There was a lot of pearl clasping. VPN Recently, some have pointed out that these services can give children access to content that is harmful. However, a recent NordVPN update attempts to address that criticism by adding DNS-based filtering that prevents websites with inappropriate content from being loaded by underage users.
This is the first time a commercial VPN has been used to block adult websites. With online safety laws such as the UK’s being rolled out in countries around the world, VPNs are typically thought of to find ways for users to easily access adult content, rather than place restrictions.
So why does one of the best VPNs offer this feature? Well, it’s important to keep your browsing family-friendly. Currently available as part of the iPhone and Android VPN apps, the built-in NordVPN threat protection suite already includes ad and tracker blockers and the ability to prevent access to malicious sites. This suite of tools has been expanded to provide DNS-based filtering that compares domains to a list of blacklisted sites. If the domain names match, the site will not load.
After all, children accessing harmful adult content online is a legitimate concern. The problem is that many governments appear to be implementing policies in very heavy-handed ways that negatively impact the privacy and freedoms of adults. Countries that force users to upload ID documents also have a data breach time bomb ticking.
By adding this DNS filtering tool to its Threat Protection Suite, NordVPN rebalances itself and positions itself as a family-friendly VPN. We don’t think it will be long before other top VPNs follow suit.
If you’re already a NordVPN subscriber and want to know how to use this new feature, tap the shield icon and tap (Use Threat Protection) to enable the feature. Then tap the “Block adult sites” toggle. You can also tap the “Always” option to always enable this feature.
