Blocking Porn - Dr. Jen's Recovery Readings

Blocking Porn: Browsers – How to Decide?

Mike — Tue, 04 Oct 2022 16:21:12 +0000

Welcome to the next installment of our series Blocking Porn: Browsers. This is just a small piece of advice for content blocking for the top 4 most popular¹ browsers and some privacy-oriented alternative browsers.

This post contains affiliate links. The author or blog owner may earn a commission if you make a purchase using these links.

As always, it’s important to have a conversation about WHY content is being blocked whether it’s for your friend, your partner, or your child. Installing this software without the user’s consent isn’t just malicious, it’s illegal in some jurisdictions.

Technology can’t replace healthy communication in a relationship, it’s merely a tool to help better our lives.

Chrome

Google’s Chrome browser owns almost two-thirds of the market and has great customization options. It is available across all common desktop and mobile platforms.

There are also a few drawbacks, including Google’s constant spying on everything you’re doing, but that’s a whole different discussion.

Extensions

The easiest way to block porn in Chrome is by using extensions. Google Chrome Extension Store

These are the top two recommended blockers:

If you sign into your browser, your extensions will sync across your desktop devices. Meaning on PC, Mac, and ChromeBook all of your extensions SHOULD work. Chrome on iOS (iPhone/iPad) doesn’t support extensions and on Android support can be spotty. We’ll cover other options for blocking pornography on mobile devices in later installments in the series.

Alternate Search Engines

You aren’t required to use Google for search, even if you use Google’s Chrome browser. If you’ve set up Bing to be your safe search engine of choice, changing the default search engine is fairly straightforward. Instructions from Google.

Are you a professional looking to stay up-to-date with the latest information on, sex addiction, trauma, and mental health news and research? Or maybe you’re looking for continuing education courses?

Stay up-to-date with all of Dr. Jen’s work through her practice’s newsletter!

Apple Safari

Safari

Safari is the default browser on Apple devices, including Mac, iPhone, and iPad. It’s not available for PC, Linux, Android, or Chromebooks.

Just like with Chrome, and the next two browsers, Safari has the ability to add extensions to add functionality, including restricting access to certain types of sites. Safari DOES support syncing extensions, bookmarks, and other settings across all supported devices.

Extensions

The top recommended extension for Safari to block pornography is Porn Blocker Plus – for Safari, available in the App Store.

Alternatively, the top extension from Google’s Chrome has been ported to Safari’s extension eco system: BlockSite.

Edge

Microsoft’s Edge browser is available on all major desktop and mobile platforms and is built on the Chromium framework. This is the same framework that underpins Google’s own Chrome browser. As such, it has excellent support for extensions, because they don’t need to be completely re-written from Chrome.

Extensions

Edge’s extensions store, which is very similar to Chrome due to their sharing the same framework, is available here. Chrome’s top content blocking extension is available on Edge as well, BlockSite.

Do you believe you have an online pornography addiction? Take the free Cyber Pornography Addiction Test (CYPAT) and have the results to speak with your therapist.

Firefox

Firefox is a unique browser, built by the Mozilla foundation. It’s a privacy-focused browser and the developers are very transparent in their operations. And it’s available for all major desktop and mobile platforms, and just like all the others has its own extension store.

Extensions

BlockSite is here again. Mozilla also recommends Impulse Blocker by raicem.

Special Note

In an effort to prevent browser extensions from peering over your shoulder, Firefox does not allow them access in Private browser windows by default.

To ensure your extensions are enabled in in-private windows:

Go to the Add-ons Manager
Click on the 3 dots of the extension you want to enable
Click manage
In details, select Allow for “Run in Private Windows”

Do you believe your sexual behaviors are compulsive or harmful to you or others? Then you should take the CSBD-19 free, validated self-assessment tool.

Alternative Browsers

Brave Browser

Brave

Brave, developed by Brave Software, Inc., is a privacy oriented, chromium based browser. It will block ads and trackers by default. Brave uses the Chrome web store for extensions. They also offer their own search engine, as the default option.

