FAQ about the JusProg parental control software

For information about the JusProg parental control program for Windows, see the “FAQ for JusProgNET Windows“.

FAQ about JusProg parental control program for Android can be found on this page https://www.jugendschutzprogramm.de/en/faq-en/android/

FAQ about JusProg parental control program for iOS (iPhone/iPad) can be found on this page  https://www.jugendschutzprogramm.de/en/faq-en/ios/

FAQ about JusProg parental control program for Mac (Macbook and Macintosh desktop computers) can be found on this page https://www.jusprogdns.com/geraete-einrichtung/macos/

Information about the nameserver-based parental control program JusProgDNS can be found at https://www.jusprogdns.com

FAQ about JusProgDNS can be found at https://www.jusprogdns.com/faq/

General

The JusProg youth protection programme is a system that parents (teachers, guardians, etc.) can use to protect children and young people from content on the Internet that may impair their development.

JusProg has various software products and apps for all end devices that are frequently used by minors. With JusProgDNS, we also offer solutions for schools and networks.

The following applies to all JusProg youth protection programmes: While children and young people surf the Internet, the JusProg software or JusProg app or JusProgDNS checks in the background whether the content accessed is appropriate for the age group. Accordingly, the websites are displayed or blocked by the software.

The filter lists are constantly updated automatically, so parents do not have to worry about this. The filter lists are stored on the JusProg servers in two data centres in Germany. When your child is surfing, the JusProg application “asks” which age group a website is suitable for – this is done with high data protection standards. In addition, the parents’ entries in the software or app (white/black lists) as well as provider identifiers of the websites (age.xml / age-de.xml) are taken into account.

In the JusProg software, the following age levels can be set individually per child (user profile):

  • “from 0 years” – mainly the websites listed on the whitelist of the fragFINN children’s search engine (www.fragfinn.de) are displayed and some additions that JusProg has checked intensively. In addition, websites that parents themselves have placed on their personal whitelist in the software and websites that have been marked as “age 0” by the website provider using a special youth protection technique (age.xml / age-de.xml label). All other websites are blocked.
  • “from 6 years” – all websites from the whitelist of the fragFINN children’s search engine (www.fragfinn.de), from the supplementary JusProg filter list with age level 6 (manually approved for this by JusProg staff) as well as from the parents’ whitelist and websites with provider identification “from 6” and below are displayed. IP addresses with no content that can be accessed are automatically released. All other websites are blocked. If you have activated the “On-the-fly” filtering (OTF) in the parent settings (it is activated by default for the age groups 6 – 11 years and 12 – 15 years, but can be deactivated in the parent area), websites unknown to the system are subjected to a quick check. If the quick check detects no problems, the website is displayed. If the quick check cannot interpret the page, the page is blocked up to age 12 as a precaution.
  • “from 12 years” – All websites not known/blocked are unblocked. Blocked are the websites from the parent blacklist in the JusProg software, websites with the provider identifier higher than 12 years (i.e. 16, 18) and all websites on the JusProg filter list with age levels higher than 12 years. Websites that are absolutely forbidden in Germany (BPjM list) are also blocked. If on-the-fly filtering (OTF) is activated in the software (OTF is activated by default in age groups 12-15), websites that were previously unknown to the system are subjected to a quick check before they are displayed and, if necessary, blocked if the quick check detects problematic words on the website. If this immediate check does not yield a result, the website is displayed in the 12+ setting.
  • “from 16 years” – All non-blocked websites are unblocked. Blocking is similar to age level 12, but with age level 16.
  • “from 18 years” – All non-blocked websites are unblocked. The only websites blocked are those that are absolutely forbidden in Germany, e.g. child pornography (list of the Federal Review Board BPjM).

Tip: The age levels 0 and 6 work according to the whitelist principle: Everything unknown and not interpretable by the OTF real-time check (activated by default from 6 years) is blocked. This makes the surfing space smaller, but safer. From age 12, the blacklist principle applies: Everything unknown to the JusProg system is freely accessible (with on-the-fly filtering switched on, only if a quick check has not identified any problematic content). This makes the surfing space much larger, but also less safe.

The whitelist of the children’s search engine fragFINN (www.fragfinn.de) is maintained by media educators and lists mainly entries of websites that are not only suitable for children but also recommendable. fragFINN is highly recommended especially for children of primary school age. It can be used free of charge and without registration.

No, there cannot be an absolutely safe youth protection filter – the Internet is too big and growing too fast for that.

