How To Pick An Internet Filter For Your Family & Top 5 Choices

The internet makes it easy to access and share information, helps us stay connected with friends and family, and improves efficiency in both work and life.

However, it’s often described as a double-edged sword. Easy access to the internet can expose children and teens to inappropriate content and dangerous online predators. Also, social media and news sites, which are just a click away, can distract us from work and study.

While blocking access to the internet might seem to be a solution, living without it isn’t something that would work in today’s world.

If you want to protect your family from inappropriate content and online distractions, an internet filter may be what you need.

In this article, I will discuss how to choose the right internet filter for your family and provide a list of five great options to help you find the one that best suits your needs.

Part 1. How to Choose the Right Internet Filter

What is an internet filter? It is a tool that filters out certain content on the internet based on default settings or user-specified criteria. For example, it can help you easily block unwanted websites on your PC or smartphone.

To find the best internet filter for your family, let’s look at two questions. What are these tools capable of doing? What are your specific needs?

Common Features of Internet Filters

Domain and URL filtering: This feature blocks individual websites and pages specified by the user. It can also filter URLs based on user-specified keywords or phrases, allowing for broader content filtering.
Category filtering: This focuses on filtering websites by category. It blocks websites that fall into certain categories that are considered inappropriate or undesirable, such as adult content, gambling, social media, gaming, and chat.
Whitelist filtering: Blacklist filtering is essential for such tools. While whitelist filtering is not a necessity, it’s commonly available. It blocks all websites except those specified by users.
Time-based filtering: This allows users to decide when to activate the blocking. For example, you might want to block inappropriate content permanently while limiting social media access only during work hours.
Compatibility: Some tools are only compatible with computers or phones, and some are cross-platform. Some tools only support the admin user account of a computer, and some support both admin and non-admin accounts.

These common features are usually sufficient for family web filtering. Some tools may provide additional options.

Figure Out Your Specific Needs

Now that you know what such tools can do, you can figure out what your needs are. For example, you can consider the following questions.

Are you filtering web content for children, adults, or both?
Do they share a family computer, or do they have their own devices?
Do you need a scheduling feature?
Do you prefer an easy-to-use tool, or are you looking for more customizability?

Part 2. Top 5 Best Internet Filters for Your Family

Cisdem AppCrypt

Cisdem AppCrypt is easy-to-use and cross-platform, allowing you to easily prevent access to certain web content for yourself for your children on desktop and mobile devices. When it comes to a family shared Windows PC or Mac, this tool allows you to set separate filtering settings for each user accounts, including admin and non-admin accounts.

While Cisdem AppCrypt also has an app lock feature, I will focus on its web filtering functions in this article. I will review other tools in a similar manner, focusing mainly on their web filtering functions.

Key Features:

Block specific websites and pages you add
Filter all URLs containing any specified keyword
One click to block popular sites in certain categories, such as adult, dating, gambling, social, and news sites
Import your own list of unwanted sites
Whitelist filtering available
Schedule blocking to be activate at all times or during certain times (e.g., 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM and 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM on weekdays)
Create custom schedules for blocking specific sites
Apply filtering to all major browsers: Chrome, Safari, Edge, Opera, Firefox, etc.
Password protection to prevent bypassing

Pros:

Compatible with macOS, Windows, iOS, iPadOS, and Android
Work with both admin and non-admin users on computers
Easy for everyone to use, even those who are less comfort with technology
Offer enough customization and flexibility
Password-protect filtering settings to prevent bypassing

Cons:

Keyword filtering not available on iOS

Microsoft Family Safety

Family Safety by Microsoft provides a comprehensive parental controls solution. Available on Windows, Android, and iOS, Family Safety’s web filtering only apply to the Edge browser. What about other browsers? No worries. They will be blocked.

In addition to filtering websites and pages, this tool manages search results by enforcing SafeSearch on Bing to filter out inappropriate results.

Web filtering works well on non-admin user accounts. However, if your child uses an admin account or knows the admin password, he or she can bypass these restrictions.

Key Features:

One click to block websites and pages deemed inappropriate by Microsoft
Block specific sites you add
Whitelist filtering available
Filter inappropriate search results on Bing

Pros:

Compatible with Windows, Android, and iOS
Automatic filtering of mature content
Built into Microsoft devices

Cons:

Not for admin user accounts

Apple Screen Time

Available for macOS, iOS, and iPadOS, Apple’s Screen Time allows you to set limits on website access for yourself or your children. Whether you are looking for a parental controls solution or a way to filter out online distractions, this tool can help.

Screen Time allows you to set a passcode to protect your settings from any unauthorized settings, which enhances effectiveness. However, if you or your child uses an admin account on a Mac, you need to convert it to a non-admin account in order to set a passcode.

Key Features:

One click to filter web content considered inappropriate by Apple
Block individual websites added by you
Allow whitelist filtering
Apply web filtering to all installed browsers
Passcode protection to prevent bypassing

Pros:

Built into Apple devices
Support both admin and non-admin users on Mac
Automatic filtering of adult content
User-friendly for everyone

Cons:

Not available on non-Apple devices
No passcode protection for non-admin users

Qustodio

Here’s another internet filter designed for parental controls. Qustodio is highly compatible, supporting computers, phones and even Kindle. Like Family Safety, this tool only works with non-admin user accounts on computers.

It considers ten categories of websites to be potentially bad for children and teens, such as gambling and adult sites. Access to websites in these categories is automatically blocked. Since the filtering is not perfect, Qustodio allows you to manually add websites to block.

Key Features:

Filter websites by category
Block specific websites that you add
Provide an option to enforce SafeSearch on search engines
Apply filtering to all popular browsers
Prevent children from changing your settings

Pros:

Compatible with Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Chromebook, and Kindle
Easy to set up
Automatically filter websites that are not inappropriate for minors
Also filter inappropriate search results

Cons:

Incompatible with admin accounts on computers

Routers with content filtering

The good news is that many routers come with internet filtering settings. When these settings are enabled, the filtering is on the network level and applies to devices connected to the network. This can be a good solution for desktop computers, which almost always use your home network. However, when mobile devices use mobile data instead of this network, the filtering won’t apply.

Since accessing router setting usually requires a username and password, your settings will be protected. However, children can easily figure out the default login information if you haven’t changed it. Therefore, it’s important to set a strong password.

Different routers may offer different content filtering options. Some only have basic features, and some provide advanced settings. For example, some ASUS and TP-Link routers offer preset web filtering rules for different age groups. The available features depend on the specific router brand and model. Here I’ll only talk about the common features.

Key Features:

Block specific websites that you add
Filter URLs by keyword or category
Allow whitelist filtering
Block the entire internet based on your schedule, such as bed time
Protect settings from unauthorized changes

Pros:

Compatible with all operating systems and user account types
Allow customization
May offer advanced internet filtering options
Provide password protection

Cons:

Not working if a device is not connected to the network
Possible to be bypassed by using a VPN

Summary

Using the tech solution alone is not enough. Parents are encouraged to talk to their children about internet safety and the potential threats on social media. Adults understand the importance of self-control in managing distractions.

That said, internet filters is quite useful to make the internet more family-friendly and less distracting. Such tools can help create a safer online environment for children and also benefit adults who seek to reduce distractions and increase productivity. Although no internet filter is perfect, there’s a suitable one for every family. I hope this article can help you find the right tool for your needs.