Using Custom Website Filters

While our filtering and categorization options are meant to fit your family’s specific needs, you may still find that your kids can either access a site that you’d prefer was filtered or not access a site you'd like to allow. Custom Website Filters (or Custom Filters) help you control filtering settings on a site-by-site basis (e.g., google.com).

How do Custom Filters work?

Custom Filters work a little differently than our standard categories, apps, or websites. Custom Filters allow you to bypass other Filter settings. Circle has 3 types of Custom Filters:

Allowed: Makes a site accessible for profiles except during Off Time, Bedtime, Pause, and after a Time Limit has been reached.
Not Allowed: Ensures a particular website is not accessible.
Unmanaged: Allows access to a particular website for an individual profile, even during Off Time, Bedtime, Pause, and after a Time Limit has been reached. Keep in mind that Unmanaged websites are not tracked under Usage and don’t count towards Time Limits. Learn more about the Unmanaged filter setting.

Accessing and managing Custom Website Filters

From the Home Screen, select the profile for which you'd like to set Custom Filters.

Select Filter from the profile settings of a particular family member.
Tap the Custom Website Filter button at the top of the filter settings (see screenshot below).

How do I ensure my kid can always access a particular website?

On the Filter settings screen, tap the Custom Filter icon at the top right corner.
Tap Add Website and enter the web address (URL) of the site you’d like to allow.
Make sure that the button beside the website says Allowed. If not, tap it until it does.
Tap Back to return to the Filter screen and press Save to confirm the change.
The family member will now be able to access the site.

How do I filter out a website?

Tap the button next to the URL to change it to Not Allowed.
Tap Back to return to the Filter screen and press Save to confirm the change.
The family member will no longer be able to access the site.

How do I make sure a site is not managed at all by Circle?

Tap the button next to the URL to change it to Unmanaged.
Tap Back to return to the Filter screen and press Save to confirm the change.
The site will always be accessible to the family member, and activity will not be managed by Circle's other features, like Pause, Off Time, Bedtime, or Time Limits.

How do I remove a site from Custom Filters?

Tap the Edit icon in the top right corner while within the Custom Filters screen.
Tap the Delete button beside each website you would like to remove from the Custom Filters.
Tap Back to return to the Filter screen and press Save to confirm the change.

Managing Custom Filters from Usage and History

The Usage and History sections allow you to add websites to each family member’s Custom Filters. From there, you can filter out sites that had previously been Allowed, or you can Allow sites that had been filtered out.

Adding a Custom Filter from Usage

Select Usage from a family member's profile, and tap any website listed on the Usage summary screen. Select Set as Allowed, Set as Not Allowed, or Set as Unmanaged. This will add the website to the Custom Filter list with the setting you choose.

Adding a Custom Filter from History

Select History from a family member's profile, and tap any website you would like to add to Custom Filters. Select Set as Allowed, Set as Not Allowed, or Set as Unmanaged. This will add the website to the Custom Filter list.

Adding a Custom Filter from the History of Filtered sites

Select History from the family member's profile, and tap Filtered from the options at the top of the History screen. Tap any website you would like to filter, and select Set as Allowed, Set as Not Allowed, or Set as Unmanaged. This will add the website to the Custom Filter list for that family member.

📒 Custom Filter Limitations

Individual IP addresses (e.g., 192.168.0.1). Circle's Custom Filter settings only support domain addresses, like google.com or facebook.com. Individual IP addresses are not supported at this time.
Additionally, using wildcards like an asterisk ("*") to capture multiple subdomains at once (e.g., using *.google.com to manage all Google subdomains) is not supported.
Do not include "www.", "https://" or "http://" at the front of your custom filter websites (e.g. www.google.com will not be accepted but google.com will).