Can someone recommend an app for blocking certain sites and

amother

Mon, Sep 02 2019, 9:17 am

Hi we just got our kids smartphones. My husband and I both agree that there needs to be a filter as well as a way to see what they have been doing online.there are stores that put filters on but then if necessary it can't be unlocked to change things. Is there an app online to do these things? my girls especially want to do art videos on YouTube so I am looking something to filter YouTube as well. I am happy to pay if it is what I am looking for. Thank you

amother

Mon, Sep 02 2019, 10:21 am

I am in Israel and I prefer to do something that I can decide how strict to make it or not.there are a ton of apps out there but I'm not sure which one is really good. Want to be fairly strict but as they get older we would probably ease some of the restrictions. They are not young teens and I have finished this off for many many years.

amother

Blonde

Mon, Sep 02 2019, 10:53 am

LovesHashem wrote:

TAG is in Israel. They know all the options. I personally use TAG and felt they did it very well.

I think you need to give them a list of sites you allow and then they can block or filter the others.

(I beg you to take care of it right away... I wish I would have. Unfortunately I thought my innocent 12 year old son was playing a game, which he was, until the day he accidentally discovered one of the most horrific sites possible. We are still paying the price for that.)

LovesHashem

Mon, Sep 02 2019, 11:14 am

amother [ Blonde ] wrote:

TAG is a organization that tells you what filtering options are available and can put any of the 4-6 companies filters on your device. They help you understand the pros, cons and costs of different filters and help you choose what is best for you. They help put it on and facilitate the whole process.

They don't own any filters, TAG is simply a nonprofit organization run entirely by volunteers.
If you appreciate their service you can donate money, but besides for that it's a chesed.

So I think you misunderstood.

amother

Mistyrose

Mon, Sep 02 2019, 11:22 am

Netspark has done a nice job for us, especially since they can filter within Youtube and images, aside from blocking specified things. They also now have a feature for filtering Whatsapp, if that is something you are putting on the phones. And you can change settings from your own phone. So if a kid calls you at work and says they can't access a specific video or image they need for something like an assignment, you can change the settings temporarily as needed.

amother

Mon, Sep 02 2019, 11:32 am

Thank you for all of the replies. The phones are safely in my hands right now and they will not get them until we have it sorted out. I would prefer something I can put on myself so that I can change settings as need be or if you are traveling get into Google so they can have internet. A lot of times you have to sign into their Network. That would only be if you are traveling and I am with them. Is anyone familiar with any of these filtering things online like net Nanny or Norton family.

LovesHashem

Mon, Sep 02 2019, 11:47 am

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Pretty sure TAG has filters like that. I advise you to go and see what the offer or go to https://venishmartem.com/

cuterpatooter

Mon, Sep 02 2019, 1:45 pm

We use K9 and it does the job.
I have half the password, my husband has the other half, so we need each other to allow any automatically blocked sites.

In addition, there are two free plug-ins for chrome I really like.
Wizmage - puts a colored overlay over all images. You can easily choose which sites are always exempt from this, and can pause it whenever. Besides not seeing any random inapropiate pics from the news or whatever, it also helps some sites look less overwhelming from all the ads around the content
https://chrome.google.com/webs.....hl=en

There are a bunch of version s of the second type. I forgot what I used to use, but it blocks any sites you choose and can be easily turned off. it's good for more when I'm procrastinating online. You can set it to block a site for a certain amount of time or whatever.

LovesHashem

Mon, Sep 02 2019, 2:03 pm

misrael wrote:

We use K9 and it does the job.
I have half the password, my husband has the other half, so we need each other to allow any automatically blocked sites.

K9 has shut down. A company bought it out and closed down the program. If you have it it should stop working within the next few months. It's impossible to download it for a first user, and it's not for smartphones and never was.

If you rely on K9 for your kids I suggest you find something else ASAP. It could be it stopped working. In any case it was a filter that didn't do the job well and was easily worked around - for instance if you boot the computer into safe mode and use the internet that way k9 doesn't even start. If you have tech saavy kids they could already be doing such things.

Aylat

Mon, Sep 02 2019, 11:21 pm

AppLock. You can get it from the app store on the phone. You choose which apps you want to lock with a password (that you can know but not your kids) and you can also lock the store itself so they can't download any apps without your knowledge and permission.
NB when you download it, go to the advanced settings to ensure that AppLock itself is password protected so that it can't be deleted by anyone without the password.

On my phone, which my kids have access to, I have locked all internet apps and youtube, so that my kids don't have unsupervised access to them.

In terms of filtering YouTube - I haven't found a good solution and would be glad to get ideas. One option is to lock it and then your daughters can come to get it unlocked when they want to use it, and you can have a rule that it is only used in a public area eg the lounge and the phone is not taken to their bedroom when youtube is unlocked.

nanny24/7

Tue, Sep 03 2019, 12:16 am

Aylat wrote:

Just be careful on some phones or tablets app lock does not work reliably. You can test is out for a few days to say if it works well or not. On a tablet I once had, when clicking the square shaped icon to display all currently open apps and then clicking on an app to go to it didn't activate the app lock that way at all (it only prompted for a password when clicking on an app from the homescreen). On my old android device app lock worked beautifully whereas with my new one it seems to work half the time and the other half of the time not. I haven't figured out it's rhyme or reason.
For YouTube 613tube.com displays YouTube videos without the ads (but you still need to filter which videos you are okay with), and YouTuze is an app that lets you select a list of YouTube videos to play online off the app and to add or remove videos from the app selection you need to put in a password. This would only obviously help if YouTube itself was properly app locked.

amother

Sienna

Tue, Sep 03 2019, 12:18 am

I've used mobicip for years for an ipad we have at home, though I believe it can work for other mobile devices (phones, etc) as well.

The thing I really like about it is that I can set different levels for different devices, and change those levels when I want just by logging in (I can do it from a computer - I don't need to log on to the device that's being filtered). Additionally, if anyone tries to get on a site that's blocked, mobicip will block it and offer an option for the user to request permission to get access. (as in, mobicip will send me a message and I can then decide whether or not to unblock the site).

Link here =

https://www.mobicip.com/

FranticFrummie

Tue, Sep 03 2019, 6:18 am

misrael wrote:

.
Wizmage - puts a colored overlay over all images. You can easily choose which sites are always exempt from this, and can pause it whenever. Besides not seeing any random inapropiate pics from the news or whatever, it also helps some sites look less overwhelming from all the ads around the content
https://chrome.google.com/webs.....hl=en

Oh my goodness, thank you so much! It is really soothing on the eyes, and I struggle with reading sometimes, even if I make the font really big. I didn't even realize how much all that peripheral information was stressing me out, until I refreshed my screen. Ahhhhh, so nice!

I'm a big fan of f.lux for blue blocking in the evening. It's another one that's really good for eye strain, and also helps with insomnia if you are a late night screen user. The settings are incredibly flexible, and you can set the time, density, color, turn off at full screen, etc. I honestly can't believe that this app is free!