In the age groups “from 0” and “from 6” years, the websites are displayed that media educators have selected for the whitelist of the children’s search engine fragFINN (www.fragfinn.de); in the case of “from 6” years, in addition to the fragFINN entries, other sites classified manually by the JusProg team as acceptable for the age are displayed. If the on-the-fly real-time check is activated, also those websites where no potential developmental impairment was detected during the check. Result: High safety, but only a limited children’s surfing space. With OTF real-time checking (activated by default from 6 years), the safety is somewhat lower, but the surfing space is significantly larger. In the age groups “from 12 years” and older, the system ensures that children and young people usually do not access problematic websites during normal surfing. However, if the young internet users specifically and persistently search for “bad” content, it will hardly be possible to prevent them from doing so by means of a youth protection filter (with activated OTF real-time checking, it becomes much more difficult). In order not to limit the surfing space too much and also to make e.g. worldwide searches for school possible, unknown websites are displayed to the system in the age groups “from 12 years” and higher.

If “On-the-fly” filtering (OTF) is activated, then web pages unknown to the system are subjected to a quick check when they are called up. If the quick check detects problematic content, the page is blocked. If the quick check does not detect any problematic content, the web page is displayed. If the page cannot be called up for the quick check, it is blocked as a precaution in the age group up to 12 years, and displayed from 12 years onwards. The quick check (OTF) is already switched on by default in the age group from 6 years onwards when installed, but can be deactivated individually per child profile in the parent area. In the age group 12 – 15 years, OTF is also activated by default during installation, but can also be deactivated in the parents’ area.

There is comprehensive protection against switching off and uninstalling the software. But a computer specialist with perseverance and finesse will have outwitted the software at some point.

In other words, JusProg helps parents to protect their children from content on the Internet that may be harmful to their development. But parents cannot hand over their media pedagogical responsibility to the software.

Tip: Continue to accompany your child when surfing, talk to the child about the experiences, opportunities and dangers on the net.

No, because age classifications are never error-free and are also often a matter of personal judgement and also depend on the developmental stage of the respective child. JusProg e.V. uses both automated technology (so-called spiders) and a team of human website classifiers (so-called netagents) for age classification. JusProg has developed sophisticated spider technology specifically for classification, but every technology has its limitations.

The age classification is based on the legal standard of “possibly impairing development” and tends to have somewhat slower-developing children and adolescents in mind. If parents are of the opinion that their children are already more advanced in their development, they can and may, on parental responsibility, also choose a higher age category than corresponds to the child’s actual age.

If you think JusProg has given a website the wrong age category (whether too high or too low) or missed the website altogether, you can suggest the website for review via www.jugendschutzprogramm.de (menu item “Parents”, then submenu “Report website”).

JusProg’s filter lists work on a domain basis, i.e. they classify an entire website with an age level. As a rule, the age level of the most problematic content of the entire website determines the age level; only in the case of very large portals with little problematic content is the age level sometimes weighed. The filter lists are based on the so-called FQDN, i.e. they take into account domain (www.seite.de) or subdomain (mypage.blogservice.de), but not paths.

However, the JusProg software can also rate individual pages (webpages) and then display or block them. To do this, however, the provider of the website must have provided the respective individual pages with a youth protection identifier (so-called age-de.xml label), which the software can then read out.

JusProg e.V. itself does not block any websites. JusProg merely provides parents and other guardians with a system with which they can block websites for their children on their own responsibility. It is the legally guaranteed responsibility of parents whether they use the system or not. The parents’ educational privilege also allows them to unblock or additionally block websites in the software (regardless of what the filter list says) and to choose an age group that suits their child.

The JusProg youth protection programme is a voluntary offer to parents. Parents decide whether and, if so, for how long and in what way they use the JusProg youth protection programme.

Installation and use of the JusProg system is permanently free of charge for parents, teachers, schools and other guardians etc.. There are no fees for downloading or updating the filter list.

All functions of the JusProg software are free of charge. There are no in-software purchases or paid upgrades. The software is also completely ad-free and can be used without registration. We only process data that is necessary for functionality. As a matter of principle, we do not pass on data to third parties. You can try out the JusProg software at any time without any problems, use it permanently free of charge if you like it or uninstall it at any time if you do not like it or if your child is getting older.

JusProg e.V. is a non-profit association.

The costs of the system are borne by the members of the association. These are mainly well-known companies of the German Internet industry from various sectors.

The JusProg youth protection system is a pure youth protection filter. It is neither intended nor suitable as a network filter in companies.

