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.
Mobicip Online Safety
Community
Sponsored By
Follow Mobicip On
Archive
Recent blog posts
- CNET News: Mobicip - A kid-safe web browser for iPhones and iPods
- Apple Makes App Store More Family Friendly
- Mobicip Partners With Schools To Ensure Safe Student iPod Use Anytime Anywhere
- YouTube Now Supports Parental Controls
- Apple Launches "The" iPad!
- Online Safety Lessons for Kids Compulsory in UK
- Webwisekids.org Launches Online Safety Tutorial for Parents
- FTC Recommends Best Practices to Shield Children and Teens from Inappropriate Online Content in Virtual World
- iPod Touch in education
- The iPhone Mom Recommends: How the Grinch Stole Christmas
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