Category Database for Parental Control Apps
Your app's promise to parents rests on one thing: knowing what a website is before a child opens it. We license the URL category data that family safety products embed, so your team can focus on the app.
Why parental control apps need their own category data
Parents judge a family safety app in the first week. If a gambling site gets through, or a homework site gets blocked, they uninstall. Both failures come from the category data, not from the app's interface.
What we are and are not: we do not make a parental control app. We license the category database to companies that do, under an OEM licence that lets them embed it in their product.
Age-based category sets: a starting point
Most family safety apps offer age presets so parents do not have to read 59 category names. Below is a common starting point built from our categories. Your product and policy team decides the final defaults.
Young children, under 8
- Adult, Dating, Lingerie/Swimsuits/Intimate Apparel
- Gambling, Alcohol, Tobacco, Illegal Drugs, Weapons, Violence
- Social Networking, Forums / Message Boards, Community Sites
- AI / LLM Tools, Email and Messaging, Marketplaces
- VPN / Proxy / Anonymizers, URL Shorteners
- Education/Reference, Webinars/E-learning, Pets & Animals
Many apps run this preset as allow-list first: only known education and kids' entertainment sites.
Children, 8 to 12
- All adult, substance, gambling and weapons categories
- Dating, Hate/Discrimination, File Sharing/P2P
- VPN / Proxy / Anonymizers, Remote Access Tools
- Social Networking, Gaming, Streaming Media
- AI / LLM Tools: homework helpers only
- Sports & Recreation, Science, Arts & Entertainment
Young teens, 13 to 15
- Adult, Gambling, Illegal Drugs, Hate/Discrimination
- Malware / Phishing / Suspicious, Parked / For-Sale Domains
- Dating, Alcohol, Tobacco, Weapons, Violence
- VPN / Proxy / Anonymizers (alert parent on attempt)
- Social Networking, Forums, Cryptocurrency
- News/Media, Job Search/Careers, Podcasts
Older teens, 16 to 17
- Adult, Malware / Phishing / Suspicious
- Gambling (often legally restricted by age)
- Illegal Drugs, Hate/Discrimination, Weapons
- AI / LLM Tools: image generation and companions
- Social Networking, Gaming, Streaming Media
- Most other categories, with reporting only
Age limits for gambling, alcohol and tobacco differ by country. If your app sells in several markets, map presets per region and check the current local rules.
The categories that matter most to parents
Out of 59 categories, a dozen drive most parent complaints and most app store reviews. These are the ones to test hardest before launch.
| Parent concern | Categories that answer it | Product tip |
|---|---|---|
| Explicit content | AdultLingerie/Swimsuits/Intimate ApparelDating | Pair category blocking with search engine safe search enforcement. |
| Bypassing the app | VPN / Proxy / AnonymizersRemote Access ToolsURL Shorteners | Alert the parent on attempts, do not just block silently. |
| Risky purchases | GamblingCryptocurrencyMarketplaces / Classifieds / Auctions | Gaming sites with loot box shops often carry Gaming and Shopping together. |
| Strangers and contact | Social NetworkingForums / Message BoardsEmail and MessagingCommunity Sites | Offer time windows rather than a hard block for teens. |
| Harmful ideas | Hate/DiscriminationViolenceWeapons | Block for all younger presets; notify for older teens. |
| Substances | Illegal DrugsAlcoholTobacco | Health & Medicine sites stay open, so harm reduction and school health pages still load. |
| Scams and malware | Malware / Phishing / SuspiciousParked / For-Sale Domains | Block for every age, including parents' own devices. |
| Screen time | GamingStreaming MediaSocial Networking | Use categories to count minutes per bucket, not only to block. |
Each category has its own explanation in our web filtering categories list, and the deeper category taxonomy page shows how the 59 categories sit next to the IAB Content Taxonomy.
AI tools and social media control
These are the two questions parents ask most in 2026. A single "AI" switch is too blunt: parents want homework help to work while companion chat and image generators stay off.
AI tools, finer than one switch
- Every AI tool domain carries the AI / LLM Tools category in the main file.
- A separate AI tools set covers 16,000+ domains in 18 categories, updated daily.
