Parents

JusProgDNS: A Parental Control Child Protection

As parents, do you want your children to be able to make the most of the opportunities the internet offers, whilst being protected from the dangers of the worldwide web in a way that’s appropriate for their age? The JusProgDNS child protection programme helps you do just that – free of charge and without adverts.

Does your child spend a lot of time on YouTube, use Google, Bing, Ecosia or even fragFINN to quickly find answers to almost any question, use Wikipedia for homework and social media to keep in touch with friends? If so, your child is growing up with digital media, just like almost all other children these days. The internet has long been just as much a part of young people’s lives as it is for you as parents.

Minors need age-appropriate, protected online spaces

But children and young people should be able to explore and discover the internet without fear of what the next click might bring, without worrying about unsuitable content or websites that could be harmful to their development. To achieve this, they need protected online spaces that grow with them as they get older.

JusProgDNS offers safe browsing environments for the age ratings 0+, 6+, 12+ and 16+. As parents, you can and are entitled (under the parental privilege in the Social Code) to decide which age group is appropriate for your child – regardless of your child’s actual age. If you would like almost only the websites checked by educators on the children’s search engine fragFINN to be permitted (a smaller but very safe browsing environment), then select the age group ‘0 and over’; for a significantly larger but still well-protected browsing environment, choose ‘6 and over’. From the age of 12, your child has access to almost the entire internet, which is also sufficient for more challenging homework. The ‘16+’ age group filters out only the most dangerous websites, such as hardcore pornography, extreme violence, the glorification of right-wing extremism and anorexia, but allows access to social media and the occasional exploration of the web.

JusProgDNS for all devices

Children and young people today access the internet via a wide range of devices. These include desktop computers, laptops, smartphones, tablets, games consoles, smart TVs and other types of devices. You can use JusProgDNS as a parental control programme on virtually all devices.

Installation is very simple: on (almost) all devices, you can specify which ‘nameserver’ the device uses for browsing the internet (nameservers are a kind of digital address service that translates readable website addresses into numerical routing entries/IP addresses; without them, the internet would not work). All you need to do is enter the JusProgDNS nameserver instead of the default one, and your child will be protected.

Note: For some types of devices, JusProg e.V. offers special parental control programmes that provide more features on the devices themselves or, specifically on these devices, offer greater protection against circumvention than JusProgDNS. In the “Device Setup” section, we’ll point you towards these alternatives, which are also available free of charge.

Suitable even for those with little computer experience

You don’t need to be a computer expert or a tech-savvy person to use the JusProg DNS parental control programme as a parent to protect your children from the dangers of the internet. We’ve put together a cross-device step-by-step guide for you, as well as specific instructions for device set-up for commonly used devices.

JusProgDNS is completely free of charge for parents

Whether you are a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, friend or using the service for any other form of personal use, JusProgDNS is completely free of charge. You will not receive any adverts, nor will you ‘pay’ with your personal data.

JusProgDNS only stores data to the extent that is essential for the operation of the youth protection programme. The log of the websites accessed by your children is immediately anonymised once the website has been checked for age suitability and aggregated with data from other users (as statistics to improve the filter’s performance). We do not pass on any data to third parties.

JusProgDNS is funded by the members of the non-profit association JusProg e.V. These include, in part, well-known companies from the German internet sector, major media groups and providers of online computer games. JusProg e.V. is a non-profit organisation and, as such, is not permitted to make a profit, but may only use its funds to finance its work as set out in its articles of association.

Register with JusProgDNS for more features and a higher browsing allowance

You can use JusProgDNS without registering at all. Depending on which JusProgDNS nameserver IP you select when configuring the devices you wish to protect, the system will recognise your preferred age rating.

However, we recommend that you register with JusProgDNS free of charge, as this is the only way to make full use of the JusProg parental control programme’s full range of features. For example, you can use the ‘My Lists’ feature to allow or block websites for your children. Your decision takes precedence over the system’s age classification. It may also be sensible and necessary to unblock websites relating to your child’s personal environment (school, sports club, etc.), as the JusProg filter list cannot, understandably, be aware of every regional website.

Without registering, you have a daily browsing allowance (nameserver queries), as is standard for private use. However, if your family spends a great deal of time online, the standard allowance may not be sufficient and registration may be necessary to obtain a higher allowance – which remains free of charge, of course; the aim is simply to protect against misuse.

Individual filtering per child and user

JusProgDNS offers browsing zones for different age groups. Whether you can use these individually for several children whilst adults can browse without restrictions depends on the devices on which you install JusProgDNS and where you install it.

As a general rule: the ‘closer to the child’ you install JusProgDNS, the more personalised the protection can be. For example: if you configure JusProgDNS on a Fritzbox or other DSL router used by the whole family, the same age rating applies to all devices connected to the Wi-Fi via that router (which is why the ‘16+’ age rating is often advisable). However, if you enter the JusProgDNS name servers on your child’s device – for example, their computer, smartphone or games console – the protection will apply only to that device, and you can select an age rating that is precisely tailored to their needs.

Limitations of the system

JusProgDNS offers your children good protection against online dangers. However, no parental control filter is completely secure, infallible or impossible to circumvent – not even JusProgDNS.

Parental control programmes are based on what is known as ‘intelligent risk management’. To put it another way: the higher the age group, the greater the scope for browsing – but also the greater the risk that your child may still come across content that is not actually suitable for their age group. This is because no parental control programme can cover the entire internet; even sophisticated filtering technologies and artificial intelligence (machine learning) cannot detect all problematic content in real time.

… but ultimately, that’s a good thing. After all, it makes little sense to ‘wrap minors up in cotton wool’ as they grow up. They should learn at an early age that the internet also harbours dangers and learn how to deal with them. This cannot be achieved without media education. Talk to your child about what they experience online – both the good and the not-so-good.

JusProgDNS protects against dangerous content on the internet that is publicly accessible. However, it cannot protect against private chats, individual profiles or posts on social media, nor can it protect against cyberbullying or sexualised approaches online. Technology can do little to help when it comes to dealing with these dangers. The more your child knows about them, the better they will be able to respond and avoid the dangers themselves (and also ensure they do not become a ‘perpetrator’ themselves, for example by bullying classmates or posting inappropriate photos). Support your child as they navigate the digital world.