Parental Control Block List Details

[Ben570]

Hi community,

I recently upgraded to Full Fibre with the new Smart Hub and have setup parental controls on our home network. I have created a group in the app to contain my kids devices and tried out the various parental control levels including "moderate" and "strict". Both of these levels contain the categories porn and nudity so such sites should be blocked. However, I am finding that well-known adult sites aren't blocked at all. In fact there's only one website I can get the EE "Access to this website has been blocked" page on and the site isn't even a proper adult site, it's just a fringe art site (DeviantArt for those that know). Pornography sites like PH simply don't get blocked. I have queried this with EE and the first guide blamed the hub and so sent me a new one which exhibits exactly the same behaviour of blocking next to nothing, and I don't believe the block list would be hardcoded to the hub, it's more likely they're using a centralised proxy, web filter, or DNS system to block sites. 
So my question to the community is has anyone got information or references as to what websites are blocked by the parental control categories? Because it seems to me it's hardly blocking anything at all, at least when it comes to adult sites. 

[JimM11]

@Ben570 Not sure if you have looked at this, but link to the parental controls help. You may have to do this also. 

Block or unblock various types of websites as well as specific websites

Using Parental Controls on EE | Broadband Help | EE

[Ben570]

Thanks @JimM11 but yes I have read through the setup documentation and know that the parental controls are enabled and set to strict for the device group I am targeting. My point is that even with them enabled, they are not blocking common adult websites (other categories like gaming are blocking xbox live and so on so I know they work to some degree). What I am looking for is details on what sites EE actually block under the porn and nudity categories that are discussed in the article you linked under the "Block or unblock various types of websites" section because if my service is anything to go by, they aren't blocking much at all and customers shouldn't be expected to manually input each and every common adult site into their own hub block list. The parental controls are sold as a managed service with category selection, it would be nice to know or at least get examples of what sites they are actually blocking. 

[JimM11]

@Ben570 As you see there is not much in the way of documentation surrounding the parental controls app, should one of the EE Support team see the post, they may respond with some other detail. If not then you could tag them yourself to possibly draw there attention to your request. HTH

[Neil-O]

Hi, @Ben570 I'm sorry those adult sites are not being blocked, they most definitely wouldn't on the allowed list. Is this happening on all devices? 

Are you using an iPhone or iPad with the private wifi address or private relay settings enabled as this can cause problems?

Thanks

Neil

[Ben570]

@Neil-O Yes this is happening on all devices. I have tested on Windows laptops and iPhones with private relay turned off. I have also made sure that DNS over HTTPS is not enabled in the browsers I am using. This product does not work as advertised and I am concerned that parents have a false sense of security with it while their children and families are not protected. I have raised two complaints with EE and the Guides say "oh yes a fix will be deployed in a few days" and then a few days later I get the automated complaint closure text with a number to reach out on that's impossible to speak to anyone on. This is not acceptable service from EE, they are appealing to the fears of parents in selling this service then not providing the protection at all or trying to fix it. Shameless!

[Ben570]

@Neil-O To rub salt into the wound so to speak, the Smart Hub does not allow you change the DNS settings, the DNS servers are hard-coded. This makes the product less useful and currently offering less protection than if I was able to change the DNS provider to something like OpenDNS FamilyShield!

[charlienormand]

Did you get any further with this? I’m about to receive EE broadband having used open DNS until now on a personal router. Is it possible to use a personal router with EE fibre in between the fibre and the WiFi hub?  Today I’m using openwrt with firewall rules to block anything other than opendns ip dns traffic, that doesn’t sound like a setup that will work with EE? And given what you have said that would be a massive regression.  Thanks

[JimM11]

@charlienormand What router are you using currently for your openwrt, and to which service do you intend to connect to, fttc or fttp, is your router directly connected currently to the line, if so then continue to use, and apply the 3rd party settings. See attached.

Getting Started with EE Broadband | Broadband Help | EE

[XRaySpeX]

@charlienormand : If you intend having DV the EE SH+ must be the 1st router connected to the ONT. Otherwise you may use your own router.