The internet is a dangerous place, full of information that may scare or harm your child's development. Website blockers provide an easy way to prevent your child accessing age in-appropriate content, and protecting for shocking images or news.

Editor's Choice: Qustodio Qustodio works on both computers and smartphones, and it has 29 filter categories and useful time controls. The detailed parent reports include screenshots of the websites your child visits, as well chat and text messages they’ve sent and received.VIEW DEAL ON Qustodio

The best internet filters don't only block website but also provide a way to control the time your son or daughter spends playing games online or surfing web. Some even send alerts when 'watch words' are texted to their mobile - meaning you can safeguard them from harm no matter where they are.

Finding the best internet filter can be hard. Website blockers have a lot of functions that can be confusing or too obtrusive for you parenting styling. This guide will examine all the features of the top internet filters to break down their features - and how they'll help to protect your children from adult content and online predators. We thoroughly check all the internet filters we've reviews to ensure that our recommendations will keep your children safe.

The best website blocker we found was Qustodio . We love using it because it is easy to install and is super simple to navigate. Qustodio includes 29 filter categories, and has flexible time controls. It is also a very effective at blocking websites. Qustodio is designed for use on both websites and cellphones - and even has a built in GPS tracker when installed on a cell phone. The internet filter didn’t slow down the any of the devices we used it on, computer, laptop or cell phone, so the kids didn’t notice when the website blocker was running.

Best Overall Qustodio Qustodio works on both computers and smartphones, and it has 29 filter categories and useful time controls. The detailed parent reports include screenshots of the websites your child visits, as well chat and text messages they’ve sent and received. View Site

Best Value Net Nanny Internet Filter Software Net Nanny isn’t as expensive as other internet filter programs, but it still includes 18 filter categories and profanity masking that covers foul language on websites and blocks them from being typed into messages. Net Nanny Family Protection Pass $54.99 /year Visit Site at Net Nanny

Best for Mobile Surfie Surfie has both a desktop and mobile app, so you control what your children are seeing online, who they are chatting with and when they have internet access, regardless of the device they’re on. Surfie $59.90 /year Visit Site at Surfie

1. Qustodio: Best overall

(Image credit: Qustodio)

Qustodio Best internet filter for controlling the amount of time your children spend online View Deal 29 filter categories Includes anti-cyberbullying tools Records chats Doesn’t have summary reports Limited support options Expensive

Qustodio is our top pick for internet filters in part because it is easy to install on both computers and smartphones. It’s also simple to use.

You can access each child’s profile from your phone and adjust their access and time allowances; you don’t have to be at a computer or on the device itself to adjust the settings. Qustodio has 29 filter categories to quickly and easily block websites and content children don’t need to see.



The time management controls let you control timeframes for internet access (so your child can’t get online when they are supposed to be asleep or at school), and they also let you control how long kids can stay logged on during allowed times. For example, if your kids are allowed online between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. on school nights, you can set Qustodio to kick them off after an hour or two, controlling overall screen time.



Qustodio records a lot of details about what your children do online and provides a detailed report. While other programs simply tell you when your child has accessed their email account or chatted with someone through an instant messenger program, Qustodio captures the whole conversation. You can also tag words and phrases, such as “come alone” or “don’t tell your mom,” so if someone sends a message with these phrases, you will know.

2. Net Nanny: Best value

(Image credit: Net Nanny )

Net Nanny is one of the cheapest internet filter programs we tested, but still includes the most important protection tools to block dangerous content online.

There are 18 filter categories to help you quickly restrict access to websites about pornography, drugs and alcohol, suicide and gore. The program sends an email alert if your child enables a proxy or privacy server to hide their internet searches.



One of the most unique features of Net Nanny is the profanity blocker that masks swear words on websites so your child can’t see or read them. It also prevents children from typing these words into search fields and chat messages. You can set it to change the funny words or symbols as they’re typed, or the program can completely erase the word. Net Nanny sends a notice through the parent reports when profanity was typed or blocked from being seen.



Net Nanny includes time controls to block kids from the internet when they should be asleep, at school, doing homework or chores. Because you can set up an account for each child, older children can be given longer time limits for school projects, online games or streaming videos. The biggest drawback of Net Nanny is that some important tools, such as social media monitoring, chat message capturing and text notifications for parents, require you to purchase a separate program that works alongside the Net Nanny internet filter program.

3. Surfie: Best for mobiles

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Surfie Best internet filter for safeguarding your child's cell phone use Surfie $59.90 /year Visit Site at Surfie Works on both Android and iOS mobile devices Word and phrase monitoring Monitors social media activity No screenshots Not compatible with Mac computers No direct customer support

Surfie is compatible with both Android and iOS cellphones and tablets, plus it has a Windows computer version. All versions let you filter and block web content you don’t want your children exposed to.

It comes with 18 filter categories that make it easy to block related websites under each category, including pornography, violence and online gaming. But you can also whitelist sites that you are okay with your child visiting, even if they fall under a filter category, or blacklist specific pages that don’t fall under a watched group. On top of web filters, Surfie lets you control when your child has internet access and how long they can be online, even on cellphones.



One of the best features of Surfie is its keyword monitor that alerts you if someone sends your child a test, email or instant message with words or phrases that tend to be red flags. These include several programmed phrases such as “don’t tell,” “are you home alone?” and “give me your phone number.” But you can also add your own keywords, and Surfie will shut down the program your child is using and internet access when one of them is used. It also works in reverse to monitor what your child sends, prohibiting them from using your tagged keyword and from sharing personal information online. All email, instant messages and text transcripts are recorded for you to read.

