PARENTAL CONTROL OF MOBILE CONTENT ON A MOBILE DEVICE

• US 20130031601A1
• Filed: 07/27/2012
• Published: 01/31/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/27/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Seven Networks LLC (SoftBank Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Seven Networks Inc
• Inventors: Bott, Ross
• Application Number:
  US13/560,002
• Publication Number:
  US 20130031601A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/552 involving long-term monitoring or reporting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2149 Restricted operating environment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/04 Processing captured monitoring data, e.g. for logfile generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/80 Actions related to the user profile or the type of traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 Access security
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/37 Managing security policies for mobile devices or for controlling mobile applications

Abstract

Systems and methods of parental control of content on a mobile device are disclosed. One embodiment includes, proxy server remote from a mobile device which monitors, traffic activities, including inbound or outbound traffic, on the mobile device and detects adult content from the traffic activities. The proxy server communicates identification of the suspicious traffic to a local proxy on the mobile device, such that the suspicious traffic containing the adult content is blocked from access to or from the mobile device.

Claims

1. A method of parental control of content on a mobile device, the method, comprising:

monitoring, traffic activities, including inbound or outbound traffic, on the mobile device;

detecting, from the traffic activities, offensive or potentially offensive content;

preventing the offensive or potentially offensive content from being accessed at the mobile device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein, the offensive or potentially offensive content is identified from black listed sites or black listed mobile applications and detected upon traffic activities generated upon click through activities tracked at the mobile device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein, the offensive or potentially offensive content is identified using cached content stored in a local proxy at the mobile device.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising, analyzing the cached content and screening the cached content for the offensive or potentially offensive content.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising, identifying suspicious traffic from the traffic activities to detect the offensive or potentially offensive content.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein, the suspicious traffic is detected by a proxy server remote from the mobile device.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein, the proxy server communicates identification of the suspicious traffic to a local proxy on the mobile device, such that the suspicious traffic is blocked from access to or from the mobile device.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein, the suspicious traffic is detected from its timing characteristics including time of day, access frequency, day of week, or other patterns in timing of access.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein, the suspicious traffic is detected, by the proxy server, based on heuristics measures.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein, the suspicious traffic is detected by a mobile platform or operating system native to the mobile device.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein, the offensive or potentially offensive content is detected from identification of a potentially offending site or application.

12. The method of claim 5, wherein, the potentially offending site or application is identified from a destination address or a source address.

13. The method of claim 5, wherein, the potentially offending site or application is identified based on a set of rules or policies.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein, the set of rules or policies is specified by a parent or supervising individual of a user of the mobile device.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein, the offensive or potentially offensive contend includes gambling content, adult content, violent content, pornographic content, or other age inappropriate content.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein, the offensive or potentially offensive content includes inappropriate content based on age, gender, or religion.

18. The method of claim 5, further comprising, logging a traffic pattern or sequence of events in detecting the suspicious traffic.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising,

detecting offensive or potentially offensive content at multiple mobile devices;

aggregating information regarding the offensive or potentially offensive content detected from multiple mobile device;

creating a policy based on the information aggregated from the multiple mobile devices;

broadcasting the policy to other mobile devices of the offensive or potentially offensive content detected from the multiple mobile devices.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein, the monitoring of the traffic activities includes:

collecting information about a request or information about a response to the request at the mobile device;

using the information collected about the request or the response to identify or to detect the offensive or potentially offensive content.

15. The method of claim 15, wherein, the set of rules or policies is configured through a web portal.

22. A system for mobile network control of adult content, the system, comprising:

a proxy server remote from a mobile device

wherein, the proxy server monitors, traffic activities, including inbound or outbound traffic, on the mobile device;

wherein, from the traffic activities, adult content is detected;

wherein, the proxy server further detects suspicious traffic from the traffic activities to detect the adult content directed to or from the mobile device.

26. The system of claim 31, wherein, the proxy server,

creates a policy based on the information aggregated from the multiple mobile devices;

broadcasts the policy to other mobile devices regarding the suspicious traffic detected from the multiple mobile devices.

28. A mobile device which implements parental control of content access thereon, the mobile, comprising:

means for, monitoring, traffic activities, including inbound or outbound traffic, on the mobile device;

means for, detecting, from the traffic activities, offensive or potentially offensive content;

means for, preventing the offensive or potentially offensive content from being accessed at the mobile device;

means for, generating a prompt to a parent or supervising individual of a user of the mobile device in response to detecting the offensive or potentially offensive content.

21. The method of claim 23, wherein, the information collected about the request or response received for the request initiated at the mobile device is further used to determine cacheability of the response at the mobile device.

23. The system of claim 25, further comprising, a local proxy on the mobile device;

wherein, the proxy server communicates identification of the suspicious traffic to a local proxy on the mobile device, such that the suspicious traffic is blocked from access to or from the mobile device

24. The system of claim 25, wherein, the suspicious traffic is detected based on heuristics in traffic patterns detected by the proxy server.

25. The system of claim 29, wherein, the proxy server,

detects the suspicious traffic at multiple mobile devices;

aggregates information regarding the suspicious traffic detected from multiple mobile device.

27. The system of claim 29, wherein, the proxy server,

enables a third party to specify or modify the policy regarding the offensive or potentially offensive content;

wherein, the third party is a mobile operating system, a mobile operator or wireless carrier.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein, the prompt is delivered by to another mobile device of the parent or supervising individual;

wherein, the prompt queries the parent or supervising individual whether the offensive or potentially offensive content is to be delivered to the mobile device.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein, the notification is delivered by an operating system of the mobile device;

wherein, the operating system is a mobile operating system.