Virgin Media Community

[AmyVicki]

I’d like someone from Virgin Media to resolve the issue of my children being able to access inappropriate website content which is a safeguarding issue. Despite first contact being made 6 weeks ago, we still find ourselves in the same situation having spent hours on telephone calls and being passed from person to person and being left on hold. It is totally unacceptable. We have all the parental controls on but these are not working. You have been informed of this several times and fail to resolve the issue. I’d like to know how many parents are in the dark and assume their parent controls are working to keep their children safe when actually their children are being exposed to indecent images and content, having their innocence taken away?

I’d like a manager/senior person from your organisation to get in touch as this is now unacceptable and needs to be reported.

[sophist]

I assume that you have been through the websafe settings and tailored the configuration to your requirements?

when you say the parental controls aren’t working, what specifically is the problem? Are you still able to visit sites that you have blocked with websafe? Or is it that if you search for inappropriate content at e.g. google, it is returning inappropriate images/content?

the former would indicate that websafe isn’t properly configured for your connection, the latter that you aren’t forcing google “safe search”.

unfortunately no system is fail safe - with determined enough children, almost any barriers you or the ISP put in place can be circumvented if they’re tech savvy and determined enough. 

[gary_dexter]

Virgins child safe settings are DNS based.

It only takes a couple of clicks of a mouse to bypass it completely.

Its down to the parent/s to make sure something more stringent is in place. 

[AmyVicki]

The problem is that specific sites can be accessed straight away with adult content. The names of the sites are even adult specific. On further searches for adult content using google, all websites come up. I cannot make specific ones as there are literally thousands. The Virgin Parental controls are literally not blocking anything. Even when we gave raised specific sites with advisors, the controls have failed on these also. 

On top of this, the customer service we have received regarding this issue is not acceptable considering the serious nature of what we are exposing our children to.

[gary_dexter]

Yes that’s how VM’s child safe service works.

It doesn’t enforce Safe Search on Google searches and the like to hide adult content.

It’s still visible, however when you click on a url/image/video it won’t load the site that hosts the content - it will only block it after that point.

[AmyVicki]

Actually, the problem is, it loads all the content and all the images. You can click on anything on Google/ alternative search engines and the content all loads, including videos. I’m not sure you understood what I meant by my original post. Thank you for trying to help though 

[gary_dexter]

Then it can’t be setup correctly somewhere.

I just tested mine and it works as expected, but I don’t use it on a daily basis and use CloudFlare Families as an alternative as it also blocks Google images etc. from loading.

What device are you testing from?

What is the DNS of said device set to?

Are you running just the Virgin hub alone or do you have a third party router/mesh/extender connected to your network?

[sophist]

The problem you have is the technology being used and its limitations. There are alternatives (as @gary_dexter has mentioned) but in order to use them by default, you need your own router.

Out of interest, how old are the kids here - are they very young (idk, <12) if so, this will likely give you more protection than you have currently..  If they are >12 tho, and know a bit about how all of this works, then it's gonna be a constant arms race as they try to work their way around the blocks you put in place.. 

[Kath_F]

Hi AmyVicki, 

Thanks for your post and a big welcome to the Community. It's great having you on board with us.
I'm sorry to hear about the issues you have been having with getting the child safe settings to activate. I'm happy to take a look in to things but I've been unable to locate your account via your forum credentials. I will need to confirm some information with you in order for me to proceed with checks. 

I have sent you a private message regarding this and will investigate further once I receive your reply. Just click on the little plum envelope at the top right hand side of the page to access your inbox.

Thanks,
 

[Kath_F]

Hi AmyVicki,

Thanks for coming back to me via private message with the account information. 

Unfortunately as you are not the account holder, I'm not able to make the changes I need to do in order to check this for you. 

You will need to get the account holder to either contact us themselves via the Forum or if easier they can call the team on 0345 454 1111 to arrange to get this resolved. 

Apologies we were unable to help further on this matter. 

Thanks,