Iron

Developed by German company SRWare, the Iron browser is built on the Chromium framework with privacy and security in mind. It’s available for Windows, MacOS, Linux, and Android but is missing from iOS. While content filtering is not built into Iron, extensions are available.

Opera

Another Chromium-based browser solution with a unique user interface, Opera offers a wide variety of extensions, called addons in Opera, and themes to choose from. It’s available for Windows, MacOS, Linux, ChromeOS, Android, and iOS.

Other Tips

To avoid the temptation of circumventing controls, uninstall all other browsers from the device.
Make sure to check the settings of any installed extensions and ensure they’re enabled for private/incognito windows.
Be careful of extensions that don’t have a lot of reviews or downloads; the extension stores aren’t well moderated.
To function properly, extensions MUST access all of your browsing data, be sure to check the privacy policies of all extensions to see what they do with your data.

Anecdote: While writing this article I installed a Chrome filtering extension and got hit with pop-ups that tried to redirect me to install additional, known-malicious extensions. It was blocked by my network’s filtering system so it didn’t affect me, but take heed of my warning to check reviews and download numbers before allowing extensions I didn’t mention here access to all of your browsing data.

Wrap Up

The most popular extension, by far, is BlockSite. The free version will block pornography, paid subscriptions will add additional features and may help to improve your productivity. It also offers additional installation options on desktop and mobile devices that can do more than just filter browser content. I’ll cover this more later in the series.

Whatever option you choose, it’s important to remember that this is only one piece of a much larger plan, and part of that plan is being honest and having frank discussions about the ramifications of pornography addiction in your life and the lives of those you love.

For an in-depth guide on talking to your adolescents about cybersex and pornography, check out Dr. Jen’s book. Amazon | BookBaby

Do you feel your sexual behavior, or that of someone you love, is out of control? Then you should consult with a professional.

Have you found yourself in legal trouble due to your sexual behavior? Seek assistance before the court mandates it, with Sexual Addiction Treatment Services.

The post Blocking Porn: Browsers – How to Decide? first appeared on Dr. Jen's Recovery Readings.

Safe Search Solutions: Foundations of Blocking Porn

Mike — Wed, 28 Sep 2022 12:17:51 +0000

Safe search is used to filter out pornographic content across all types of searches and is available on many of the popular search engines. It won’t be your only tool, but it will help lay the foundation for many of the other steps in cutting pornography out of your life.

This post contains affiliate links. The author or blog owner may earn a commission if you make a purchase using these links.

Google Safe Search

Google is the default search engine for most browsers and also one of the friendliest solutions for setting up safe search. Google also provides a relatively simple solution to manage other accounts’ safe search settings.

Managing Google Safe Search Settings

Turning on Google’s safe search is quick and easy.

On a PC, Mac, or Chromebook:

Open Google’s home page in the browser.
Click settings.
Click Search Settings.
Then check the box that says “Turn on SafeSearch.”
Finally, click save at the bottom of the page.

On mobile:

Open Google’s home page in the browser.
Tap the hamburger menu (three line icon in the top left).
Tap Settings.
Under SafeSearch filters tap “Hide explicit results”
Finally, tap save at the bottom of the page.

If this were all you did, it would be easy to defeat. It’s a much better idea to setup a family account that you can manage in order to lock safe search filters. Family settings will be covered in more detail in the Operating Systems portion of this series.

Do you believe you have an online pornography addiction? Then take this free Cyber Pornography Addiction Test (CYPAT) and have the results to speak with your therapist.

Bing

Owned by Microsoft, Bing is the second most popular search engine and is the default search provider for Microsoft’s Edge browser, which is the default browser on Microsoft’s Windows.

As with Google, it makes sense to create an account with Microsoft to manage search settings. Microsoft accounts can be through Microsoft’s own Outlook.com or using third-party email addresses like Gmail.

To turn on Safe Search on Bing, simply go to Search Settings.

