Buying phone for son. How to block porn on it?

Yeah, Family Link works well against porno, maybe you can look up how to block porn sites by changing your router's DNS to a DNS that blocks users from acessing porn sites: https://www.raymond.cc/blog/how-to-block-pornographic-websites-without-spending-money-on-software/

 

I have an app on my android called BlockSite that works fairly well. I think it was about 35 bucks or something to unlock the premium account, which is what you would need.

You can block specific sites, but you can also just check the box to block any site that is pornographic. I have that box checked, and also some specific sites blocked, because they aren't porn but I use them as such, so the automatic porn blocker wouldn't catch them.

With the premium account you can set up a password that only you know, so he can't access the app to unlock the sites or override the blocker. That's what I have done. My husband has the password.

But the thing is, it is literally straight up impossible to block all porn from your kid's phone if you are giving him access to the internet. Porn is everywhere. It's on any major social media site that he would be visiting. You can find it wherever you go.

Also, my app doesn't block Google images. I can turn of the strict safe search on Google, but it's extremely easy to just turn it back off, so it doesn't really do any good.

I would definitely say an app like this would be worth it though, because watching video after video on phub (which would be blocked) is SO much more harmful than finding some risque pics on Instagram. It would still be worth it to block the more nefarious sites, even if you can't block everything.

As for monitoring, Covenant Eyes I believe is a monitoring thing. My husband used to have that installed on his computer, so it would alert me when he was looking at stuff and it would show me exactly what page he was looking at. I will say, though, we got rid of it because it was constantly flagging things that were not porn and sending them to me, which was stressing both of us out. He would have to come tell me what it was and why he was looking at it, and that was early on in our journey when any mention of his porn addiction really deeply upset me, so it just wasn't worth having the app if it was going to make us have to bring it up constantly when he wasn't even looking at anything bad.

And the last point I will make is that of course he can still find porn other places, which I'm sure you well know. I think I remember you posting before about talking to kids about porn, but maybe that was someone else. Either way, whenever you feel it's an appropriate time to do so, it would of course still be good to talk to him about it. But the blockers would be good and helpful barriers to entry, especially for the more harmful sites.

 

I just want to clarify that the last half of that statement is an important "if."

If you just want your kid to have a phone for calling and texting or something, then I would follow Dan Sanders' advice above. But I was assuming you were giving him a phone that he would have internet access with, for things like social media and games and stuff like that. If that's not the case, just do what Dan said. That would completely solve the issue.

 

Not necessarily. Never changed for me, or for my sister. We have a great relationship with our parents.

I find it a little sad that parents are always telling each other stuff like this, when it wasn't my experience with my parents at all. So I know it's possible for this to not be the case.

 

Just a question but how old is your son?
11? Yeah that's a bad idea wait until he is at least 13. My parents didn't even let me have a phone until I was 16.

 

It was probably the best decision they made for me I think most people should not have access to technology they do not know how to use properly and know how to respect it for what it is. I would be lying if I said I was not at least a little bit salty but I got my first computer at 14 so I didn't really complain because I already had a decent understanding on how computers work and knew how to respect and use the internet for what it is. That's the problem with society today parents no longer take their duties seriously and just give their kids electronics that they don't know how to use or have good understanding on. So they turn to politicians who are writing bills like the "Earn it act" and "The kids online internet safety act." Which Ironically does nothing to help anybody. It makes the internet more shitty for the people who actually know how to use it, and doesn't actually help any kids.