opinion about the app. A fish tastes best when shared. Bon appetit!
The k9 app link you provide for android finds nothing. K9 seems to be gone from the play store
Rc, thanks for visiting us! We appreciate your comment. You are right, K9 has disappeared from the Google Play Store. We have corrected that information on the page. The other options are still viable options. I hope that helps.