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How Surfshark's web content blocker differs from traditional parental controls to help users safeguard loved ones
When you consider what the key features of the best VPNs might be, parental controls are probably a long way from your thinking.
Watertight security protocols, industry-leading encryption, fast connection speeds, and the list of streaming services they unlock are much more likely to be found towards the top of articles giving guidance on things to consider before buying a VPN.
Speak to just about any cybersecurity insider, however, and they’ll tell you that the industry is trending towards a future in which internet users will generally sign up to a single all-in-one security software subscription, in favor of disparate, siloed apps.
The online dangers faced by our children
The safety of kids online is a hot topic that refuses to go away and, on the face of it, feels near impossible to crack. With danger seemingly lurking around every corner, it’s hard not to consider the internet’s effect on young people without resorting to what sounds like scaremongering.
With a number of big tech and social media companies apparently content to bury their heads in the sand, it has fallen on governments to try and protect the mental and social wellbeing of young people.
Take the recently enacted social media ban for under-16s in Australia, for example. Or the UK’s age verification requirements finally brought in this year to prevent under-18s from accessing websites featuring adult-only content.
Neither have been free from controversy, and yet both are the very tip of a massive and ever growing iceberg of online peril facing our children.
That puts even greater onus on cybersecurity companies to try and help protect users and their families.
What is Surfshark’s web content blocker and how does it work?
Web content blocker is a feature developed by Surfshark that lets users block entire categories of websites on an Android or iOS device.
The most obvious example is a parent that wants to prevent their kids from seeing adult content, but can also be utilized by somebody with a less tech-savvy member of a family that is vulnerable to malware attacks and phishing scams.
The user will select the sort of content that they want to put a shield in front of and, if somebody then tries to access a site of that kind, they will need to satisfy two-factor authentication (2FA) to proceed.
Web content blocker is divided into different categories of online risk, including:
- Adult
- Drugs
- Gambling
- Hate & Profanity
- Malware
- Phishing
- Tobacco
- Weapons
So, for example, the Phishing category blocks sites designed to steal personal information, while the Malware category blocks sites that could infect a device with harmful software.
The web content blocker feature is available to all Surfshark One and One Plus subscribers – the provider’s two tiers of all-in-one cybersecurity.
Surfshark's web content blocker vs Traditional parental controls
There’s nothing new about parental control apps, of course, and many of the best internet security suites include such tools within their feature lists.
Web content blocker helps users protect their family members from seeing malicious content or websites – without snooping on their browsing activity or monitoring the actual websites they visit.
Justas Pukys, Senior Product Manager at Surfshark
So what makes Surfshark’s web content blocker different?
“Unlike traditional tracking applications, the web content blocker helps users protect their family members from seeing malicious content or websites,” explains Senior Product Manager at Surfshark, Justas Pukys.
So it’s not about monitoring what websites your kids are looking at on their smartphones or snooping on their browsing activity, but rather preventing them from reaching harmful content in the first place.
“The web content blocker is designed as a new approach to online safety, not as a comprehensive parental control suite,” says Pukys. “It differs from traditional parental controls by focusing on respecting privacy by blocking access to selected website categories without monitoring user activity.
“As a result, it does not include features such as screen time limits, app blocking, or activity monitoring, as expanding to those features would necessitate tracking user activity.”
And this is an approach that feels consistent with Surfshark’s general approach to privacy, pledging in its no-logs policy not to track or store your browsing history, data transfers or other internet behavior.
Protection for the whole family
Surfshark VPN doesn’t even have to be turned on for the web content blocker feature to work – another point of difference to the parental controls featured by some other VPN providers. And, because Surfshark doesn’t impose a limit on the devices on which it can be used, it’s effectively available to be used on as many smartphones and tablets as you wish.
But it’s about the versatility of web content blocker that Pukys expresses the greatest amount of pride:
“We wanted to build a feature that is broader than just parental controls.”
This feature is very versatile – it can be used for both parental controls and personal protection.
Justas Pukys
This makes complete sense when you consider that the Federal Trade Commission recently reported a dramatic rise in impersonation scams targeting older adults, with combined losses for people aged 60 and over who have lost more than $100,000 surpassed an alarming $445 million in 2024.
Looking out for children may seem obvious, but protection for older internet users is something of a blind spot in many similar tools.
“Our web content blocker focuses on safeguarding every household when browsing online,” says Pukys, “and allows people to block entire categories of websites to protect them against phishing or malware websites.”
“We aimed to develop a more full-rounded tool that would perform more functions and bring more benefits to the user.”
