I wanted to test Mobicip on my son's iPhone and went through Mobicip to Google and typed in "g string". It had no problem pulling up information and images. It also then linked me to several very revealing lingerie sites. I am new to Mobicip and have been looking for information that might help me but haven't found anything yet.
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Mobicip easily circumvented on iPhone
I also want to warn parents that they are not providing the protection they think they are by installing a Mobicip browser and more needs to be done by this company to instruct parents. When purchasing Mobicip you are only told to turn off Safari, "It's that easy." Well, it's not. There are many other ways for kids to easily get around the filter and it makes us "non-computer savy" parents look like fools. On the iPhone it is very easy to simply download a different free browser. I have settings locked on what kind of apps my kids can download but apparently a browser does not fall into a category that is blocked. Parents need to lock the app store and allow only supervised app purchases - free or not! If your child has a Mobicip they can easily download a non-filtered browser and delete it every time. You never even know they have it.
My son cannot download apps
My son cannot download apps but is still able to access inappropriate sites. I guess the filter does not work unless search is done through Mobicip. I tried blocking the sites. Still no luck. I get no reports of him trying to access these sites even though I know he is. I cannot figure out how he is doing it and Mobicip support is of no help at all. They just keep making lame excuses that they can't make this work on I-Phones(even though they advertise otherwise). Parents beware!!!! Apparently the kids are smarter than the Mobicip people and have figured out an easy way around it. Mobicip should 'fess up and admit defeat--------by fourteen year old kids!
Re: My son cannot download apps
We are extremely sorry for the trouble you are having. Unfortunately, Mobicip's filter works only on the Mobicip Safe Browser and not on any other apps on the device that has the capability to browse the internet. This is due to restrictions set by Apple that doesn't allow us to run software in the background.
Ideally, internet security software like ours should reside deep inside the Operating System for maximum security, and run in the background. Unfortunately, in the case of Apple mobile devices, OS-level applications are simply not allowed and hence we were forced to build a browser instead.
We suspect that there may be an application on your son's device with a built-in-browser. Please go through all the apps and make sure that Mobicip is the only app on the device that he can use to browse the internet. If you see very less or no activity in the Reports pages and you know that your son is using his device to browse the internet, then you can be sure that he is using an alternate browser.
You should certainly contact Apple and provide your feedback on this page: http://www.apple.com/feedback/
We have met with their engineering team and support staff and their guidance is standard. The voice of the customer has more bearing than the voice of third-party developers like us, or even their employees. So your feedback will certainly bring attention to the issue.
Please let us know if this answers your concern. Otherwise we will be happy to assist further.
Priya @ Mobicip Support
Re: Mobicip easily circumvented on iPhone
Looks like you are referring to the instructions shown in the welcome screen when you login into the app the first time. Yes, it can certainly be more descriptive and mention that YouTube and the App Store needs to be locked as well. This should be fixed in the next major update of the app.
At this time, please see this article for a comprehensive tutorial. At a minimum, use the Restrictions feature of iOS to turn off Safari, YouTube and apps rated 17+. Even with this setup, there may be one additional problem. The native Google and Bing apps are incorrectly rated at 4+ on the App Store, and this is what you can do to block them:
We hope you find these suggestions helpful.
Watch out for facebook app when using Mobicip
My son is very capable with a computer, and found a way to go anywhere and everywhere on his iPod Touch, even with Safari disabled, Mobicip installed, and with parental controls in place. I share this with you as an FYI...
Turns out, that if he is logged on to Facebook on his iPod Touch, and decides to leave a comment on any person's (or his own) status update, he simply has to type in www.google.com as his comment (or the addy of any other search engine or website), and from that point on, it will take him directly to an unfiltered session where he can name his poison (literally), and get it.
He no longer has access to this device. I regret that I did not find it sooner, as he was more than willing to hand it over to me... very unfortunate situation. Hopefully, you can take measures to prevent this happening to your kids. Disable the facebook app, and double-check your search engine preferences.
Re: Watch out for facebook app when using Mobicip
We are very sorry to hear about your situation, and thank you for posting your thoughts here to benefit other parents.
You are absolutely correct. Please make sure to setup the device in such a way that Mobicip is the only window to the Internet on the device. Facebook can be accessed through the Mobicip browser, but allowing the native facebook app will circumvent Mobicip's filtering. Please follow the instructions in these tutorials to make sure that the device is setup correctly.
How to Setup Parental Controls on iPhone & iPod Touch (iOS4 Edition)
How to Setup Parental Controls on the iPad (iOS 4.2 Edition)
Mobicip Support
Filter seems weak
My heart is broken today. I have worked pretty hard to protect my son from porn and buying Mobicip was one of those safety features I installed. It (or something) has failed. Through mobicip with middle school level set, he looked up "hot buns" or "buns" I think and I happened to walk up and see over his shoulder. The porn was graphic. I can not see how this was google safe search. It was completely nude, fully engaged intercourse.
