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Technical Profiling of Blocked Domains in Parental Control Systems

Gouriye, Yousef (2025) Technical Profiling of Blocked Domains in Parental Control Systems.

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Abstract:Parental control tools are used to block domains that may be inappropriate for children. However, these tools often do not clearly explain how they decide which domains to block. This project will investigate whether blocked domains share technical features, such as their top-level domain, hosting location, or other hidden technical details that could suggest hidden rules or biases in how filtering is done. Using a dataset of websites blocked by different parental control systems, the goal is to find patterns in technical attributes that can help us understand what influences these systems' decisions beyond just website content. Our analysis reveals that blocking decisions are not only driven by content categories but also by technical factors like IP subnets, WHOIS metadata, and domain age. We found that recently created domains and domains from large hosting providers are more likely to be blocked. Additionally, entire IP subnets were often blocked regardless of their actual content, highlighting potential infrastructural bias in PCS filtering behavior.
Item Type:Essay (Bachelor)
Faculty:EEMCS: Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science
Subject:54 computer science
Programme:Computer Science BSc (56964)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/107448
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