Internet Access Restrictions; Activation of ‘Parental Controls’ for Google and Bing Users in the Country

Official media in the country reported disruptions in the settings of Google and Bing, two widely-used search engines. According to these reports, as of this morning, the settings of these two search engines for users of some operators have been placed in ‘child user’ mode. In this mode, which is designed for children, users face restrictions on internet access.

According to Hrana news agency, citing Entekhaab, in the early hours of this morning, the search settings of Google and Bing, two widely-used global search engines, were placed in ‘child user’ mode for users of some operators including Hamrah-e Aval and Irancell.

The report states that based on follow-up with operators, it appears that the changes that occurred in the search were not from these companies and were made from higher levels. Internet experts also believe that the current situation occurring within the country appears as if all internet users in the country are ‘children’.

Milad Nouri, an IT activist, announced the search restrictions on Google via mobile operators by posting a tweet. It appears that the implementation of these restrictions has been fluctuating on some operators so far, but continues nonetheless.

Search engines have a feature called ‘Safe Search’ to prevent users from accessing inappropriate content. The activation of this capability on the network is provided by Google, and network subscribers cannot disable it.

Hossein Darvaari, a network and security expert, confirms that control of these measures likely occurred from higher levels within internet service providers. He says that contrary to what some users assumed, that this action was coordinated with Google, what is actually happening is from within Iran and is a form of DNS Hijacking: “Now instead of you receiving an IP like 10.10.34.35, you receive an IP from a manipulated system that is intended by Google and Bing for schools and children.”

He states: “It is certain that this is being done within the country itself. There is a difference in response time, and also the location and path of receiving the response can indicate deliberate changes within the network. This volume of time difference in receiving information is significant. These requests in different networks and different provinces receive similar results. The issue that is currently occurring does not pose a security problem for users from a security standpoint, but the problem is that users have lost the ability to change the SafeSearch mode in search engines, and in a way the entire country is considered as a child on the internet.”

Darvaari emphasizes that the next problem that could arise is if large traffic is directed to a specific IP, and due to these many restrictions, the quality of internet service would again decrease noticeably.

It should be noted that Dijitalo’s follow-up with the Ministry of Communications to obtain more information has so far remained fruitless. This is while the Minister of Communications recently appeared on the television program “Jahan-ara” and mentioned Google’s SafeSearch capability, speaking about the necessity of providing safe internet for children and adolescents. According to this ministry, this will be implemented within 2 weeks, and children and adolescents when using the internet will only have access to websites that are on the Ministry of Guidance’s whitelist.

It is worth noting that in recent months, users of cyberspace have repeatedly complained about problems with using the internet and social networks.

Source: Hrana