- Apps can split chat assistants, writing tools, image and video generators and AI companions into separate parent toggles.
- New AI tools launch every week, so daily updates matter more here than in any other category.
Social media, by type
- Social Networking covers the large platforms and smaller networks.
- Forums / Message Boards and Community Sites catch the places where strangers talk to children outside the big apps.
- Email and Messaging separates web chat from feeds.
- Several countries are debating or passing minimum age rules for social media. Check the current rules in each market you sell into.
Web categories control the browser and DNS layer. Native apps on a phone talk to their own domains, so many app makers combine category data with app-level controls offered by the mobile operating system.
On-device vs cloud filtering: where the data lives
Family safety apps run in three common shapes. The category database works in each, because it is a set of files that runs inside your own systems.
| Architecture | How the category data is used | Strengths | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| On-device (local VPN or content filter on the phone, browser extension) | A compact list of the most visited domains ships with the app and updates in the background | Works offline, fast, keeps browsing data on the device | App size and battery: keep the shipped list focused and push daily deltas |
| Cloud DNS (family DNS resolver, router profile) | Full 120M domain set loaded in your resolver, exported as RPZ or your own format | Covers every device in the home, including consoles and smart TVs | DNS sees domains, not full URLs, so policy is per domain |
| Hybrid | Local list for the top domains, cloud lookup for the rest | Small app, full coverage, quick updates | Decide what happens when the phone is offline and the domain is not in the local list |
The trade-offs between resolver and full URL filtering are covered in DNS filtering vs web filtering. For the resolver path, see DNS filtering integration.
Coverage and freshness: the lifecycle of a new domain
Children find new sites quickly: a new game mirror, a fresh proxy, a trending AI app. A family safety app is only as good as how soon those sites get a category.
About 300,000 newly registered domains are categorized every day from their content and delivered in the daily delta file.
Many sites launch as an empty page and add content later. Each new domain is checked again after a week.
A final early check after a month catches sites that turned into proxies, gambling pages or adult content after launch.
All other domains are refreshed monthly, so changes on established sites flow into your app on a predictable schedule.
Proxies and VPNs
New proxy sites appear constantly because children share them. Daily deltas keep VPN / Proxy / Anonymizers current.
Shorteners and parked pages
URL Shorteners and Parked / For-Sale Domains get their own categories, so apps can treat them with care.
Measured accuracy
Regular manual validations measure accuracy, and validation reports are available to licence holders.
Multiple categories per domain: why it helps family apps
A domain can carry several categories, ranked by how much of the site they describe. That ranking lets your app make calmer decisions than a single label would.
Gaming plus Shopping
A game store can be allowed for play time while in-game purchase pages trigger a parent alert.
News plus Violence
A news site ranked mostly News/Media should stay open for a teen doing current affairs homework.
Health plus Illegal Drugs
Primary Health & Medicine ranking keeps drug education sites available for older children.
Education plus Community
Study forums can stay allowed while general Community Sites stay limited for younger presets.
A simple rule many teams use: block if a blocked category is the primary category, and alert if it appears lower in the ranking. Test it with your own parent panel.
Integration: files, formats and the lookup API
The database is delivered as downloadable files that run inside your own infrastructure. Nothing about a child's browsing has to leave your systems to get a category.
CSV, Parquet, JSON
Load the full set into your backend, data warehouse or resolver. Parquet keeps large files compact.
DNS RPZ and hosts files
Export formats for licensed customers include DNS RPZ, hosts files and list formats used by home routers and DNS filters.
Lookup API included
Every licence includes a lookup API for domains your local list does not hold. See the API documentation.
Daily delta files
Ship only what changed, so app updates stay small and background sync stays light on mobile data.
Teams moving their export into a specific blocking format can read blocklist formats explained. The underlying approach to category filters is described in our parental controls filtering guide.
Privacy, children's data and compliance hooks
Family safety apps handle sensitive data about minors. Running the category data locally reduces how much of that data you need to send anywhere.
- Category lookups can happen on your own servers or on the device, with no browsing data sent to us.
- In the US, COPPA governs online services that collect personal information from children under 13. Check the current FTC guidance.
