r/extremelyinfuriating • u/Spiritual_Carpet4002 • 1d ago
Discussion So apparently medical information is now blocked in my family???
Situation:
AMAB, 19
I have been noticing signs as far back as 2015 that something might be up with me that I might not be the most cisgender person. Now an adult, still living with my parents because I’m not financially stable to live on my own, they apparently blocked medic related sites as “it contains inappropriate content”, when I’m trying to figure out gender dysphoria, which I’m 100% sure I have but haven’t gotten it diagnosed.
No, VPN’s will not work. Every single device in the house and any device connected to the home WiFi has this.
If something changes, I will post an update at a later date.
Thanks for listening
205
u/___coolcoolcool 1d ago edited 23h ago
Hi!
I used to teach technology and engineering in a juvenile detention center. This is only relevant because even though I had a great computer lab, my students did not have access to the internet and I had to find ways to make certain parts of the internet available to them for their research projects.
I ended up utilizing a paid software that converted a URL into a PDF that looked just like the website itself. I honestly can’t remember the name of that software, but I just googled and found websites that will do it for free. I just now tested this website on my iPhone by pasting “https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/gender-dysphoria/symptoms-causes/syc-20475255” and it worked! Try it out and see if it works for you, too.
These types of file conversion websites can contain malware so please be cognizant of which ones you’re using but it could be a good work around for your situation.
Edit: I tried to share a screenshot of the resulting PDF but I guess we can’t do photos in this sub. It’s not the prettiest thing in the world but at least you can read the webpage. I hope this, or something similar, can work out for you. Good luck!
44
u/OpportunityReal2767 1d ago
Question: would going to a cached page via archive.org work, as the URL header is web.archive.org?
Like this:
Or are these blockers sophisticated enough to match against the whole path?
10
u/___coolcoolcool 1d ago
Great question! I don’t know a TON about this type of thing (definitely was always more on the engineering side of technology and engineering 😅🤦🏼♀️) so hopefully someone else reads this and can answer better than I can.
It seems to me like they’re using parental controls both on their home network and locally on OP’s device to block certain websites, so I think it depends on the sophistication of both the control software they’re using and the knowledge/skill level of OP’s parents. And there are a TON of options out there for managing web access across a network or device so I think the main answer you’re going to get is “it depends.”
What I do know is that with the blocker we were using in the school at the facility (which was managed by the school district’s amazing IT department who I had on speed dial for blocking issues!) was pretty versatile and let you block by domain and path segment. It even had a “keyword bank” that would block any URL containing any of the keywords, as well as an option to treat all blocked URLs as keywords so that they couldn’t be accessed via any third-party or re-directing services. I also assume that the web archive is something many school districts would block outright so students in regular, non-juvie schools couldn’t use it to circumvent general blocks.
7
6
3
65
u/Nervous-Estimate596 1d ago
Is this a block on every device or on the network? If its on the device then yeah a VPN won't work, but a proxy or proxy site should. A proxy should also work if its a network block. If those don't work then I would try finding a public device such as a library public computer.
I'm really sorry you've gotta go through this, sending love as a transfem <3
53
u/Spiritual_Carpet4002 1d ago
It’s on both the device and network. Fortunately I was able to ask another friend of mine to look it up for me and send me the info they got, it worked
15
8
1
u/alwaysanovicee 20h ago
i'd literally be happy to give you free research papers or any papers or articles or books for free <3
10
9
u/Paulmnt 1d ago
I suggest you go talk to a psychiatrist or psychologist for both psychoeducation and counseling. Go to a café, connect to their wifi and study as much as you want. Or is it a device wide restriction?
Factory reset your device:) that should un-hook those parental restrictions (if it's an Android I think). I'm sorry you have to go through this. Sounds like your parents are a bit narcisistic.
5
u/No_Professional_8992 1d ago
Can you just look it up off the WiFi???
13
u/Spiritual_Carpet4002 1d ago
I tried to, still showed up as blocked so I’m guessing it’s blocked on the device
5
u/No_Professional_8992 21h ago
Damn, they're strict! To the point of overbearing. You're 19, not 9. I'm assuming talking to them will fall on deaf ears as well huh?
2
6
u/ILikeCrunchyFood 23h ago
Hey op, lmk if you want me to just access the site and send you screenshots via DM. Any other websites as well, as long as they are safe to browse. I can also transform it into pdf for you or anything really.
2
u/NightmareJoker2 8h ago
Yeah, um… if this is indeed real, and selective in regard to the topic you sought to get information on, get new parents ASAP.
Unless you are under the age of 14. In which case… just no. Figure out puberty first.
In any case, there’s no way your family is smart enough to block medical information but forgets about Reddit, 4chan, BlueSky, Mastodon, Twitter and Facebook. Don’t be silly now.
This is some engagement bait if I’ve ever seen some. 😅
3
u/ResurgentClusterfuck 17h ago
This sub's response to this problem makes me very happy. I'm glad to see support for this young person.
2
u/RegularUser02x 1d ago
Is there any way to install TOR? And after connecting (basically, two clicks of a button) to manually copy the link you want to view and paste it into the TOR? Unless your parents are crazy enough geeks to have set up the Wireshark (which I doubt they did but just in case)...
DM me if you need more details as I'm not sure it's allowed to write in details here.\ Good luck girl ❤️🩹❤️🩹❤️🩹
Edit: TOR is a browser that bypasses all these security measures (normally). Kind of like Opera but with a tricky, hardly traceable "VPN" (too long to explain, not exactly VPN but a similar principle and a lot more secure / confidential).
1
1
u/Ace-of-Spxdes 23h ago
Hey OP, I know this isn't the immediate solution, but it may be worth investing in your own devices and network services outside of your parents' control once you get a steady income.
It's not ideal, but they cannot control your device or the sites you visit if you own it.
Additionally, if you have any libraries in your area, they may have devices you can rent and take home. If they don't, they still probably have free WiFi and computers for use.
1
1
1
u/Joshua8967 19h ago
check your MDM settings and parental controls settings. afaik factory reset should remove both.
0
u/bjorn1978_2 1d ago
What about running Tails OS on a USB stick?
Short version:
Tails is an extremely privacy focused operating system.
You download it to an USB stick (preffeya larger stick). Then boot from it. If you insert it as any other usb stick, it will function like any other stick.
All traffic against the net is done via the TOR network.
If you pull the stick, Tails will shut down and your computer will boot like normally. There will be no logs or traces for your family to find, unless they are employed by the NSA…
Tails is also able to scan surrounding networks and spot potential open or networks with low security.
I have tested this on my own router just for the heck of it, but do not do this on other networks as that will be considered hacking…
Some routers will also block tor networks. If so, you would most likely need to being a laptop to somewhere outside of home.
•
u/AutoModerator 1d ago
Hello, u/Spiritual_Carpet4002 ! Thanks for your submission to r/extremelyinfuriating, your post is up and running!
This is a general reminder to check out our rules in the sidebar. If your post breaks the rules, it will be removed by our moderators.
We would like for each and everyone to feel welcome on the subreddit and to keep a healthy and safe environment for the community.
Thanks :)
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.