As with Google, you can create a family group and manage permissions here. You and your family members will all need Microsoft accounts. You can also control access to programs on Microsoft Windows computers and purchases in the Microsoft store using these settings.

Other Search Engines

Some other search engines also have safe search features, but none offer the same reach or level of control as Google or Microsoft.

In order of popularity¹:

Baidu. Baidu is the third most popular search engine in the world and is strictly in Mandarin. It does not appear to offer safe search filters nor an English translation. Google’s Chrome browser will, however, translate the page automatically if you’re trying to find results more relevant to China than the US or elsewhere.
Fourth most popular search engine, Yahoo, does a fair job of trying to match Google and Bing’s safe search capabilities. Yahoo Search Preferences
Ask.com, the fifth most popular, doesn’t offer safe search, but does curate all results. May not be appropriate for the youngest eyes.
The sixth most popular search engine, DuckDuckGo, does offer safe search. However, there is no way to log in to an account and lock that setting. Forcing browsers to go to https://safe.duckduckgo.com will enforce safe search, and will be discussed later in the series.

Stay up-to-date with all of Dr. Jen’s work through her practice’s newsletter!

Kid Safe Search Engines

Here are a few alternatives just for kids! These are all built with Google as the search provider and using safe search best practices. I’ll cover switching the default search engine in future posts.

Conclusion

Whether you’re setting up safe search for your children or your partner, it’s best to have a discussion about why before taking any action. If you’re trying to set up safe search for yourself to block pornography, it’s best to have someone you trust be your “family manager.”

Safe Search can be an effective part of your strategy for blocking pornography, but isn’t really a complete solution. Start here, and if you need more help removing temptation check out some of the other solutions in the series.

For an in-depth guide on talking to your adolescents about cybersex and pornography, check out Dr. Jen’s book. Amazon | BookBaby

Do you feel your sexual behavior, or that of someone you love, is out of control? Then you should consult with a professional.

Have you found yourself in legal trouble due to your sexual behavior? Seek assistance before the court mandates it, with Sexual Addiction Treatment Services.

The post Safe Search Solutions: Foundations of Blocking Porn first appeared on Dr. Jen's Recovery Readings.

Content Blockers on my Children’s Devices?

Dr. Jennifer Weeks — Fri, 09 Sep 2022 20:21:47 +0000

Content blockers can impact the digital lives that kids lead.

They live on their phones: Discord, Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube, BeReal, and TikTok; incidentally the latter has surpassed YouTube for total viewing hours per month.

And, as parents, you know the promise of good content on the internet, but there’s a lot of content out there that is not meant for children.

This post contains affiliate links. The author or blog owner may earn a commission if you make a purchase using these links.

The Accidental Problem

It is not uncommon for children to be exposed to online pornography as young as 8 years old. This early exposure is often accidental.

If you put a content blocker on your child’s device, it is best to talk to them about it and why you are doing it.

Do you believe you have an online pornography addiction? Take the free Cyber Pornography Addiction Test (CYPAT) and have the results to speak with your therapist.

Since most parents don’t talk to their kids about online pornography, kids don’t usually feel comfortable coming to mom or dad with what they saw online.

Newer research suggests that this early online pornography exposure is correlated with future problematic sexual behavior.

What Content Blockers do parents use?

Many choose to enable parental controls on phones or in apps directly to try to limit the type of content their children can either accidentally or intentionally access.

Many apps now have internal parental controls as do most phones and tablets. In addition, there are entire marketplaces full of services and apps that you can purchase to block content on your device. These apps range from locking things down nearly completely to simply alerting someone that a certain type of content has been accessed.

If you’re unfamiliar with sextortion, check out Dr. Jen’s article How to Protect Your Child from Sextortion.

Beyond Technology

If you plan to put a content blocker on your child’s device, it is best to talk to them about it and why you are doing it. These conversations and limitations need to be had and reassessed as your child ages; some of the guards can be lowered in an age-appropriate manner.