I am upset that this filtering could be so easily skirted, but going to google, searching for something a kid would find funny, and then be exposed to such graphic porn. I am not sure where the problem lies, whether with Google, Mobicip or even my attentiveness as a parent. I know now though that I have to walk my son through the process of avoiding this temptation on a whole other level than he had to before.
I have not yet had the opportunity to really trace the history to see how he got to it, but I know he was browsing through mobicip when this came up. I will investigate more today after work. I just saw it today as we were leaving for school.
I am having the same problem with google images.
I was testing out mobicip and was able to pull up bad pictures. I googled poon and belladonna under the images tab and one of the pics showed full intercourse! I tried blocking the image tab on google but if you search on web tab first and switch to image tab it wont block it. I even lowered the level to Middle School and was still able to pull up the pics. I use netnanny on our home computers and there is a an option to block images. Is there away to block them on mobicip?
Re: I am having the same problem with google images.
We are very sorry for the trouble you are having.
Our engineering team is investigating the problem with high priority. Meanwhile, you can block access to Google images by adding the following to your blacklist (to edit your blacklist, login at www.mobicip.com, select Settings > Websites > Block).
images.google.com
google.com/images
google.com/m?site=images
This should block Google image search from the Mobicip browser. If possible, please send a private email to support(at)mobicip.com so that we can better troubleshoot the problem for your individual account.
Please bear with us and we will get back to you as soon as we have an update from our engineering team.
Thanks
Mobicip Support
Re: Filter seems weak
We are sorry for the trouble you are having.
Your report was very concerning and we immediately tried to reproduce the issue you had reported. However, a search for "buns" on Google images using the Mobicip browser shows only pastry-related images. For the phrase "hot buns" the results are mostly similar, but with some images with bikini and swimwear type clothing. We have not been able to access any "completely nude" images as you had reported. It is not possible to turn of Google's Safe Search feature, and Mobicip's own filtering when the Safe Browser is used.
We strongly suspect that there is another browser app like Google Mobile that is being used directly. Please note that Mobicip can only filter the Internet accessed through the Safe Browser app and not through other apps on the device.
We recommend that you check the following:
1. Has the device been setup correctly?
If setup correctly, the default Safari browser should be disabled and Mobicip should be the only browser available on the device. You can ensure this by following the steps outlined in this tutorial.
2. Is there any alternate browser installed?
If the restrictions are not setup correctly, it is possible to install an alternate browser. Please read these articles and FAQs where other parents have asked similar questions and we have offered our recommendations.
http://content.mobicip.com/content/ok-i-have-enabled-mobicip-safe-browser-how-do-i-block-private-or-no-history-browsers-availab
http://content.mobicip.com/content/now-theres-bing-app
3. Is there browsing activity on the iPod Touch?
Sometimes it is possible that the user may not have accessed the Internet on the iPod Touch using Mobicip during the week or two weeks. To check this, launch Mobicip on the device yourself and browse to a couple of websites, allow about 5 min, then login at www.mobicip.com and select Reports. Select All websites to see if your browsing has been recorded. If the reports are populated correctly, it means Mobicip is working as expected and one of the other problems above may have occurred.
If you have tried all 3 steps above, and you are still having problems, please let us know and we will investigate further asap.
Mobicip Support
Google searches
I have recently purchased the app and I am still trying to figure everything out. I know my daughter was not happy that I took the Safari away. But guess what? She has the google app and can search anything! Now she doesn't care about Safari. When I go to the Mobicip app.........I can't get into anything. But when I use the google app, I can get into anything that I want and I can search anything.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks
Re: Google searches
Yes. Mobicip can only filter the Internet access through the Safe Browser and not through other apps on the device. That is why we recommend that you use the parental control restrictions to limit the apps that can be installed from the App Store.
Option 1. Set an age-restriction of 4+ for the App Store. You can do so by selecting
Settings > General > Restrictions > Allowed Content > Apps > 4+
Option 2: Even with the age restriction, there are some known issues with app ratings that has been discussed before on this forum. Some apps have been incorrectly rated at 4+, and inappropriate apps and their screenshots can be viewed through the App Store app even if they cannot be installed. To protect against these loop holes, the only option is turn off the App Store altogether by selecting
Settings > General > Restrictions > Installing Apps > OFF
You can enable the App Store on demand, and lock it down when not in use. Granted this is a drastic solution, so you may want to go with option 1 combined with some occasional random checks on the device to see what is installed. Hopefully, Apple will fix some of these problems soon and we don't have to worry about it anymore.
Mobicip Support
What happened to Google "safe search"?
I updated to the latest Mobicip and now it links to the regular google rather than the google safe search. Can this be changed somehow?
