on 27-04-2022 13:08
I've been doing some testing on my son's phone and it turns out that the parental controls setting is not working. I've made sure it is turned on, on the accout he is using, yet the device can still access adult sites.
Here's what I've done to test this:
1. Tested access to well-known adult site - it worked
2. Turned OFF parental controls, access to website still worked.
3. Turned ON parental controls, access to website still worked.
4. Moved SIM to different handset, access to website still worked.
I then took another one of my Virgin mobile phones where the parental controls DO work for the exact same website, I experimented with turning the controls on and off for that account and access to the website was blocked/permitted as expected.
So, the situation is, one of my accounts has not had the parental controls applied to it, regardless of how I set the setting on my account.
I have spoken to an incredible rude lady at customer services who simply told me parental controls are turned on and that I must be using our Wifi, a proxy or VPN to access adult websites. Even though I explained that I have tried the SIM in a different handset with the same results, she continued to speak over me as if I was technically inept (global enterprise IP expert for 25yrs) and eventually disconnected me.
Has anyone experience this? Do I need to report them to Ofcom for failing to protect my son, or will they say that's my job as I gave him the phone?
on 27-04-2022 13:55
A member of the Team will be along shortly and will sort this for you.
Remember any changes to Parental Controls will not be actioned till you restart the phone.
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on 27-04-2022 13:56
Hi @emailwoes
Thanks for posting on our community forums
Sorry to hear about your issue, I am going to drop you a private message to collect some details and to check on this for you, please keep an eye on your inbox.
Regards
on 27-04-2022 14:12
on 27-04-2022 14:24
Hi @emailwoes
Have you received the private message from myself? This can be found by the purple envelope at the top of the page, we'll look to get this sorted for you.
Regards
on 28-04-2022 09:24
I've figured this out now.
On the iPhone there is a feature called "Private Relay (Beta)" that is designed to keep your IP address and web browsing data private. Turning this on, completely bypasses all Virgin Media parental controls, as I expect it would given how it works.
Feel free to delete this entire post now and to call me technically inept 🙂
Still no need for CS to be so confrontational though.
on 28-04-2022 09:27
Hi @emailwoes
Thanks for your reply
Great to hear this is now sorted for you, I hope you have a great day. My apologies for the inconvenience
Regards