Blokada configuration to block adult and pornographic content

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Hello folks,

I am Ash. I have been part of the Blokada community for some time. I have learned a lot about DNS and host lists from the admins. Thank you @Karol, @Peter, @c_C, and team for your support.

I want to thank Miss support (@c_C ) for the suggestion to write up my configuration of Blokada on Android to block pornographic and adult content.

Please refer to her eloquent post for basic setup. I concur with all of her points :slight_smile:

Now coming to this post,

Back story

After getting frustrated by low-quality services from android apps(paid & free) in the past three years I found Blokada six months ago from the internet. Since then I am using it on all of my devices. I believe using Blokada is the best way to block adult and pornographic content on android besides adblocking.

How to block adult and pornographic content using Blokada?

We will primarily look at DNS and host-lists in this post.

DNS settings

DNS is responsible for translating IP addresses of websites and apps we use. At a time you can only choose one DNS from the list. There are two DNS servers which I have tried,

1. AdGuard DNS(Family)

This DNS blocks access to all websites with adult content. It also enforces safe search across all the browsers on your phone. This server also blocks ads and malware to enhance your security. For more info visit here.

2. OpenDNS Family

OpenDNS Family DNS service automatically blocks adult and other inappropriate content on your home internet network. It’s a great tool for parents to safeguard the internet for their children, allowing them to browse the web more safely. It also safely blocks malware, phishing, and identity theft websites.

Personally I prefer AdGuard DNS(Family) over OpenDNS Family because AdGuard has all the features of OpenDNS Family + it also enforces safe search in browsers and restricted mode in youtube application. I have also found that AdGuard is slightly faster than OpenDNS.

Host lists

When you or your device lookup for a website i.e. translated to an IP address, it will first go through the hosts file(s) selected by you in the Blokada app to resolve the name. If the name is not present in the local hosts file, it will try resolving using the DNS (Domain Name Service) selected by you. To know more about host files visit this website.

List of Host lists used by me,

1. Energized Porn Blocking
This host list blocks 530K+ pornography domains across the internet. It is not available on Blokada by default, you have to add it by clicking on add a new host list tab and insert the copied link of txt file from Energized website. You can also try other host lists from Energized protection according to your needs.

2. StevenBlack Unified Porn
This host list is Low-End Friendly and blocks around 76,942 porn domains. It is available in the pre-downloaded host lists in the app.

3. Goodbye Ads by Jerryn70
This host list blocks all kinds of ads, trackers & analytics from apps and websites.

4. GoodbyeAds-YouTube AdBlock by Jerryn70
I use this host list because it blocks almost 90% of YouTube Ads living up to their claim (Great job Jerry) on both youtube app & website. There are minimal ads at the starting/middle/ end of the YT videos. (Your results may vary depending on the device.)
You can also use NewPipe and YouTube Vanced. I have had problems with both of them. Reason(s): NewPipe support system is not good, I have contacted the developers, sent a couple of emails regarding the issues. I did not get any response from them. For me, around 70-80% of youtube content does not stream in NewPipe at all. The setting up process is so convoluted for YouTube Vanced that I did not even get started :frowning:. Although they have a better support group on Telegram.

For more adblocking settings please refer to @c_C post.

One caveat here is that if you have installed Blokada on your children or sibling’s devices, they can easily deactivate Blokada from the app. (I hope in future a one-step authentication will be added by the developers.)
To stop this from happening, I have figured out a way by following these simple steps,

  1. Installing any app lock android app in the device(I recommend open-source apps which you can find on F-Droid)
  2. Set a unique password, and
  3. Put app lock on Blokada.

Have a good day.

PS: This is my first post, your feedback and suggestions are most welcome.

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Hi,
Thanks for the report. It’s rather well written and constrictive :slight_smile:
The thing about Applocks is that they’re easily avoidable. One example would be stopping Blokada using the quick start tile.

What exactly are you struggling to do? :slight_smile:
Maybe I can help you out with this

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Thank you for the feedback :).
What about this

?

I am skeptical of these two steps in the installation process:

  1. Download and install MicroG
  2. Download SAI from the play store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aefyr.sai

Are both steps safe? I use non-rooted android device.

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MicroG is optional. You’ll only need if if you want to login to your Google account.
MicroG is a well-known open-source Google Services project (microg.org)
SAI is used to install multiple apps at once. The YouTube application consists of multiple applications as far as I’m aware
SAI is open source as well and even available on Fdroid :slight_smile: https://github.com/Aefyr/SAI

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Awesome post, thank you very much @ashubuntu!
I think this really will be a helpful summary for all people looking to block pornographic content with Blokada:)!

@PrintableCharacter yes, Blokada can be turned off easily. That’s correct. But does it have to be the job of Blokada to be safe for children? Imo Blokada provides a possibility to block pornographic content and other content which shouldn’t be accessed by children. Imo it is possible to make Blokada childsafe with other apps, for example applocks.
The results for people around me: with applock parents(and their children) don’t face any problems. If you set Blokada as Always-on-VPN you can even monitor how long the last connection was. I don’t know whether we want to discuss this here, but I wanted to add my experiences to your statement.

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Well… The question always is which specific password lock you’re using. There are a bunch of applications that work awesome and there’s an even bigger amount of apps with bad to no real locking functionalities.
Since a password protection isn’t built-in to Blokada we cannot tell guaranteed whether or not and how well something works

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I agree with you on that. Still the options that Blokada provides (if paired well with specific apps) can be very helpful imo. Is that what you wanted to say as well?^^

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I hope in the future maybe there will be some kind of inbuilt authentication incorporated in the app.

I have started learning the coding language, let’s see if I can contribute something towards it.

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I agree with you @c_C. In-fact this one steps makes the internet safer for kids and easier for them to stick with their goals/tasks. Kids and young teenagers have a limited amount of will-power. My friend and I both have seen positive results :slight_smile:

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Did you already check our Github repo for corresponding issues:)?

Awesome, very cool:D if you have any questions about the programming language or the implementation in Blokada the Dev’s lounge is always welcoming you:)!

:+1::slight_smile:

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I tried most of the steps to install YouTube Vanced including the new ytvanced manager. I am an MIUI user. I know it is difficult and I do not want to switch off MIUI optimization. Any suggestion @PrintableCharacter?

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Yes, I checked out the Github repo and I did not find the relevant issue.

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Is this what you are looking for:)?

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What exactly is the issue you’re facing?

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Yes this is it. I am sorry I did not find it while I was searching in the repo.

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MicroG cannot be installed without turning off MIUI optimization. In the manager if I can’t install MicroG I am unable to proceed further and install ytvanced.

@PrintableCharacter Since this is off-topic can we continue somewhere else, maybe telegram?

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don’t worry about that, all good:D!

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Feel free to create a YouTube Vanced other discussions thread

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Thank you @ashubuntu for this write-up. Immensely informative. This method works pretty well on all of my devices. Now In my family everyone has Blokada installed on their devices.

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Thank you for your kind words @niccolomachiavelli. Welcome to the Blokada community forum!
Feel free to look at other posts.

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