A youth protection program is a user-independent software which, for example, detects voluntary age indicators on websites and then only shows users the web pages which are indicated as being appropriate for the corresponding age group. Parents decide themselves decide which age group is appropriate for their child and thus which Internet content can be displayed or blocked. Furthermore, additional Internet addresses can be saved which are either enabled (whitelisted) or blocked (blacklisted). The parent or guardian can turn off the youth protection program when using the computer themselves - or just set up different user accounts for children and adults.
There are different types of youth protection programs and these can be used for the entire computer, for individual devices, or individual services.
The software providers can have their youth protection programs evaluated and approved by one of the voluntary self-regulation organizations. The following programs received positive reviews:
