Forum Discussion

SharkEnergy2020's avatar
SharkEnergy2020
On our wavelength
9 months ago

Virgin Media "Switched OFF for families" more like...

We use (what was called) Web Safe now known as Child Safe for years.

Recently it no longer works. You can get to any type of website. It is clear this software layer style filtering you use for child safe has been upgraded with bugs galore, or the underlying network settings amended by an unrelated team without thinking - and by the number of posts it is broken for everyone, just many haven't realised it yet.

Please resolve it, escalate it to the top of your JIRA queue and get it fixed! It will clearly damage your reputation that you have absolutely zero child protections on your network. Just because I think its important I will probably alert several media agencies also,

(In addition the web safe admin page is broken as well now, as soon as you touch it , it complete drops all websites you added to the block list or any specific tick boxes like gambling and weapons)

  • CantStandVM's avatar
    CantStandVM
    On our wavelength
    9 months ago

    Personally, I don't think it'll damage their reputation. It can't get any lower than it already is. 

    As a stop gap you could use OpenDNS family shield until Virgin Media get around to resolving your issue in 18 months. 

    • SharkEnergy2020's avatar
      SharkEnergy2020
      On our wavelength
      9 months ago

      True - maybe somebody hacked into my mandated weak password and changed my settings!

  • SharkEnergy2020's avatar
    SharkEnergy2020
    On our wavelength
    9 months ago

    For OpenDNS I would love to add their DNS settings to the Virgin Hub and I think they don't allow it, I suppose on my kids devices one by one?

    • Cardiffman282's avatar
      Cardiffman282
      Trouble shooter
      9 months ago

      Or even better via your own router with the rubbish hub in modem mode. 

  • Client62's avatar
    Client62
    Alessandro Volta
    9 months ago

    Oh la la !  Loss of parental control.

    Even if the Web Safe ( Child Safe + Virus Safe a DNS filter ) functions do enable in the VM Online account, both functions of Web Safe are bypassed when the infant enables Apple Relay or uses a Public DNS.

    Similarly Wi-Fi Pausing is side stepped by use of MAC Address Randomization.

    I am very confident even my youngest grandson & his cohort are fluent in the use of these settings, some of which are enabled by default on recent laptops and mobiles.

    • SharkEnergy2020's avatar
      SharkEnergy2020
      On our wavelength
      9 months ago

      Yes every one of our devices has its own parental controls and blocks installed also at app level, unlike so many kids. But it's still expected for this to be working as advertised right.

      • SharkEnergy2020's avatar
        SharkEnergy2020
        On our wavelength
        9 months ago

        And ive never seen the benefit of wifi pausing for gaming (play offline) and for mobile devices (they all have sim cards) hence the separate parental controls.