Restricting search words/specific content

Abiiap

Hi there,

I've a bit of a complex one, but I'll try get my point across whilst keeping confidentiality. Basically I work for a service with vulnerable adults, and one specific client I work with was accessing dating sites to talk to men on her phone. There were some concerns about her safety and a psychological assessment deemed her not to have the capacity to use these sites/meet up with strangers, therefore this specific site was blocked with permission from the courts.

However, as we want to implement the least restrictive alternative, I am very keen to keep allowing her to access her phone and access to the internet/apps, however this won't be a viable option if we are unable to restrict her going back on similar sites and speaking with strangers online.

I have been doing a lot of research on all this, and basically my head is melted with all the conflicting info/options. We don't want to put her on a 'child' restrictive setting per se, as she is perfectly entitled to watch adult content/images etc, it's specifically using dating/chat sites to talk to other men which is the problem. I know there is ways of restricting specific sites once you enter in those website names, however it's not feasible to know/type in every single dating/chat site domain name. The reason we want to keep her with a Smartphone is so she can use Whatsapp to text friends and then at least we'd have an idea of who she is corresponding with as she'd have to already know their numbers to use that.

I was wondering is there any way to block certain search results i.e. if she was to search for 'dating', 'meet', 'connect', or is there ways of say completely restricting access to the internet, bar a list of specific ones we give access to (for e.g. entertainment.ie, dailymail etc).

If the only option is to apply a parental control type thing then I suppose that will have to be done, but would that safely filter out all dating/chat sites (i.e. would it know that those sites are only meant to be 18+ therefore would restrict them all?)

I'm open to all/any suggestions with this. I really want her to continue to have access to her phone, to text her few friends, and to be able to search for things online like news, games, fashion etc, but she is very much at risk and vulnerable and if there's no way of restricting her to these dating/chat sites where she can privately message strangers then unfortunately she won't be able to have access to a phone that connects to the internet, which is a real shame.

As I said, open to any/all suggestions on this one! Would really, really appreciate anybody in the know.

P.s. I tested out the 'Safety Net' app on a work phone, and it initially seemed perfect for what I was looking for (i.e. I could disable certain apps, restrict premium numbers like those used by some dating sites), but unfortunately it was a disaster in terms of functioning (kept crashing, popping up dozens of times asking for a password etc, so had to uninstall it. Wouldn't recommend using that)

Spocker

Do you have control of the networks that your client connects to? Installing software or filters at that level may be an option for you

Abiiap

Spocker wrote: »

Do you have control of the networks that your client connects to? Installing software or filters at that level may be an option for you

Hi there, thanks for reply. Do you mean the wifi connection or her mobile provider? She's a residential client so the wifi would be controlled there, but she's quite independent and would be out and about so that wouldn't help if she connected to public wifi spots. Maybe I'm misinterpreting your question though? If you mean her network I rang Vodafone and they just suggested that safety net app, which is not fit for purpose with the amount of bugs it seems to currently have. Nearly crashed my work phone just trying it out!

Spocker

Yes, I meant how the client connects to the Internet in general, and whether you had control over that. As you don't, you're going to have to continue with some form of on-app filtering

Heres a couple of options

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.contentwatch.ghoti.cp.browser
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=mobicip.com.safeBrowserff (allows custom filters)
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gpit.android.safe.RangerTablet (allows black and white lists)

Abiiap

Ok thank you so so much for that. Clinking into those links lead me to uncover 'AppLock', which essentially allows you to lock specific apps (ie internet explorer & google), and requires a password to proceed. This means that she will still be able to call, text, view youtube, play on the apps etc, but just wont be able to unsupervised search online, which is essentially what the issue was (her finding dating sites/chatrooms). So I'm delighted with that, as it's less restrictive than giving her just a basic Doro phone say.

Thanks so much for your help!

Spocker

You're welcome, and I hope it works out for your client