JusProg protects children and young people – no matter where, no matter by whom. The JusProg youth protection programmes for the various end devices may also be used by public institutions, schools, youth centres, internet cafés and on all other computers to which children and young people have access – free of charge.

In most cases, the network-compatible JusProgDNS (https://www.jusprogdns.com) is best suited for schools. JusProg can also be used for remotely maintained devices in homeschooling and administered e.g. via MDM (Mobile Device Management). It depends on the end device and type of use which JusProg youth protection programme is best suited.

Use in commercial networks is only possible after consultation and special permission.

If a website is blocked, i.e. not displayed, a page appears with an entry option for fragFINN (for websites encrypted with https, no block info page can technically be displayed). fragFINN is a whitelist and children’s search engine supervised by media educators, primarily for children of primary school age. All entries in the fragFINN children’s search engine www.fragfinn.de are released in the JusProg software in the age groups “from 0” and “from 6” years.

fragFINN is run by the non-profit association fragFINN e.V.. JusProg e.V. cooperates with fragFINN e.V..

Yougl is a free-to-use youth search engine. Yougl is based on the Google search result. However, only search results from the SafeSearch mode are displayed. Some websites that are particularly suitable for young people are highlighted in the search results.

JusProg shows a Yougl search box on the block info page in the 12+ age groups. For websites encrypted with https, no block info page can be displayed, thus no Yougl search field.

If a website is displayed in a certain age group, this does not at the same time mean that this website is also recommended for this age group. The JusProg filter list is based on which websites are still acceptable in the age group and are not likely to be developmentally harmful. However, this assessment does not imply a recommendation that the website should be used in the age group.

JusProg proceeds in a similar way as, for example, the voluntary self-regulatory bodies FSK for cinema films and USK for computer games: If a film/game is released, for example, “from 12”, then the content is suitable for children from 12 years of age, but does not have to be a children’s/youth film at the same time.

However, the whitelist of the children’s search engine fragFINN (preset in JusProg in the age groups “from 0” and “from 6”) not only contains websites suitable for children, but also almost always recommendable beyond that.

The internet is growing and changing fast. That is why the JusProg filter list is constantly updated, seven days a week, around the clock.

The JusProg filter list is on the servers in the JusProg data centre. There, the age classifications are automatically queried by the software while your child is surfing the internet. This means that the most up-to-date data is always the basis for the filter decision as to whether a website should be blocked or displayed at the set age.

Parents do not have to worry about updates. Everything runs automatically.

The most important FAQ

In the JusProg software, the following age levels can be set individually per child (user profile):

  • “from 0 years” – mainly the websites listed on the whitelist of the children’s search engine fragFINN (www.fragfinn.de) are displayed and some additions that JusProg has checked intensively. In addition, websites that parents themselves have placed on their personal whitelist in the software and websites that have been marked as “age 0” by the website provider using a special youth protection technique (age.xml / age-de.xml label). All other websites are blocked.
  • “from 6 years” – all websites from the whitelist of the fragFINN children’s search engine (www.fragfinn.de), from the supplementary JusProg filter list with age level 6 (manually approved for this by JusProg staff) as well as from the parents’ whitelist and websites with provider identification “from 6” and below are displayed. IP addresses with which no content can be accessed are automatically released. All other websites are blocked. If you have activated the “On-the-fly” filtering (OTF) in the parent settings (it is activated by default for the age groups 6 – 11 years and 12 – 15 years, but can be deactivated in the parent area), websites unknown to the system are subjected to a quick check. If the quick check detects no problems, the website is displayed. If the quick check cannot interpret the page, the page is blocked up to age 12 as a precaution.
  • “from 12 years” – All websites not known/blocked are unblocked. Blocked are the websites from the parent blacklist in the JusProg software, websites with the provider identifier higher than 12 years (i.e. 16, 18) and all websites on the JusProg filter list with age levels higher than 12 years. Websites that are absolutely forbidden in Germany (BPjM list) are also blocked. If on-the-fly filtering (OTF) is activated in the software (OTF is activated by default in age groups 12-15), websites that were previously unknown to the system are subjected to a quick check before they are displayed and, if necessary, blocked if the quick check detects problematic words on the website. If this immediate check does not yield a result, the website is displayed in the 12+ setting.
  • “from 16 years” – All non-blocked websites are unblocked. Blocking is similar to age level 12, but with age level 16.
  • “from 18 years” – All non-blocked websites are unblocked. The only websites blocked are those that are absolutely forbidden in Germany, e.g. child pornography (list of the Federal Review Board BPjM).

