Block websites on your computer
You may have heard that some people are blocking popular websites like Facebook, YouTube, and news sites in order to avoid being distracted. Too much social media can lead to stress and anxiety, so this way you know what you're getting into before you log on. Sometimes it’s helpful to just get offline completely!
In this post, we'll show you how to block a website on your computer or mobile device with filters like Net Nanny or Safe Eyes.
Websites on Chrome Desktop:
If you have an email address from your school, you can filter out certain websites with Safe Eyes. Click Add to Chrome and accept the prompt to install. Then, go to the website you want to block, click Allow on the popup box and allow Net Nanny access.
Click the green lock icon that appears in your toolbar and choose Website Settings. That will take you here:
Click Allowed Websites and type in a new address that you want to block. In this case, I’ve entered en.wikipedia.org which will block the English Wikipedia page on Wikipedia's website (http://en.wikipedia.org).
Click Save. That's it!
Here is a screenshot of the Safe Eyes settings:
If you want to contain all Wikipedia pages, no worries, just add a new filter and enter en.wikipedia.org in the text box on Step 4: Choose a site to block. Then click Add to Chrome for it to be added as an option for filtering.
The advantage of this way is that you can have more than 1 filter which will work with each other (called "Blocking" in Net Nanny).
You can also have a specific filter for YouTube, since it's not easy to block a single url that already has an https: address. The easiest way to do this is to put the word "youtube" in the page name box.
A website-blocking filter for YouTube doesn't work as it does not have a secure protocol or https: version, so if you use this method with YouTube you will only be able to access the regular video site.
If you want to block a specific youtube-video, use the text: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=123456 - this works because the resulting page looks like a regular youtube page, but has the string 123456 instead of the video's ID. After loading this page it will have 2 links: 'watch' and '?t=123456'.
Now that you are logged into your school's email account, enter in Step 4: Choose a site to block. My first filter was en.wikipedia.org, but you can use any url, even a general search engine website.
I chose this one, because I know it will work: https://www.google.com/ - but you can also choose a search engine like Yahoo or DuckDuckGo.
Click Save for the new filter to be added.
That's it! If you want to remove any filters, click the X on top of the filter box (top right corner). If you don't want to remove any filters, you can also click on the X (top right corner) after the last filter box.
Now that your new filters are set up, you can test them by clicking on the Tools tab in Net Nanny's main window and then choosing Tests or by clicking Home > Tests in Safe Eyes' interface.
How to block Facebook using Net Nanny:
You can add a filter for Facebook easily using this method:
1. Open Net Nanny:
2. Go to Tools > Add Filter, or just click Home or Tools in Safe Eyes' interface and then choose Add Filter... from Net Nanny's toolbar menu.
3. Type "Facebook" in the Name box for the new filter and click Block URL.
4. Enter https://www.facebook.com/ in the textbox for Block URL and click Save to add it as a filtered website (you have 2 options: block, or whitelist). If you choose to whitelist it, then it will be added to your allowed websites list, but you can still decide which specific page on that site should be blocked.
If you want to block a specific page of Facebook (not the whole site), enter in Step 4: Choose a site to block www.facebook.com/page.html - and it will be added to the allowed websites list.
How to block YouTube using Safe Eyes:
1. Go to Home > Add Filter or just click Tools in Net Nanny's interface and then choose Add Filter from Safe Eyes' toolbar menu.
2. Type "youtube" in the Name box for the new filter and click Block URL.
3. In Step 4: Choose a site to block type youtube - you don't need to enter any other text before / after the word youtube because Youtube has a secure protocol address with https:// at the beginning (https://www.youtube.com). If you want to block a specific video, add https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=123456.
4. Click Save to save your new filter and block YouTube on your computer with Safe Eyes!
How to block a website on mobile devices using Net Nanny:
If you want to block a website on an Android device with Net Nanny, go here from your Android device and download the app from Google Play or the Amazon Appstore. Then, follow these steps:
1. Login to Google Play or the Amazon Appstore with your school credentials.
2.
Conclusion:
We hope you found this guide helpful! Let us know if you have any questions or comments at support@safeeyes.com or on Facebook, Twitter, and the Safe Eyes Forum.
For more information about Net Nanny and Safe Eyes, check out our tutorials on how to block a website here: How To Block Facebook in Net Nanny
How To Block YouTube in Net Nanny
How to block a website on your computer or mobile device with filters like Net Nanny or Safe Eyes.