- In the UK, the ICO's Age Appropriate Design Code sets standards for online services likely to be used by children.
- In the EU, GDPR sets rules for processing children's data, and member states set their own age of digital consent.
- App store policies for parental control and VPN-based apps change often. Review them before each major release.
- Keep a written mapping from your presets to our categories, so you can explain your defaults to parents and reviewers.
For a wider view of the rules that touch filtering, read our compliance and web filtering overview, and see our data privacy page.
Licensing for family safety products
Most parental control companies license under OEM terms, because the category data powers a product their customers pay for.
One app or service
Embed the categories in your parental control app, router firmware or family DNS service. Your users see your brand only.
Several products
For companies with a consumer app, a school product and a telecom white-label edition under one roof.
Research and policy
For teams that only analyse categories internally, for example to design presets or audit a competitor-neutral baseline.
Starter database tiers from $999; enterprise and OEM licences are quoted per deployment. Licences do not allow resale or publication of the raw data. Read more on OEM licensing for the category database.
Overblocking and underblocking: the two ways apps lose parents
Support tickets at family safety companies fall into two piles. Knowing which categories feed each pile helps you set defaults and design the parent override flow.
Overblocking: "my child can't do homework"
- School portals and learning platforms hosted on generic cloud domains, which sit under CDN / Hosting / Infrastructure or Web-based Applications.
- Video lessons on Streaming Media sites blocked by a screen time rule.
- Health class research landing on sites that also mention drugs or alcohol.
- Coding clubs that need Developer Tools / Code Hosting sites.
- Fix in the product: a one-tap "allow this site" request that reaches the parent in seconds.
Underblocking: "it let this through"
- Brand new proxy and game mirror sites shared at school.
- Adult content behind URL shorteners or on newly registered domains.
- AI companion apps that launched last week.
- Gambling mechanics inside sites that look like games.
- Fix in the data: daily deltas, rechecks at one week and one month, and a dedicated AI tools set.
Alert instead of block
For older presets, an alert on a sensitive category often keeps trust better than a silent block.
Parent lists win
Let a parent's own allow and block lists sit above every category rule, and show them clearly in the app.
Weekly category report
Parents value a short weekly summary by category more than a raw list of sites visited.
Bypass sites deserve their own test plan. Our page on the VPN and proxy category explains what that category covers and why children reach for it first.
Evaluation checklist for parental control teams
Use this list when you compare category data providers. Run it on the domains your own users actually visit.
- Pull the top 5,000 domains from your anonymised logs and compare category results side by side.
- Check how new proxy and VPN sites from the last month are labelled.
- Test a list of AI tools launched in the last quarter.
- Look at multi-category ranking on gaming, news and health sites.
- Measure on-device list size and delta size for your mobile builds.
- Confirm the licence covers every product and region you sell.
- Ask for the latest validation report and how accuracy was measured.
- Try single lookups in our web filter lookup tool before a deeper evaluation.
Questions from parental control app makers
Can a parental control app run the category database on the phone itself?
Yes. Many app makers ship a compact on-device list for the most visited domains and keep the full 120 million domain set in their cloud, using the included lookup API or their own service for the long tail.
Do you provide ready-made age profiles?
We provide the 59 categories and the IAB Content Taxonomy. App makers build their own age profiles on top; the presets on this page are a starting point many teams adapt.
How do you handle AI chatbots and image generators?
AI tools have their own category, AI / LLM Tools, plus a separate set of 16,000+ AI tool domains in 18 categories, updated daily. That lets an app allow homework helpers and block companion or image tools.
Can we resell the category list to parents or publish it?
No. An OEM licence lets you embed the data inside your app and service. Resale or publication of the raw data is not allowed.
How fast are new domains categorized?
About 300,000 newly registered domains are categorized every day and delivered as daily delta files. Each is checked again after a week and after a month.
Does the data work for routers and family DNS?
Yes. Licensed customers can export DNS RPZ, hosts files and list formats used by home DNS filters, alongside the CSV, Parquet and JSON files.
Build your family safety app on solid category data
Tell us your architecture, markets and age presets. We will show how the 59 categories and the AI tools set fit your product.