Parental controls
BentBox is an adults-only site and we would rather no child ever reached it. This page explains, in plain steps, how to block BentBox and sites like it — on a whole home network, on a single phone, or on one computer. Nothing here requires our involvement, and none of it costs anything.
Where to start
If you only do one thing, change the DNS settings on your router. It takes about five minutes, covers every device in the house including games consoles and smart TVs, and costs nothing. Add device-level restrictions on top for phones, which leave the house and use mobile data.
If you have found an underage account on BentBox, or content you believe involves a minor, email info@bentbox.co straight away. Reports are acted on before they are assessed, and you do not need an account to make one.
Block adult sites on your whole network
A family DNS service filters every request made over your home internet connection. You point your router at one of the addresses below and it applies to every device that connects to your Wi-Fi, with nothing to install and nothing to maintain.
| Service | Primary | Secondary | What it blocks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare for Families | 1.1.1.3 | 1.0.0.3 | Blocks adult content and malware. Free, no account, fast almost everywhere. |
| OpenDNS FamilyShield | 208.67.222.123 | 208.67.220.123 | Run by Cisco. Pre-set to block adult content, proxies and anonymisers. Nothing to configure. |
| CleanBrowsing Family | 185.228.168.168 | 185.228.169.168 | The strictest of the three. Also forces SafeSearch on Google, Bing and YouTube. |
| AdGuard Family | 94.140.14.15 | 94.140.15.16 | Adult content plus adverts and trackers, which cuts down on adult advertising elsewhere. |
Setting it on your router
- Open a browser on a device connected to your Wi-Fi and go to your router's admin address — usually 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1. The password is normally printed on a sticker on the router itself.
- Find the DNS settings. They sit under WAN, Internet, Network or Advanced depending on the make.
- Replace the existing primary and secondary DNS addresses with a pair from the table above, then save and restart the router.
- Change the router's admin password to something a child in the house does not know, so the setting cannot simply be changed back.
- Test it. Visit any adult site from a device on your Wi-Fi; it should fail to load rather than show a page.
Two things this will not cover: a phone using mobile data instead of Wi-Fi, and any device running a VPN. Both are handled by device-level controls below.
Block adult sites on one device
Every major operating system has adult-content filtering built in, free, with a passcode separate from the device unlock code. Set the passcode first and keep it to yourself — the restrictions are only as strong as that code.
iPhone and iPad
Settings › Screen Time › Content & Privacy Restrictions › Content Restrictions › Web ContentChoose to limit adult websites. You can also add specific addresses to the "Never Allow" list. Turn on the Screen Time passcode at the top of the Screen Time menu first.
Android
Google Family Link app › select the child's account › Controls › Content restrictionsFamily Link filters Chrome, restricts app installs, and lets you set SafeSearch. On a device you own outright, private DNS can also be set to a family resolver under Settings › Network.
Windows
Microsoft Family Safety › select the child's account › Content filtersFiltering adult sites in Windows works through Microsoft Edge and blocks other browsers while it is on. The child needs their own Microsoft account, added to your family group.
Mac
System Settings › Screen Time › Content & Privacy › Content Restrictions › Access to Web ContentLimit adult websites, then use Customise to add addresses you want blocked outright. Lock it behind a Screen Time passcode and make sure the child's account is not an administrator.
Parental control software
Dedicated software goes further than the built-in tools: it covers several devices under one account, reports on what was blocked, and applies time limits. These are the ones most widely used by families; all are paid, with free trials.
- Qustodio — web filtering, app limits and activity reports across Windows, Mac, iOS, Android and Kindle.
- Net Nanny — real-time content analysis rather than a fixed blocklist, so it catches sites that have not been categorised yet.
- Bark — monitors messages and social accounts for risk as well as filtering the web. Popular with parents of older teenagers.
- Norton Family — web supervision and school-time controls, included with some Norton 360 subscriptions.
- Kaspersky Safe Kids — filtering, screen time and location, with a low-cost premium tier.
- Mobicip — cross-platform filtering managed from one parent dashboard.
We have no commercial relationship with any of these companies and receive nothing if you subscribe. They are listed because they are established and they work.
How filters recognise BentBox
BentBox labels its adult pages with the Restricted To Adults (RTA) tag, a voluntary standard maintained by the Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection. Filtering software reads the label and blocks the page without anyone having to submit our address to a blocklist first.
In practice this means that once you have set up any of the tools on this page, BentBox is blocked automatically. You do not need to name us, and the label cannot be turned off from the visitor's side.
What else we do
- Creators are identity-verified before they can publish anything, through our verification partner ProntoID.
- In jurisdictions that require age verification for visitors, the check runs before any adult content is shown and fails closed.
- Reported accounts and content are actioned first and assessed afterwards.
- Our non-explicit section, Folio, is kept on a separate subdomain (folio.bentbox.co) rather than mixed into the adult catalogue.
What is on bentbox.co, and what is not
Treat bentbox.co as an adult site in full. The content sold there is predominantly explicit, and there is no setting a visitor can switch on to make it otherwise — blocking the domain is the only reliable way to keep it off a device.
The one exception sits on its own address. Folio, at folio.bentbox.co, is our separate non-explicit section: portfolio work only, no adult listings. It is a distinct subdomain precisely so that filters and parents can treat the two differently. If you want everything blocked, block bentbox.co and its subdomains together, which is what the DNS services above and the software below do by default.