How to get around Vodafone's "Adult content" filter

By default all phones on Vodafone have a rather annoying "Adult Content" lock which is there to prevent youngsters from getting on sites associated with pornography, gambling and other adult based websites. Whilst we understand the idea of doing this on PAYG (Pay As You Go) handsets we think it's a bit stupid to have it on contract phones so we decided to try and find a "work around"...what we didn't realise was just HOW easy it was to get around.

The first option is that you connect your phone to the internet via Wi-Fi. This actually cuts out anything to do with your network, so obviously you won't be charged "Data" for using your own Wi-Fi and in many cases you'll also likely get a quicker connection to the internet. The problem with just using Wi-Fi to get around the Adult Content is that you can't always be connected to Wi-Fi and this brings us nicely to option 2.

Option 2 is that you download the "Opera Mini" internet browser. Opera Mini, in one version or another, can be used with almost any phone capable of browsing the internet. For many smartphones you will find it on the associated "Store" or "Market" for older phones that can run Java visit http://www.opera.com/mobile/ on your PC (and see if a version is available for your phone). After installing Opera Mini you need to open it and then use it to visit a website, you should quickly realise that you can get on the previously prohibited website.

Opera Mini manages to get around Vodafone's content filter as the Opera servers actually deal with your request (as opposed to Vodafone's) this means that you are sent a website that Opera has processed (this saves you money on data as well as gets around the the pesky Adult Content warning). Rather interestingly the Chinese Government were afraid of Opera customers using Opera Mini to get around the "Great Firewall" in a similar manner to the way that users can use Opera Mini to get around Adult Content filters!

So next time you want to place a sneaky bet, look at something dirty or read up on drugs use Opera Mini.

*We do expect this to work on ANY networks using adult content filters but sadly we're unable to test at the moment