Tip: The age levels 0 and 6 work according to the whitelist principle: Everything unknown and not interpretable by the OTF real-time check (activated by default from 6 years) is blocked. This makes the surfing space smaller, but safer. From age 12, the blacklist principle applies: Everything unknown to the JusProg system is freely accessible (with on-the-fly filtering switched on, only if a quick check has not identified any problematic content). This makes the surfing space much larger, but also less safe.

The whitelist of the children’s search engine fragFINN (www.fragfinn.de) is maintained by media educators and lists mainly entries of websites that are not only suitable for children but also recommendable. fragFINN is highly recommended especially for children of primary school age. It can be used free of charge and without registration.

As a parent, you want to surf without any restrictions. To do this, you can quickly switch off the JusProg filter temporarily without having to uninstall the app or the software – this applies to all JusProg parental control programmes.

For security reasons, this function is protected with the parental password. If you have forgotten the parent password, first set up a new parent password using the security question. You are offered the option of setting up the parent question when you install the software.

However, the parent settings for JusProgDNS are different from those for apps and software.

The JusProg system supports parents in guiding their children into the world of the internet. Therefore, parents have the final decision as to which websites are displayed for their children and which are blocked – no matter what the age labels of the providers on the websites and what the JusProg filter lists or the fragFINN search engine whitelist say about it. Only the websites that are absolutely forbidden in Germany (BPjM list, e.g. child pornography) cannot be unblocked even by parents.

Parents can put websites (domains) in all JusProg youth protection programmes on a personal whitelist (then the website is displayed) or a personal blacklist (then the website is blocked).

The large video portals and social media offers are a challenge for youth protection programmes. They are very popular with children and young people, but in addition to a lot of problem-free content, they also contain content that may impair development. Youtube offers among its many millions of videos also those with depictions of violence, Google and Bing also provide pornographic images in the image search with corresponding search words.

As a parent, you will therefore be asked when installing the software whether your child should be able to access the following websites: Youtube, Google, Bing, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.

If you have created several child profiles, you can make the setting individually for each child. In the parents area you can change the settings again at any time (password protected).

All JusProg youth protection programmes offer the possibility to set YouTube and Google as well as Bing to the so-called safe mode. This way, most problematic content is filtered by the provider and you can let your children access the popular portals in a more relaxed way.

Youtube as well as the major search engines Google, Bing from Microsoft and Yahoo as well as Twitter each have setting options for “SafeSearch”, by means of which one can filter the videos or search results and contents according to youth protection aspects. This is particularly important for violent videos and for search engines in the image search and works relatively reliably, especially in the area of erotica.

All JusProg youth protection programmes offer the possibility to automatically switch on the safe mode of the portals. This function ensures that the “SafeSearch” mode can be permanently activated for the portals mentioned above. If the children and young people switch off the mode on the portals, it is automatically reactivated with the next click.

By activating “SafeSearch” with the Jusprog browser plugin, you can let your child surf Youtube, Google, Bing and Yahoo in a much more relaxed way. With Twitter, however, the filtering on the provider side only works mediocrely.

When installing the software, you can decide (if necessary, individually per child profile) whether the SafeSearch mode should be activated for the portals. You can change this setting at any time later in the password-protected parents’ area.

Technical tips

The JusProg system supports parents in guiding their children into the world of the internet. Therefore, parents have the final decision as to which websites are displayed for their children and which are blocked – no matter what the age labels of the providers on the websites and what the JusProg filter lists or the fragFINN search engine whitelist say about it. Only the websites that are absolutely forbidden in Germany (BPjM list, e.g. child pornography) cannot be unblocked even by parents.

Parents can put websites (domains) in the software on a personal whitelist (then the website is displayed) or a personal blacklist (then the website is blocked).

Some websites are virtually assembled from different sources (domains). In order to increase the security against circumvention, the JusProg software checks not only the main address (domain) that you see at the top of the input line of your Internet browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc.), but also all hidden sources.

However, this has the consequence that websites are sometimes not displayed correctly or completely, even if you have whitelisted the main domain from the browser line and thus released it.

Unfortunately, there is no patent remedy for the solution, because the “supplier domains”, we also call them “function domains”, are hidden in the programming (source code) and are not easy for a technical layman to recognise. If you want to try it anyway (you can’t break anything in the process), right-click on a free area of the website and select “Show source code” from the menu this calls up. Don’t be confused by the incomprehensible lines and pick out all the domain names contained in the gibberish and whitelist them individually in addition to the main domain. If you search for http (key combination: Ctrl and F), it is easier to find the main domains contained.

