Quick answers to common questions
Do you have any questions about JusProgDNS? In these FAQs, we answer frequently asked questions about the JusProgDNS youth protection programme run by JusProg e.V.
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The most important FAQs
General information
The JusProgDNS parental control youth protection programme is a system that enables parents, teachers, other guardians and network administrators in schools and organisations to protect children and young people from content on the internet that could be harmful to their development.
The JusProgDNS Parental Control Youth Protection Programme is based on a youth protection filter within the name server, which can be enabled by making the appropriate configuration entry on almost any internet-enabled device. Whilst children and young people are browsing the internet, JusProgDNS checks in the background whether the content they are accessing (domain, subdomain) is appropriate for their age group. Accordingly, JusProgDNS either displays or blocks the websites.
The filter lists are constantly updated automatically, so parents and administrators do not need to worry about this. The filter lists are hosted on the JusProg server. Whenever a child protected by JusProgDNS is browsing, the software ‘checks’ there to see which age group a website is suitable for. In addition, entries made by parents/administrators in the JusProgDNS admin area (white/black lists) as well as website provider identifiers (age-de.xml / age.xml) are taken into account.
The JusProg system helps parents guide their children through the world of the internet. That is why parents (and schools) have the final say on which websites are displayed to their children and which are blocked – regardless of the age ratings provided by website providers, the JusProg filter lists or the fragFINN search engine whitelist. Only websites that are strictly prohibited in Germany (BPjM list, e.g. child pornography) cannot be unblocked, even by parents.
Parents can add websites (domains) in the software to a personal allowlist (in which case the website is displayed) or a personal blocklist (in which case the website is blocked).
The allowlist/blocklist operates on two levels: entries can be made across the board for all children, in which case they apply to all children’s profiles (or to all schools). However, it is also possible to make entries in the allowlist or blocklist directly within a child’s profile; in this case, they apply only to that one child (or that one school). If the same domain appears both at the general level and in a child’s profile, the entry in the child’s profile takes precedence.
Note: Entries on the lists can take up to an hour to take effect in the filter. This is due to caching.
Tip: If you find any errors in the filtering, please let us know so that we can check them and correct them if necessary. This will benefit all JusProg users. You can easily report this via an online form: https://www.jugendschutzprogramm.de/webseite-melden/
You can find out more about the parent lists here
JusProgDNS is completely free of charge for private individuals. There are no charges for either installation or ongoing use. We want to ensure that child and youth protection is not hindered by budget constraints.
Schools, nurseries and charitable organisations can use JusProgDNS at cost price; in particular, the costs for servers and data centres must be covered.
The use of JusProgDNS is rising sharply, and we are constantly having to expand our server cluster. Information on cost-sharing can be found in a coloured box on the pages for schools and organisations.
Information and an order form can be found on the JusProgDNS Premium page.
The non-profit association JusProg e.V. finances the development and operation of its youth protection programmes – including maintenance of the filter list, software development and support – primarily through membership fees, some of which come from well-known companies in the German internet sector.
In a commercial context, the use of JusProgDNS is subject to a fee. JusProg e.V. is neither permitted nor required to make a profit, but must cover its own costs in the event of commercial use. Please contact us.
When registering at jusprogdns.com – which is required for organisations – please specify what type of organisation you are. JusProg e.V. may request appropriate evidence.
The JusProg youth protection system is a filter designed solely for the protection of children and young people. JusProgDNS is neither intended nor suitable for use as a network filter in businesses.
Is your school or organisation unable to pay for JusProgDNS Premium?
Effective child and youth protection should not be hindered by financial constraints. If your school or charitable organisation is unable to contribute towards the cost of JusProgDNS Premium, please do get in touch – we will find a solution.
Schools / Premium users
If, for example, you are a school authority or an IT service provider responsible for various schools, you can create a main account on JusProgDNS (login.jusprogdns.com) and then set up each individual school (or each type of school, e.g. primary schools, secondary schools…) as a ‘child’.
“Children” in JusProgDNS can have their own settings, e.g. their own age group, as well as their own settings for major portals (YouTube, Google, etc.) and their own entries on the allow/block lists for enabling or blocking additional domains. The allow/block lists for the “children” take precedence over the overarching allow/block lists for the entire account.
