THE world’s most popular VPN has added a new feature that allows users to block pornography from their devices.
NordVPN consistently ranks among the highest on app stores, with more than 100million downloads on the Google Play Store alone.
VPN usage surged earlier this year following new age ID checks required by anyone in the UK trying to access porn sites, a move designed to protect children.
But now NordVPN has introduced a new tool to block explicit sites from view.
The feature has to be turned on manually from the app’s Threat Protection suite.
Threat Protection already blocks malicious websites and intrusive ads.
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But there’s now a new button to automatically block thousands of adult domains before they load.
“Mobile devices are central to our daily lives and protecting users from unwanted content is more important than ever,” explained Domininkas Virbickas, product director at NordVPN.
“Our new feature empowers users to take control of their browsing experience, whether they’re protecting children on shared devices or simply want to avoid accidentally accessing inappropriate content themselves.”
The tool is only available on mobile and tablet devices running Android or iOS for now.
How to turn on NordVPN’s porn blocker
You can find NordVPN’s porn site blocker by opening the app and tapping the shield icon along the bottom.
Tap the toggle next to Adult site blocking so it turns blue.
New Amazon Fire Stick VPN
NordVPN also announced some other major work it’s been busy with recently for the Amazon Fire Stick.
A new version of the much-loved device was recently released, called the Fire TV Stick 4K Select.
The biggest change is a whole new system under the hood called Vega OS – which notably makes it impossible to download and use illegal streaming apps for things like free movies or watching Premier League matches on the cheap.
But Amazon also revealed that the shake-up means that VPNs won’t work, at least for now, as developers will need to remodel their apps for the new system.
NordVPN has confirmed that it is working on a new version of its app to work on the Fire TV Stick 4K Select.
“Amazon’s shift to Vega OS brings notable improvements in efficiency and performance, and we’ve ensured NordVPN users won’t miss a beat during this transition,” said Marijus Briedis, chief technology officer at NordVPN.
“We built our new TV app from scratch to deliver the same reliable VPN protection our users expect, optimized for the new system’s architecture.”
THE SHOCKING STATS
Latest figures show the scale of adult content consumption online…
Ofcom stats:
- Around 8% children aged 8-14 in the UK visited an online porn site or app in a month.
- 15% of 13–14-year-olds accessed online porn in a month.
- Boys aged 13-14 are the most likely to visit a porn service, significantly more than girls the same age (19% vs 11%).
- Our research tells us that around three in ten (29%) or 13.8m UK adults use porn online.
- Pornhub is the most used site in the UK – Ofcom research says 18% (8.4m) visited it in one month.
Children’s Commissioner stats:
Of the 64% who said that they had ever seen online pornography:
- The average age at which children first see pornography is 13. By age nine, 10% had seen pornography, 27% had seen it by age 11 and half of children who had seen pornography had seen it by age 13.
- We also find that young people are frequently exposed to violent pornography, depicting coercive, degrading or pain-inducing sex acts; 79% had encountered violent pornography before the age of 18.
- Pornography is not confined to dedicated adult sites. We found that Twitter was the online platform where young people were most likely to have seen pornography.
Image credit: Alamy
