iOS/ipod Touch Web blocking and monitoring

[Rathji]

This might have been suitable for the app thread but it seemed a so much broader question. If mods wish to merge, feel free.

Been tasked with securing an ipod touch for a teen who has a history of viewing inappropriate content online.

We understand that the real solution is a lot more complex than simply removing access to the material, but the issue is a recent one and it's not as simple as only allowing access to a computer in a supervised environment.

Right now I just have Safari disabled in restrictions, but that seems to limit his ability to do things that we want him to be able to do, like sign up for accounts to use certain apps and access his school web stuff.

My other thought was to use the opendns that we use to help monitor his PC use, but it seems that DNS settings are not configurable.

I did some searching for some apps that seem to do the appropriate blocking, but would like something that we can get alerts or do monitoring on remotely.

Any thoughts? Am I missing something obvious here?

[Cal]

Have you considered setting up OpenDNS at the router level? Then the router will tell his iPhone to use the OpenDNS server.

Or am I missing something? I guess if you wanted individualized monitoring, you'd have to put him on a separate router and account.

https://store.opendns.com/setup/router/

[Hemi-Cuda]

all i have to say, is that i'm thankful that when i was a teenager i knew more about computers than anyone else in my family (including wiping the browser history)

[Rathji]

We already use open DNS for them at home but would like to have monitoring on a device level, since obviously we don't have control over every network he had access to.

[You Need a Thneed]

Steps required to do this:

Disable safari
Install a browser that either blocks content or monitors content. Have no other browsers installed.
Disable installing apps
Avoid having non browser apps that have simple browsers to open up links within the app - eg twitter & Facebook.
Setup restrictions on the phone so that those settings cannot be changed.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by Rathji

Been tasked with securing an ipod touch for a teen who has a history of viewing inappropriate content online. The kid who was unlucky enough to actually get caught multiple times.

fixed

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed

Steps required to do this:

Disable safari
Install a browser that either blocks content or monitors content. Have no other browsers installed.
Disable installing apps
Avoid having non browser apps that have simple browsers to open up links within the app - eg twitter & Facebook.
Setup restrictions on the phone so that those settings cannot be changed.

I would like to avoid disabling installing apps if I can, but if that ends up not working, this might be the only option.

[You Need a Thneed]

Disabling installing apps is important, or else, the person can install another browser. If they want to be able to add apps, enable it for a short time while they are being supervised.

[Rathji]

I agree, however they seem to want something that allows them to know what is happening on the device more than strictly locking it down. The thinking, a they explained it to me, was if you force something upon the teen they won't learn to make the right choices later on.

The device is going to be checked for apps that are installed, and uninstalling apps is disabled. So they can't 'sneak install' something and then remove it before their mom can check it.

If that's not possible, then disabling installs will be the way to go for sure.

One thing you mentioned that I didn't think of was apps that open simple browsers. Might complicate things to the point where a straight blocking strategy might be the only solution.

[KTrain]

If they're going to be checking for installed apps anyway, why not just look at the browser history of Safari? They're categorized by day for the previous week I think.

If he deletes his browsing history take away the device.

[Rathji]

Can't you just delete sites individually though?

[KTrain]

As far as I can tell it's an all or nothing clear of history.

[KTrain]

If he can get into the settings he can turn on Private Browsing but if he does that just take away the device as well.

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by KTrain

If he can get into the settings he can turn on Private Browsing but if he does that just take away the device as well.

How do you tell if it's been turned on? I assumed it just left the browsing history blank when it was on.

Originally Posted by Rathji

One thing you mentioned that I didn't think of was apps that open simple browsers.

That's actually a lot of apps. As mentioned, Facebook and twitter. Also tapatalk and gmail, IIRC.

[KTrain]

I've never had it on before but I would guess the same thing. History would be blank.

The setting would show as "On" as well. Though it could be toggled by the teen.

The nice thing about history is that it saves everything from the last week and divides it by day. If you're monitoring a child's history you could just view a page the first day of monitoring and check a week later to see if it's in the history on that date.

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by KTrain

I've never had it on before but I would guess the same thing. History would be blank.

I guess my point is that it's easily toggled. Let's call this an example history:

- 8:15 - google.com
- 8:16 - forum.calgarypuck.com
- 8:25 - calgaryherald.com
- 8:31 - someothersitekidsuse.com

Anywhere between 8:16-8:25, or 8:25-8:31 the individual could have been reading the last page loaded, texting, playing angry birds, or downloading the anarchist's cookbook or the entire brazzers video collection in private mode. If it acts the same as firefox or chrome, it can be turned on, visit said site, then turned off and there's little to no trace of what was viewed or that private mode was enabled.

[KTrain]

You're right. Wish there was a way to password the Setting section of the phone.

To be fair, if the kid is going to these extremes to watch inappropriate material on an iPod Touch, and the parents don't want them to, they probably shouldn't have the device in the first place.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by KTrain

You're right. Wish there was a way to password the Setting section of the phone.

To be fair, if the kid is going to these extremes to watch inappropriate material on an iPod Touch, and the parents don't want them to, they probably shouldn't have the device in the first place.

They likely shouldn't, but in this case, the purchaser of the device was unaware of the issue, so I was asked to figure out a solution so they could have a chance to prove they could be responsible with it.

[KTrain]

I assumed as much.

I think, unless you jailbreak the phone, there will always be a way around these access issues if you still allow them to use Safari.

There are some apps that let you lock the Settings, if you jailbreak the phone.

[sclitheroe]

The only way I can think of doing this is to use a full blown MDM suite in conjunction with iOS 6. iOS 6 MDM profiles provide a means of specifying a global proxy server, which can be used to force all traffic to flow through a proxy server under your control for monitoring and/or enforcement of site access, irrespective of location or the app used. It's akin to web browsing on an enterprise activated Blackberry, where all traffic can be made to flow back through the corporate firewall and proxy systems (oh, did Blackberry users not know that's how it worked? SURPRISE! heh heh heh)

This would work no matter where they took the iPod, as long as the proxy was internet-accessible (easy enough). The amount of infrastructure and costs required to do this, plus the maintenance and monitoring, is pretty insane for a single individual with an iPod Touch though.


Third party companies are starting to provide this kind of service through provisioning of MDM profiles that point back to their own infrastructure - OpenDNS has Umbrella, which is exactly what you need, but it's for businesses only right now, and I don't know if you'd be able to easily purchase the service for a family or individual. But if you look at what Umbrella does, it'll give you an idea of what to google for - maybe there are other smaller, family-focused solution providers out there.

I question the whole thing though - if I was a teen with predilections, and this is how things were unfolding, I'd just buy a second iPod in the same colour as my parental one - surf on one for my normal stuff, surf on the other for my special stuff. But we're discussing tech here I guess, not parenting or the circumvention thereof.

#ipodafterdark