As the main account administrator, you have the option to set up separate access to login.jusprogdns.com for the “children” (= individual schools or school types). You can do this in the login area on the respective child page. Enter the email address of the person responsible at the school and they will receive an activation link by email.
With the child/school account, only that specific school’s child page can be viewed and edited on login.jusprogdns.com, along with the associated allow/block lists.
The main account administrator retains access to and the ability to change all settings in the JusProgDNS backend, including those of the ‘children’. The quota is calculated for the entire account; there is no separate breakdown per child or school.
The classification of school size (small, medium, larger, large) for Premium usage is based on the number of nameserver queries per month. Understandably, this is not easy to estimate in advance – even for us. This is because, in addition to the number of pupils, a key factor is how ‘digitally integrated’ everyday school life is in practice and whether a pupil Wi-Fi network is provided. Points based on our experience:
“Small school” – these are generally primary schools where computer use is not part of everyday teaching. The class computer is switched on occasionally, the interactive whiteboard is not a central element of teaching, and there may be a computer room for Year 4 pupils, though this is not used all the time either.
“Medium-sized school” – these are mostly secondary schools up to Year 10 of medium size. Depending on how digital teaching practices are, this allocation is generally sufficient for a maximum of around 300 to 500 pupils, but not for a pupil Wi-Fi network.
“Larger school” – secondary schools offering the Abitur often fall into this category. Even schools that are medium-sized in terms of size may sometimes require a “larger” or “large” allocation if everyday school life is heavily digitalised.
“Large school” – schools with pupil Wi-Fi and/or schools with a strong digital focus and a large number of pupils (from around 800, though this varies greatly depending on the level of “digitalisation”) generally fall into this category. If you choose this category, you’ll enjoy two further benefits: 1.) a significantly lower risk of having to ‘top up’ your allocation due to excessive usage – which is often a tedious accounting process for school administrations; 2.) you’ll be supporting JusProg ;-), even if, in practice, your usage might actually be slightly lower.
We won’t simply cut you off
As a Premium user, when you’ve used up around 75 per cent of your quota, you’ll receive an automatic warning email (sent to the email address on file in your account) informing you that your quota is almost exhausted, allowing you to react in good time and upgrade to a higher tier. Please feel free to get in touch via the contact form and we’ll work together to ensure your school doesn’t go offline unexpectedly – otherwise, for security reasons, NS queries would be temporarily rejected once 100 per cent of your quota has been reached.
We offer a range of solutions to help you secure homeschooling devices using JusProgDNS – even when pupils are using their devices on trains and buses, in cafés or at home.
In most cases, using our specially developed “Individual DoH links” (iOS and other operating systems apart from
Android) or “Individual DoT subdomains” (Android) is the best technical option. You can find more information here. With these solutions, you can still configure your own filter settings, e.g. to allow or block additional domains.
You can also manage JusProgDNS on pupils’ devices via MDM. Our solution is suitable for the various types of devices pupils use for home schooling and can be implemented with virtually all MDM systems: Windows, Android tablets, iPads running iOS, Mac, Chromebooks and others.
You can find more information on home schooling with JusProg here.
Technology
YouTube and the major search engines – Google and Microsoft’s Bing – each have ‘SafeSearch’ settings that allow you to filter videos, search results and content according to child protection criteria. This is particularly important for violent videos and, in the case of search engines, for image searches; it works relatively reliably, especially when it comes to adult content.
JusProgDNS automatically activates “SafeSearch” mode, ensuring that your child is protected from harmful content on these major platforms.
The filtering is carried out by the providers and is not the responsibility of JusProg e.V. Given the tens of millions of pieces of content that these platforms have to filter, the reliability is remarkable, but understandably not without errors.
Developer
For partner-provided solutions for the protection of minors – for example, for integration into your software or app – we make the JusProg filter list available under licence on a rental basis as a real-time API call (JSON or XML). Use of the API is subject to a fee and is only suitable for somewhat larger projects. Please contact us if required.
In accordance with our articles of association, the JusProg list may only be used for the purpose of protecting children and young people in telemedia (the internet).
Selected supporters