4. ContentBarrier: Best for mac computers

(Image credit: Contentbarrier )

For Mac computers we highly recommend ContentBarrier by Intego. This internet filtering software is specifically designed for Mac computers and includes preset filter categories that make it easier to block harmful content.

You can add specific websites you want to block to the blacklist, or you can add a site blocked by the preset filters to the ContentBarrier whitelist if you feel it’s OK for your child to visit. ContentBarrier X9 also has time controls so you can ensure your kids are focused on homework, chores or bedtime instead of playing online. You can create separate accounts for each of your children with one program and set different filters for each depending on their age and maturity. The program does a good job blocking content, but it doesn’t record a lot of your child’s online activity for you to see later. It also is only compatible with Mac desktops and won’t work on iPhones, iPads or other Apple mobile devices.

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How we tested internet filters

We spent 120 hours researching and testing the best internet filter programs (with the help of our children) to learn how they work on both traditional computers and mobile devices to block websites.

We tested each internet filter by downloading it to both out test lab computers and to our home computers used by our children. We tested the filter categories by purposely attempting to go to sites we knew fell under these categories, including pornography, news outlets, drugs and alcohol, and sites on suicide. For some of the filter categories, such as social media and online gaming sites, we waited for our children to try and access them during their allotted computer times to see if it blocked the website.

It became clear that a website blocker was effective when we heard the frustrating grumbles of kids as they tried to access blocked social media or gaming sites or when their allotted screen time was up and they were blocked internet access.

You can bypass the blocks on a specific website by entering the parent password. This lets kids access a site while still blocking others under the filter category.

We tested time controls in a similar way. We first set short limits on our test computers to get a feel of how each website blocker worked, then took the programs home to test in a family environment. All the programs let us block large chunks of time and those with individual profiles let us set time limits for each child. The programs notified kids when their time was up and blocked them from accessing the internet afterwards.

Why trust us on website blockers?

We are parents and know the importance of protecting children from online threats, dangerous content, cyberbullies and too much screen time. Over the last 15 years we have tested and reviewed parental control software, including internet filters and cell phone monitoring programs, that offer great tools that lets parents to know what their kids are up to in the cyberworld.

As part of our research, we subscribe to news outlets and security bloggers that focus on internet security, online privacy and parental control, so we stay on top of the dangers lurking online and changes in the industry. We are interested in how well the tools of these programs help parents keep children safe online, and we enjoy the opportunity to thoroughly test these programs so we can give you good – and safe – internet filter options.

What to look for in internet filter software

Website blocking and filtering

When we tested internet filter software, we looked at exactly what each program blocked. This included the number of filter categories, if websites slipped through the cracks and if the program included a blacklist where we could add specific site URLs to block. We gave extra credit to programs, such as SpyAgent and Norton Family, that include tools designed specifically for tracking activity on social media and for blocking cyberbullying. Other programs have tools, such as screenshots and social media blocking, that can be used for similar purposes, but these require you to be more proactive for it to be effective.

Activity recording and parent notification

It seemed to us that anything a program recorded would also be reported to the parents, but we found this isn’t necessarily the case. Some programs only report the date and URL of a site a child visited by our children but don’t record more information than that. The best programs, including Qustodio, record and report in-depth information about how long your children are on specific websites, both sides of chat messages and words they search for in search engines. You can also see if your kids attempted to go to a blocked site and which activated filter category restricted their access to it. Some programs take screenshots while your child is online so you physically see what they saw during their computer time.

Notification is just as important as reading activity reports. We appreciated when a program, such as McAfee, sent us a text message as soon as our children attempted to access a restricted site. Other programs, such as Surfie, sent us email notices when our kids typed tagged words, such as “alcohol” or “home alone,” into search engines or in chat messages. Being notified quickly is important for stepping in and stopping your children from getting into a dangerous situation.

The full list of the best internet filters

Product Price Overall Rating Value Filtering, Blocking & Monitoring Recording & Alerts Email Alerts Text Alerts Summary Reports Chat Reports Screenshots Remote Reporting Social Network Activity Chat Activity Websites Visited Email Sent & Received Online Searches Performed Filter Categories Anti-Cyberbullying Social Network Time Management Website Online Search Filtering Chat Games Pornography Profanity Masking Individual User Profiles Setup & Configuration Wizard Searchable Knowledgebase Telephone Live Chat Qustodio Premium 5 View Deal 5/5 9 9.8 10 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ 29 ✓ ✓ ✓ - - Norton Family View Deal 4.5/5 10 10 8 ✓ ✓ - ✓ ✓ ✓ - ✓ 47 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Surfie View Deal 4/5 7.5 9.3 8 - ✓ - ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ 18 ✓ ✓ ✓ - - Net Nanny Windows View Deal 4/5 8.3 7.3 7.5 $ ✓ ✓ $ ✓ ✓ - ✓ 18 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ SpyAgent Standard View Deal 4/5 6.5 7.8 8 $ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ 10 ✓ ✓ ✓ - - McAfee Total Protection Family Protection View Deal 3/5 5.3 6.8 7 ✓ ✓ - ✓ ✓ ✓ - ✓ 35 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Verity Parental Control View Deal 3/5 4.3 7.5 7 - ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ N/A ✓ ✓ - ✓ -

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