There are many ways that a teen can get around an internet filter and sometimes it is just the mere concept of “trying” that motivates them. Some kids will break the rules simply because the rules are there; testing the limits is not only fun for them, but it’s a part of learning boundaries. Net Nanny makes it almost impossible to get around them, but there are still some circumvention techniques. This blog will make you aware of some of them.

Many internet filters don’t even bother blocking certain types of websites because there is no way that the filter can know if the content is truly inappropriate or not. This could make circumvention very easy by simply finding new sites or sites that are well known enough to be indexed in a list. Don’t worry though, if you are using Net Nanny we already have this covered.

One type of site that most internet filters don’t block are those with user-generated content, like blogs and wiki pages. The most famous wiki is Wikipedia, which gives anyone with an account the ability to edit any subject. Most filters allow these types of websites, which can have objectionable material because they do not have the ability to search and examine web pages in real-time. But the truth is, there is a lot of objectional and inappropriate content on Wikipedia – especially since they cover any topic you can imagine. The benefit of Net Nanny is the ability to check pages in real-time, so it can filter out any objectionable material, while still allowing access to individual pages that are appropriate even within the same website.

Now, you don’t have to worry about blocking your kids from potentially educational wikis, which could be helpful for book reports and school projects, but you can still ensure that any stumbles into less-than-acceptable pages on the same site are minimized.

Besides exploiting holes in an internet filter, teens can also find out a website’s IP (Internet Protocol) address, which is a string of numbers that identify the site to other computers. They can use that instead of the website’s name to gain access. Alternatively, kids can go to a proxy website, which is a web page within a web page that can hide the IP address, in order to surf the web anonymously. Teens are increasingly tech-literate, and many can perform a subversive operation like this with ease. Luckily for the parents, Net Nanny is capable of checking a web page’s content in real-time, regardless of how the user arrived at the website, so it can still block inappropriate websites and can block all proxy websites. This way, proxies and IP addresses won’t work for kids protected by Net Nanny.

There are a number of ways to outflank an internet filter, and with the excess of inappropriate and explicit material littered across the internet, what your kids see can be dangerous. To find an effective real-time filter like Net Nanny is increasingly important to protect your kids from content to which they should not be exposed to.

ABC-TV’s “Good Morning America” (GMA)recently conducted an experiment to find out whether children could get around two different parental controls software, Net Nanny and Qustodio. The results were clear – Net Nanny was the only service that the kids could not get around: Net Nanny stumped the children. This experiment clearly demonstrates that Net Nanny gives kids better protection than its competition. In addition, Net Nanny gives parents more control (based on settings) by allowing them to embrace technology in healthy ways, yet also making sure that their family’s values transcend device, app or platform.

Moral of the story? Not all internet filters are created equal.