Web filters are specific programs to control the browsing sessions. They can be used in the house to prevent the children from visiting the pornographic websites or in the office to stop the employees for the same reason. These programs can also be used to block any individual site and prevent download or any other content that may be harmful for any specific viewers of internet.
Content control software
The web filters are also known as censorware or content control software. The filters can be used to block any quantity of web content. For example, the government can block certain websites for the whole country, or the owner of a business place for the office, an ISP for all of its clients, a library for the users, school or university authority for the students, and parents for their children. It is also applicable for individual in a personal computer to block certain sites.
Besides the pornographic or offensive contents, the web filters are used for security matters. Some of the websites may contain malware or any other security flaw which may harm the computer or get unauthorized access to someone's computer. These sites can be pre-blocked by using the filters. Some of the filters offer a monitoring system and by using them, you can monitor what your children are doing in the internet.
Blocking offensive material
Besides the blocking the sites, the filters can block all the sites that contain the offensive materials. For example, if any government finds any keyword offensive for them, they can shut down the search results in the search engines for that keyword by controlling the main server of the country.
Prevent malware too
Most of the latest browsers have their own security filter that alerts the user before entering a site, if the site contains any harmful code for the computer. The code is usually written in script and by blocking the script , you can reduce the chance of getting a malware in your computer. There are some options in the settings of the browsers to control the flow of the script s for every site. This option will allow you to enter a site without taking account the script ed part of the page. java script is a powerful coding method to harm your computer, but it is also a very important to design a dynamic page. So most of the browsers leave the decision to enable or disable the Java script to the users within the settings.
Virtual programs on internet
The web filter is actually a written program that you can use by installing in your computer or you can use any virtual program from the internet for the same purpose. These programs can be bypassed, if they are not well constructed, by using different protocols or by using proxy servers. For example, different protocols are used by some online advertisements if there is a chance that these ads are blocked by the ISP.
Some programs are specifically designed to detect the pornographic content and block them. Beside the pornography, the filters are mostly use for blocking religious and political offensive contents. Some of the filters are designed to maintain secure financial data transmission.
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