These conversations are more important than any technology, because you have no control over what your child is watching on their friend’s tablet or phone. Maybe they can’t access pornography on their phone but their friends might be able to, and kids frequently share what they see.

This post contains affiliate links. The author or blog owner may earn a commission if you make a purchase using these links.

For an in-depth guide on talking to your adolescents about cybersex and pornography, check out Dr. Jen’s book. Amazon | BookBaby

Do you feel your sexual behavior, or that of someone you love, is out of control? Then you should consult with a professional.

Have you found yourself in legal trouble due to your sexual behavior? Seek assistance before the court mandates it, with Sexual Addiction Treatment Services.

Stay up-to-date with all of Dr. Jen’s work through her practice’s newsletter!

The post Content Blockers on my Children’s Devices? first appeared on Dr. Jen's Recovery Readings.

4 Ways to Block Pornography

Mike — Wed, 07 Sep 2022 00:19:18 +0000

There are many ways to block pornography; from narrow, focused methods to broad, restrictive methods.

In this installment of the Blocking Porn series, I’m going to give you an overview of the ways to block porn and discuss how to select a method.

This post contains affiliate links. The author or blog owner may earn a commission if you make a purchase using these links.

Categories of Blocking Control

Safe Search
DNS
Operating System Parental Controls
Software Solutions

What solution is right for you?

Block Pornography with Safe Search

This one is probably the narrowest and some may say the least effective, but it’s still helpful. Turning on safe search on search engines. All major search engines have a safe search feature that will automatically block results that have pornography, drugs, and/or hate speech.

Pros

Simple
Focused

Cons

Only stops results from coming up in search
Must be set up on each search engine

More about Safe Search here.

Stay up-to-date with all of Dr. Jen’s work through her practice’s newsletter!

Block Pornography with DNS

DNS, or Domain Name System, solutions can cast a wide net for blocking pornography and other harmful materials on your entire network, though the setup can be a little daunting for those who aren’t particularly tech savvy.

Pros

Network wide solution
Very configurable, depending on solution
Can be free, with enough technical know-how

Cons

Only works when the devices are accessing the internet from your own connection
Can be very complex to set up
Costs could balloon as more devices are added to service

Blocking Pornography with Operating System Parental Controls

Most operating systems (Windows, MacOS, Apple iOS, Android, ChromeOS) come with some sort of parental controls built in. These can be very effective and cast a wide net.

Pros

Can watch what’s happening in browser and what apps are being run
Once it’s setup it’s usually good to go
Flexible and configurable

Cons

Can be time consuming to setup
Fiddly – May require setting up multiple accounts (parent/child accounts, etc.) or complex permissions

If you’re unfamiliar with sextortion, check out Dr. Jen’s article How to Protect Your Child from Sextortion.

Software Solutions

These will, generally, be paid solutions that will allow very fine control over permissions and access. Many of these options will allow you to restrict not just web content, but what apps can be used or installed on a machine.

Pros

Reliable and difficult to circumvent
Very fine-grain control

Cons

Usually, a subscription model
Often times specific to a single device

An intermediate software solution would be a browser, either modified to block pornography or dedicated strictly for the task. There’s more information in this post.

Do you believe you have an online pornography addiction? Take the free Cyber Pornography Addiction Test (CYPAT) and have the results to speak with your therapist.

What solution is right for you?

There are a lot of factors that go into choosing the right access control solution:

Who are you trying to protect from pornography or other offensive materials?
Is it for you or someone else?
What’s your budget?
What’s your level of technical expertise?
What discussions or thoughts brought you to the decision to block pornography?

Typically, the best answer, is a mixture of a couple of the four categories above. In future installments of the series, we’ll dive into each category a bit deeper and provide some links for helpful resources and how to have discussions about restricting access.

This post contains affiliate links. The author or blog owner may earn a commission if you make a purchase using these links.

For an in-depth guide on talking to your adolescents about cybersex and pornography, check out Dr. Jen’s book. Amazon | BookBaby

Do you feel your sexual behavior, or that of someone you love, is out of control? Then you should consult with a professional.

