Bypassing Parental Controls With BT

Every so often I feel the need to share some 'internet control' experiences, this is my third 'off topic' blog - the first of which concerned turning on parental controls, the second about the prevalence of porn on Twitter. 

Recently I've seen plenty of evidence that inappropriate content is showing up on childrens' computers despite their parents locking down devices and restricting access.

Just to be clear, there are ALWAYS ways to circumvent these controls. But many cannot work out how - and I'm certainly not going to share methods for doing it. That doesn't mean you should ignore the problem though.

If you're a BT broadband customer (one third of UK households are), you are almost certainly providing simplified access to the pornosphere for your children and their friends.

Some background first - if you're of a mind to block inappropriate material, then you have probably enabled parental controls on mobile devices and computers in the house.

You may even have decided to completely stop the flow into your house, and had your provider block it at source. There's a simple way to do this with BT, follow this link, sign in with your credentials, then scroll down to the 'extras' section and click 'Manage' in the BT Parental Control box.

Congratulations, you've successfully blocked inappropriate content coming into the house, (although how porn and alcohol end up in the same filter category is beyond me).

Wrong.

Actually it's very easy to bypass this, not for you, but for your children or for guests in your house.

Part of the BT offering is to allow your home router to be used as a personal hotspot for anyone. Check out your wi-fi network now, and you'll see 'BTWifi-with-FON' listed.

This means that if I am in range of any BT router I can use it as a wi-fi hotspot (by signing in with my BT account credentials).

Many parents give those credentials to their children so they can access wi-fi and not use mobile data plans, so usernames and passwords get passed around at school, enabling your child to use someone else's details to see whatever they want through your router.

The good news is that you can opt out of this, but it's not that easy, and after half an hour of navigating through BT's website to a human I finally got this link, which allows you to opt out of providing a hotspot: https://www.bt.com/wifi/secure/statuscheck.do 

Bizarrely if you don't have a btinernet.com email address you need to find an actual person to do this for you - this link may help. (Click problem with service, then broadband and eventually this magic chat button will appear). 

If all this seems like a huge amount of hassle, then that's because it is. I'm not sure that you should have to 'opt-in' to see adult content, that's a much larger debate, but if you do want to turn off adult content, then BT could make it a great deal simpler (and not leave the open hotspot wide open for abuse). 

Not enabled parental controls yet? Don't think you should? Read this and it may change your mind.

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Keep Your Children Away From Twitter

This blog is a little off topic for me - but back in May last year I wrote an article on parental controls that is still getting plenty of attention, and I wanted to share a recent experience.

I consider myself to be well versed in tech and social media, I've been working with computers since I was nine years old, and worked in the technology industry most of my life. With four children it pays to keep up with what's going on in the world. But a few weeks ago, I learned something very new.

Twitter is the new home of easily accessible hard core porn for all.

It really is - if you need a hooker, stripper or dominatrix this evening - just take a look. Feel in the need for some hardcore sexual imagery? - It's only a click away, living side by side with all the business and celebrity chatter.

I couldn't have been more surprised if I'd seen One Direction smoking pot at the top of my LinkedIn headlines.

So please, please, please be aware of this before allowing your kids to use Twitter. They may not want to (my children think that Facebook is something old people do) - but be aware that access to Twitter is access to interactive pornography.

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Brief back story......

I came upon this enlightening discovery while trying to help a friend who was being bullied online. This is a fellow parent I might add, not some naive teenager.

The abuse started out when somebody opened a fake Facebook account, then started hurling insults her way. They then tried to friend people she knew and draw their attention too the abuse. 

This became more and more personal and abusive, before turning into a game of virtual stalking and the posting of pornographic imagery with further lewd commentary. Then pictures started to show of her up taken at various locations nearby. 

Creepy, weird and sick.

Facebook (to their credit) allow you to report this kind of thing easily, just right click on any image - and after three complaints have now shut down the account. It took them only a few hours to respond each time.

But before he left Facebook, the abuser started a Twitter account, and shared his Twitter name. 

He then set about adding the same kind of imagery, abuse and offensive behaviour - and started to follow a number of accounts whose prostitution or pornography business is clearly very much at home in Twitters ecosystem. 

