“Trying to keep up is like playing a game of whack-a-mole,” says Tierney. She said that teens using VPNs to get around monitoring devices is just another example of how they will always be one step ahead of us when it comes to technology and social media use. Laura Tierney, social media expert and founder of The Social Institute, recommends a bigger-picture approach to the issue. But I decided that since my kids were older teens, I would give them the benefit of the doubt. And if they deleted their history, which even a rookie would probably do, then I was none the wiser.Īfter some research, I learned that one way I could make it harder for my teens to use VPNs was to use parental controls to restrict them from downloading new apps on their phones without my permission.
I quickly realized that with a simple free app, my teens could access any site at any time, including pornography. That’s because their internet browsing history is not tracked on monitoring devices, which are meant to report what websites they visit or how long they play an online game. Teens also use VPNs to surf the web anonymously, says DeRosa.
This allows them to download content without their parents’ knowledge or to access social media or games that their school may block. Denise DeRosa, cyber safety expert and founder of the website Cyber Sensible, said that many teens are using VPNs to get around school filters and parental controls. I quickly learned that my kids and their friends were not alone in using VPNs.
And of course, she said that “EVERYONE” knows how to use VPN at school. That’s because the VPN’s encrypted connection makes it look like she is connected directly to the social media site, thereby bypassing the school’s controls on Wi-Fi use. The VPN lets her secretly use the school’s wireless network to connect to Instagram. She had downloaded a free application on her phone for a Virtual Private Network (VPN), which is a secure connection that people often use to keep online transactions, such as banking transfers, secure from cybercriminals. Teens Using Virtual Private NetworksĪ few questions later, and I had the gist of what was going on. I just used my VPN to get around the school’s control,” was her nonchalant response later that night. I hope this helps someone! This has been quite the challenge, since schools are under a large microscope to do their best with filtering web traffic.Should You Monitor? Here Are the Best Parental Control Resources What do you think? Does this solution work for those who are using Untangle in an in-line filter solution instead of a router solution? And I am perfectly fine with blocking all other outgoing VPN traffic in this situation. That is not an issue for me at work, since our VPN server is isolated and doesn't pass through our router and filter. The downside is that you will block any other VPN traffic as well. So far it is working with the iOS app, even without the domain in the web filter block list! No matter how Betternet establishes connection to Amazon, it has to use that VPN port.
It's actually quite simple, setup a firewall rule to block outgoing UDP traffic on port 500. After researching many IT forums from some other BIG names in enterprise grade filtering, I think I have finally figured out a solution. Obviously blocking "" works, however that will block most everything related to Amazon as well. I am so grateful for the Home Untangle subscription! That allowed me to setup a separate rack at home to isolate my iPad and test this extensively without bothering normal traffic. I am an IT Director / Project Manager for a school, and have been battling the Betternet VPN app and Chrome extension for over a year.