Metro Web Guard

We submitted a slides, linked at the bottom of this post, instead of a video. (Please ignore the rickroll :) ) Our team is under 18.

Inspiration

When we were brainstorming for ideas, we deliberated through tons of different concepts with one aim in mind: protecting others. While scrolling through the internet, I realized how easy it is for younger kids to be exposed to language and content simply not suited for their age. While outright blocking these websites may work, sometimes this can be on websites where it has mixed or beneficial content which would be a detriment if blocked. That's why we went on to create Metro Web Guard.

What it does

Metro Web Guard is a browser extension that works by filtering out profanity and explicit language from websites by scanning through all the text and replacing it with a chosen word, in this case: [redacted].

How we built it

We built it by using a database of explicit language and words, and then looking through the webpage and replacing the bad words with [redacted]. We built it using JavaScript.

Challenges we ran into

We ran into some problems with text in certain HTML elements not being replaced. Other problems were found in minor bugs and problems throughout the brainstorming and development process.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are really proud of the ability to block explicit and prohibited language effectively.

What we learned

We learned a lot about the versatility of JavaScript in web extensions the wide range of powers that extensions have. We wanted to definitely be able to visit this later to create more innovative ideas and projects.

What's next for Metro Web Guard

Given more time, we want to be able to add accounts support to help parents monitor their children. This spans reports to their email about the websites they visit and the words filtered in those websites with details about when and where. We also wanted to add an ability for it to work on other types of multimedia content like videos and songs.

Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1bKYZ7MHNA6PhdpkpQvlTB8rU688-VTMlvKGnIq9wdCU/edit?usp=sharing