Then he starting to use the names of my friends employer and professional contacts in his abusive tweets, drawing attention to his newly posted (faked) nude pictures of her.

Twitter say that this is all perfectly OK, and allowed - freedom is their mantra. 

Multiple complaints received no reply - and it was only when my friend approached her employer about it (who have a large advertising contract with Twitter) that the offending account was removed.

I love Twitter - I really do, and enjoy using it to learn from others, keep in touch with friends and follow the antics of a few celebrities I admire. But I do wonder how many businesses know about the dark underbelly......and how that might affect advertising revenue in the future.

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Turn On Parental Controls - Do It Now

Do you have pornographic videos next to the TV in your house? How about magazines on the coffee table? 

If this is acceptable in your house, then this blog is not for you.

If your children have access to any device with internet access they are likely to discover pornography quicker than you think. Their curiosity will get the better of them, and they'll continue to seek new and different images and content to explore.

There are many articles written about the effect this has on young minds, and there appear to be two schools of thought;

1. Children need to learn these lessons for themselves - it's part of the parental duty of trust to allow them to discover new things and with the proper parenting they know right from wrong.

2. The internet and search engine providers should block these things.

Rarely do I see an option 3 "Turn On Parental Controls"

For many years both Microsoft and Apple have provided their products with a quick switch to block the worst the internet has to offer (click on either company to see how). There are many applications for mobile devices which serve the same purpose  - and yet they don't get used enough.

Option 1 is naive and unlikely. Think back to your own teenage years and the temptations you were offered. What was the worst thing you could find in the library, or the newsagent, or on video? I'll be blatantly sexist here - and I apologise in advance, but I'd also suggest that boys are more likely than girls to be fascinated by pornography, and more likely to find ways to get it.

This means that Dad probably understands the attraction of porn to a teenager more than Mum which sets up a classic parental divide on whether or not parental controls should be switched on.

The content that can be found online bears no relationship at all to the widely available publications on the shelves of the newsagent.

Option 2 is a symptom of an ever increasing reliance on a 'nanny state' and absolves responsibility. You are responsible for your own children, not Google. If you bring a pornographic magazine into the house, and a child finds it - do you blame the newsagent, the publisher or yourself?

I have four children - from age 3 to 14. We have three computers in the house, a tablet and two smart phones. Parental controls are switched on.

Is it a pain in the neck to feed in the admin password for one time access to sites when the filters get it wrong? Of course. Do the kids ask for it to be turned off? Of course they do. 

Last week my eldest son and I were talking. He explained that he felt I was snooping on him, and didn't trust him because they were turned on. The snooping was by far the biggest issue.

I explained that before parental controls were switched on, then I was doing plenty of 'snooping', which I no longer do. What he does on his computer is private, but with parental controls on, it's also within parameters that help ensure his safety (and that of the other children in the house). 

Think that your child isn't doing it? Or that they are imposing their own limits? Think again - I recently had this conversation with a friend who became curious and asked me to look at their sons computer.

I'm technical enough to get by deleted browsing histories, private browsing limitations and all the typical stuff that teenagers share to try and hide behaviour. So I opened up a hidden directory showing screenshots of the last few months of activity. To say my friend was shocked was an understatement - he called his wife to look, and the parental controls went on immediately.

Their 12 year old son may have been 'exploring' but he was doing it almost exclusively and had found things online that would shock anybody. I think mum and dad were expecting a few topless shots, or even some couples demonstrating how babies are made in creative ways.....not the hardest of hardcore stuff involving lots of people, all bodily functions, animals, dungeons and worse.

If you know someone with tech expertise who you trust, why not ask them to do the same? 

But the chances are you don't - so turn on the controls, and explain why. You're doing it to protect, not snoop - yes, you're likely to get some kick back if they've been enjoying unrestricted browsing for months or years, but you're reducing the risk to your child.

Even better, when you've done so, share this with your friends - and if enough people do then it will be seen as 'normal' instead of 'strict' behaviour.

(For my February 2014 Update on the perils of Twitter - click here)

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