Google SafeSearch Enforcement
Please be assured that Google Safe Search is always strictly enforced through the Mobicip browser. If you notice any discrepancies, do let us know.
Please contact us via Email or using the Contact form.
What happened to the Kids
What happened to the Kids version of google? I just updated Mobicip (now with the globe launch icon) and noticed that the google link brings you to the "normal" google website. Searching in google was the first thing I tested when first purchasing the mobicip app a few months ago. I noticed immediately that even the google site was kid/parent friendly and was very pleased with the results. Now, even with the settings confirmed to be "elementary school" (my son is nine) no kids google site just the regular leaving it vulnerable. True, the app still blocks the sites google lists for the most part. However, I had no trouble with the search engine finding the material and even launching a few undesirable sites. Also, on the new update I'm prompted to login every time the app is launched. Is this necessary? or can I change the setting somehow?
Please Contact Support
Please be assured that Google Safe Search is always strictly enforced through the Mobicip browser. If you notice any discrepancies, do let us know. The login problem has been reported by a handful of other users as well. We are working on a fix and should roll it out with our next update.
Please contact us via Email or using the Contact form.
Inappropriate Google"ing" should be blocked.
falconrox
We are not able to replicate the result. Search for the exact phrase results in the content being identified correctly as inappropriate by our filtering engine. When users reported such problems previously, we found that they were using Safari and not Mobicip.
Can you please try again?
Mobicip Support
Google image search
I am excited about the potential Mobicip has to block unwanted content, but I have also noticed that I can still get some pretty racy images just by doing a Google image search for the right keywords. I think a clever kid (or adult for that matter) would be able to still see inappropriate content, even if it is with some difficulty.
I am mainly concerned with sex and nudity. So for example, a Google image search for "Suicide Girls" using Mobicip yields a host of nude images, even if the nudity is covered with hands, etc. Combinations of other less conspicuous words (which I won't list here) produce similar results, including results with full nudity. Also, searching for anatomical terms like "labia minora" in Google images yields undesirable results, some with full nudity.
I am excited about the Mobicip service and I want to make sure it works as well as it possibly can so I can continue to feel great about using it and recommending it to others. What can I do to block these types of image searches?
Medical and anatomical search terms
You are right. Medical and anatomical images are indeed allowed, but only at the High School level. This can be considered nudity, but we go by the general standards used by schools to filter their Internet. As far as slang is concerned, we strive to expand our phrase dictionary. Sometimes phrase may exist in our dictionary but have a low weightage. When a user highlights the problem, we study the heuristic results and try to understand mathematically why it was allowed. Then we tweak the algorithm to see if it helps any. Usually it does, and we settle at the new optimum as the ideal filtering setting.
It is an iterative learning process and we notice that it gets better over time and the volume of users trying to get around the filter.
Medical terms
"You are right. Medical and anatomical images are indeed allowed, but only at the High School level"
I just tested this on my son's itouch set to elementary and when searching in google for "labia" it brought up sites not blocked and full nude images appeared.
Medical and anatomical search terms
We are unable to reproduce this problem as described.
Please contact us via Email or using the Contact form and we will be happy to troubleshoot the problem further.
Googling
Is there a way to simply disable the Google toolbar altogether? I was easily able to replicate many of the problems that your forum said you were unable to replicate. For example, the search "labia" (with elementary school controls enabled) brings up http://tattoo.about.com/cs/beginners/a/bloutlabia.htm. This page contains a warning at the very top that says it contains sexual images, including a link to "outer labia [Picture]," which is a completely nude image. Even on blocked sites, you're still able to read the thumbmail description of them that comes up on Google, which is often quite graphic by itself. I'd be more comfortable just disabling the Google toolbar altogether.
I agree...
I have my daughter's set to Elementary and she has the google app. I was able to search "sexting" and it brought me to YouTube with a "how to" and several other sites.
Not only did I get the thumb nail but I went to You Tube and it started to play the video! Just because the Mobicip app is there, that isn't what she uses to find information.
any ideas?
If setup correctly, your
If setup correctly, your daughter should not be able to installed the Google app or other apps that may be used to workaround Mobicip's filtering. See our response to your previous query here.
Mobicip Support
Re: Googling
You can't disable the Google toolbar, but you can certainly block Google and other search engines altogether. Login at www.mobicip.com, select Settings > Websites > Block and add "google.com" to the list. Make sure you don't add it as "www.google.com". Simply "google.com" will suffice. You may also want to block other search engines like Yahoo, Bing etc.
We are looking into how this site was allowed. Our algorithms are designed to catch and block titillating and suggestive mature content. Sites that are somewhat educational in nature and uses medical terms may escape the filtering. Howwever, we are constantly evolving our filtering algorithms and feedback like this helps us fine tune the policies and restrictions.
Meanwhile, please use the block feature to disable search completely.
Mobicip Support