How to use Plusnet SafeGuard

Plusnet SafeGuard is our online Parental Control tool. If you're worried about what your children can see online, you can use SafeGuard to help prevent access to inappropriate content. This can include sites with adult content, gambling, violence and the threat of cyber bullying through messaging and social media. Check our Internet safety jargon buster to understand the kind of cyber threats your children can also be exposed to.

Even if you're using SafeGuard, we strongly recommend parents and guardians supervise their children's activities where possible, to ensure they're acting responsibly online and don't over-share information to others. For maximum protection we strongly advise to also install a device based solution. For more details on protecting your family please see our guide to staying safe online or www.internetmatters.org.

When you start using Plusnet SafeGuard, we'll make a change in our network that means if you, or someone in your household tries to access content that you've asked to be blocked, you'll be shown a 'blocked' page in your browser.

No, we won't record what you do online. When you or your children use the Internet, we'll check your list of Allowed and Blocked websites to make sure no inappropriate content is shown.

Once your broadband service is ready, you can activate and manage Plusnet SafeGuard via the Plusnet SafeGuard control panel in the My Account. Here you can block specific categories and websites that you don't want to see.

It's the same username and password you use to log in to My Account. You'll have chosen these when you joined Plusnet.

• If you've forgotten your username take a look at the letter we sent when you first signed up with us. You should find it on there
• If it's your password you can't remember fill out our forgotten password form and we'll send you details on how to reset it

Once your broadband service is ready, go to the Plusnet SafeGuard control panel and click the ON/OFF button at the top of the screen.

Next, switch your router off and on again. After 2 hours, Plusnet SafeGuard will start filtering content.

If you want to switch it off, follow the same steps and after 2 hours you'll be able to browse as normal.

Note that Safeguard will not work on iOS devices with iOS 15 or newer when browsing on Safari and for HTTP app traffic if Apple's iCloud Private Relay is enabled.

Plusnet SafeGuard lets you block content in two ways:

• Category blocking – this means you can block groups of sites with similar content. Pornography, Hate & Intolerance and Tasteless categories are blocked as standard but you can change this at any time
• Website blocking – you can add a specific website's URL that you want to be blocked, e.g. to block Facebook just click on 'Blocked websites' and enter facebook.com into the address box (you don't need to type 'http' or 'www.' before the address). You can add up to 30 individual websites to your blocklist

You can do this by adding the address to your Allow Websites list. You might want to do this if:

• you never want a certain site to be blocked
• a website has been blocked under a specific category, but you believe its content is safe
• a specific website address has been incorrectly blocked by the filter and you want to allow access to it

You can have up to 30 allowed websites.

Yes, Plusnet SafeGuard includes a Timer function that means protection is only in place when it needs to be, e.g. on when the kids are awake but off in the evening when you want to go online.

Simply set the times when you want the filters to be active and save your changes, and content will be filtered during these times every day.

Yes, as long as your device is connected to your Plusnet router and accesses the Internet through the Wi-Fi connection.

• Websites viewed in the browser will be filtered like they are on your computer or laptop
• Apps that use the web to access blocked content may not work properly

If your device accesses the Internet via a mobile network (3G/4G) SafeGuard won't work.

Yes. They offer different protection. Plusnet SafeGuard only protects over your fibre or broadband connection and doesn't offer the virus or malware protection that Plusnet Protect does, so it's a good idea to use both.