Covenant Eyes partners with CleanBrowsing, a filtering company, to provide website blocking. This means that if a Covenant Eyes member, who is using the Filter service, attempts to visit a pornographic website on any device, then CleanBrowsing will block the site.
Are there different blocking options?
Yes, there are two blocking levels available:
Standard Blocking Blocks access to all adult, pornographic, and explicit websites. It does not block proxy or VPN domains. Mixed-content sites (like Reddit) are allowed. Google and Bing are set to use SafeSearch.
Strong Blocking All Standard Blocking and blocks proxies, VPN domains, some mixed-content sites (like Reddit), and YouTube is set to restricted.
How do I change the Blocking Level?
The Filter Guardian, whether it’s you or someone else, is the person who can change the settings. To do so, sign into My Account and select the member you’ll be serving.
Tap the “Settings” option for that member.
On the Settings screen, tap the “Blocking Level” option.
Make your selection and click the blue “Save” button. A confirmation message will appear at the bottom of your screen.
How do I know it’s working?
You don’t have to travel to pornography to know if your filter is working. We’ve created a test page so you can test your filter without running the risk of exposing yourself to explicit material. On any device running Covenant Eyes and signed in to with a filtered username, you can travel to www.covenanteyesfilter.com. If the filter is functioning properly, you should receive a Covenant Eyes block page. If the filter fails, the page will redirect to the Covenant Eyes homepage. If you find your filter is not working, please reach out via chat, email or phone.
What is the Custom Website List?
It is a tool for customizing the Filter settings; you can use it to help yourself or the person you are assisting.
It’s easy to use! Just enter the main domain (facebook.com) and select either “Allow” or “Block.” We’ve set it up so you don’t have to add “www” or “https.”
If you need to block a site that the Blocking Level is not blocking, then enter the site and click the red “Block” button. If a safe site is being blocked by the Blocking Level, you can enter the site and click the green “Allow” button. To activate the changes you make, be sure to refresh the Covenant Eyes software.
Note: A member can add Blocked sites to their own Custom Website List. A member’s Filter Guardian can add Allowed sites to the member’s Custom Website List, but, for his/her own well-being, a member cannot do that.
Example
If you enter badsite.example into the form and click the red “Block” button, then Covenant Eyes will add badsite.example to your Custom Website List as a blocked site.
What about apps?
Our current focus is using CleanBrowsing’s expertise to block known pornography sites. CleanBrowsing will block access to pornography sites in our app or other apps. If the blocking doesn’t occur, for whatever reason, our Screen Accountability service is ready to capture and report concerning screenshots in those apps. If blocking apps is important in your situation, then you’ll want to read about using Apple’s built-in tool for an iPhone® (Screen Time) or using our App Lock feature for Android™ devices.
What about social media?
With a few exceptions, most social media will be accessible/allowed. With the Screen Accountability service, we’re able to capture and report any concerning screenshots that would result from time spent on a social media site or in a social media app.
If you want to block social media, each site may require adding a few extra URLs to the Block List in order to block properly.
Note for iPhone users: Covenant Eyes is only able to take screenshots within our app, therefore, activity in social media apps will not appear on the report. It is recommended that members with iPhones remove social media apps and instead browse through the Covenant Eyes app.
What is SafeSearch?
SafeSearch is a search engine’s optional, internal filter meant to limit explicit search and image results. When Covenant Eyes blocking is being used, it will automatically enable and enforce SafeSearch for popular search engines.
In My Account, you can select either the Standard Blocking Level or the Strong Blocking Level:
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- Standard Blocking Level: enables and enforces SafeSearch for Google and Bing
- Strong Blocking Level: enables and enforces SafeSearch for Google, Bing, and Yahoo
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What about router-based filters?
In some cases, the simultaneous use of a router-based filter and the Covenant Eyes filter will lead to a conflict. Because the two filters are trying to do the same thing, they can end up “fighting” each other instead of helping each other. The user sees this as trouble getting online or loading a page. If you experience this, then consider using one filter. It’s natural to think that “more is better,” but that is simply not the case for content filters.
What happened to Blocked Times?
Covenant Eyes no longer offers that feature. It was a subset of our Filter service for Internet Accountability. In our new program, Screen Accountability, the filter service is different. Basic/General blocking is powered by Clean Browsing. Customized blocking is available by using the Custom Website List.