Tip: In many (but not all) cases it is easier:

  • Enter the domain with a placeholder, because most feeds come from a variant (subdomain) of the main domain. So it is better to enter *.site.de instead of www.site.de in the whitelist, then image feeds, e.g. from bilder.site.de, will also be displayed.
  • If the Internet browser (Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, etc.) is waiting for partial content, it often displays this briefly at the bottom left of the browser window when loading the page. Make a note of the exact domains displayed there and also enter them in the whitelist.
  • Has the domain perhaps landed incorrectly on the filter list? Then you can ask the JusProg team to check the age classification. To do this, enter the domain here: https://www.jugendschutzprogramm.de/webseite-melden/ The check and possible activation may take a few days.

If you want to unblock or block Facebook (depending on the age setting), you have to make four entries in the whitelist / blacklist for Germany: *.fbcdn.net, *.facebook.net, *.facebook.com, *.facebook.de (The *. is a placeholder so that e.g. de-de.facebook.com is also taken into account, which is necessary for calling from Germany).

age-de.xml” is a technical system with which the operator/provider of a website can automatically tell the JusProg software, so to speak, which age category his website has.

In principle, the age category is assigned by the website operator and the correctness of the classification is checked by the German state supervisory authority in random samples and in the event of complaints. The website operator receives support in determining the appropriate age group, e.g. from youth protection officers, from questionnaires developed for this purpose (www.altersklassifizierung.de) and from the voluntary self-monitoring of the Internet industry.

As a result, the provider classification is similar to the age categories that parents already know from cinema films (FSK) and computer games (USK), only for internet sites. With the FSK and USK, however, there is an official procedure (“administrative act”) for determining the age level, whereas with internet sites this is usually simplified because of the large number of offers.

The so-called “age-de.xml label” is a new standard for the technical interaction of youth protection programmes and websites, initially developed for Germany. With this system, not only entire websites but also individual pages (webpages) of websites can be individually assigned age classes and then displayed or blocked according to the age of the child set in the youth protection programme. The “age-de.xml” label was officially introduced in Germany in 2011 and is spreading to more and more websites. The JusProg software is the first youth protection programme that can technically read this age-de.xml label.

Tip: The provider’s age-de.xml label is ranked above the fragFINN and JusProg filter lists. So if a website operator marks his page as “from 0 years”, it will be displayed even if the domain is not on the fragFINN whitelist or would even be blocked according to the JusProg filter list. This is provided for in German law and in practice has the advantage that providers (who should still know their own websites best) can make an age classification that is particularly applicable and individualised according to individual pages. However, it has the disadvantage that websites falsely or wilfully labelled as “from 0” by providers are displayed, even if the content may not be suitable for children after all.

You can use a tick in the “User profiles” (Info) for a single activated user profile or for the standard profile and thus by default for all (non-activated) user profiles to decide whether the age-de.xml label of the website operator should be taken into account in the filter decision (set tick) or not (no tick).

Tip: If age-de.xml is activated for the “user profile”, the label is taken into account even if no check mark is set for the standard profile.

Note: Reading the age-de.xml may slow down your browsing a little.

In individual cases, you can also put websites (domains) on your personal parent blacklist in the JusProg software, in which case they will not be displayed no matter what age group the provider’s age-de.xml label contains. Similarly, you can whitelist a website for your child even if the age-de.xml label actually blocks it. Instructions for the whitelist/blacklist can be found here.

Problem solutions

In the age groups “from 0” and “from 6”, only websites known to the system are displayed (if the on-the-fly check is switched on from age 6, also those websites that did not stand out in the real-time check) – but of course we cannot know all the websites of schools, clubs, etc. You have several options to unblock:

You can put the website on the personal whitelist (parents’ lists), information on this can be found in the special FAQ for each JusProg youth protection programme.

You can also ask the JusProg team to activate the website in the filter lists. To do this, please submit the domain for review at https://www.jugendschutzprogramm.de/website-melden/ for verification. This is especially recommended if we have obviously made an incorrect age classification.

Are you yourself the operator of the website or do you know the operator? Then the simple installation of an age-de.xml age label with a suitable age level is recommended. You can create this either with the JusProg-Labelgenerator or with the service from www.altersklassifizierung.de. If you have installed a label with the age level “from 0 years”, for example, the website will always be displayed – no matter what the JusProg filter list says. Advantage: The age-de.xml labels are not only effective in the JusProg software, but in several youth protection programmes.