Have you found yourself in legal trouble due to your sexual behavior? Seek assistance before the court mandates it, with Sexual Addiction Treatment Services.

The post 4 Ways to Block Pornography first appeared on Dr. Jen's Recovery Readings.

3 Reasons You Might Want to Block Porn

Mike — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 18:03:22 +0000

Why might you block porn?

You might want to block porn if you’re a parent of young children.
Pornography is a drain on time, money, and computers.
You or loved one has a compulsive desire to view pornography.

This post contains affiliate links. The author or blog owner may earn a commission if you make a purchase using these links.

You’re a Parent of Young Children

Give Your Kids a Chance to be Kids and Block Porn

We all know kids will get into things they shouldn’t, it’s part of growing up.

With no guidance it’s very easy for them to fall down the rabbit hole.

But with the right mindset, frequent, open discussions with them, and some technological barriers you can help your child navigate the pitfalls of adolescence, defining their own sexuality, AND the internet.

Pornography is a Drain on Time, Money, and Computers

Pornography has always been a pervasive presence on the internet. From the early days of newsgroups through the modern “work-from-home revolution” that OnlyFans has brought, it can be tough to escape.

Blocking pornography for yourself and/or your loved ones can have a lot of benefits:

Simply put you’ll utilize your time better if you don’t lose time being tempted by and indulging in an idle pass time.
You won’t be tempted to spend money on memberships to pornography sites.
You’ll avoid the hassle of potentially infecting your computer with malware.

There are lots of other reasons to avoid viewing pornography too. Risk of divorce. Desensitization. Erectile Dysfunction. Just to name a few.

Do you believe you have an online pornography addiction? Then take this free Cyber Pornography Addiction Test (CYPAT) and have the results to speak with your therapist.

You Might Want to Block Porn if You or a Loved One Has a Compulsion

This one can be difficult, whether it’s you or a loved one.

If you recognize you have an addiction to online pornography it can be difficult to curb the behavior on your own. We’ll have some suggestions in future installments for handling this particular situation whether you’re truly alone in handling the compulsive behavior or whether you just need some tips in asking your significant other, partner, or parent for help.

If you know a loved one is compulsively viewing pornography it can be a difficult and frustrating conversation to have but having some technical solutions in hand will be helpful.

Stay up-to-date with all of Dr. Jen’s work through her practice’s newsletter!

Pornography Induced Erectile Dysfunction

I know, I mentioned Erectile Dysfunction above, but it’s important enough that I felt I should mention it again. This is a subheading that could definitely be it’s own reason for curbing your mature material intake. Consuming too much erotica can have severe effects on your brain and the way your body responds to stimulus; I’m not the expert though, so I’ll let Dr. Jen explain the details of Pornography Induced Erectile Dysfunction (PIED).

Conclusion

There’s lots of reasons to want to block pornography, these are the most common in our experience, but, what reasons do you have for wanting to block pornography? Let us know in a comment below!

In future installments in the series, we’ll cover:

The technology to block pornography.
What IS pornography?
How to discuss viewing pornography with your spouse/partner/significant other.
How to bring up discussions with parents or guardians if you’re a teen needing help with pornography habits.
And more!

This post contains affiliate links. The author or blog owner may earn a commission if you make a purchase using these links.

Do you feel your sexual behavior, or that of someone you love, is out of control? Consult with a professional.

Have you found yourself in legal trouble due to your sexual behavior? Seek assistance before the court mandates it, with Sexual Addiction Treatment Services.

Are you looking for more reputable data-backed information on sexual addiction? The Mitigation Aide Research Archive is an excellent source for executive summaries of research studies.

For an in-depth guide on talking to your adolescents about cybersex and pornography, check out Dr. Jen’s book. Amazon | BookBaby

The post 3 Reasons You Might Want to Block Porn first appeared on Dr. Jen's Recovery Readings.