AS AN IT expert, the one thing Farid Shahidinejad kept getting asked by parents was how could they protect their children from harmful internet content.
With two young daughters himself, he’d been using a custom system at home to protect them, but it was complicated and not easy to set up for those without an IT degree.
It drove him to spend months integrating an internet router called GuardBlocker, that was easy to set up, required no technician to install it and was preconfigured to filter out a large proportion of harmful content.
All you have to do is plug it into your existing home internet connection, connect your child’s device to it and it works straight out of the box.
“It’s very difficult for a child to end up in an adult website. The router will force a safe search every time,” Farid explained.
It also filters malware, trackers, mixed content websites like Reddit and ads using a combination of well-established global databases.
The router can be managed via a browser giving the parent complete control of additional features such as setting access times, blocking over a hundred apps/websites like Snapchat or Roblox, and even showing what content the child has tried to access or the thousands of tracker attempts blocked.
“It’s a very powerful device that creates a “bubble” within the home by adding a second Wi-Fi connection the children connect to while the parents can connect to the main WiFi they’ve been using all along (after changing the password of course),” he said.
“Adults can also purchase the alternate version that mainly blocks ads, trackers, and malware – something that is very important for the privacy minded.
“I found that most modems had only some of these features available to set up, so I had to put together a device that had them all.”
The other advantage it has is there are no subscriptions and it’s portable, so if you are staying with family or travelling in hotels it can be easily plugged in, even to mobile phones. During weather events, it can connect to a hotspot as a repeater.
“It’s an extra shield for parents, a first step solution to block a large portion of the malignant side of the web, however, education and parenting also plays a big role as well”, he said.
Farid has pledged to donate $25 for every mini and $50 of every full-sized router sold locally to go to the buyer’s school of choice when indicated in the order.
The router can be purchased at www.GuardBlocker.com.
