How to Access Lovehoney.co.uk
Internet Service Provider (ISP) Web Filtering and What It Means For You (aka, How you, a consenting adult, can shop on Lovehoney)
You can find many delightful things on Lovehoney: sex toys to satisfy bodies of all shapes and sizes; lingerie to decorate the same; bedroom boosters; erotic essentials; kinky artifacts; and sexual health advice.
One thing you won’t find on Lovehoney is pornography.
But your internet service provider may believe otherwise, and hence is blocking you from access the Lovehoney website. Below is a report taken from https://www.blocked.org.uk/ that shows just how prevalent this blocking is:
What is an ISP?
Let’s define ISP. This is the company who provides your home and/or mobile internet, like Sky, BT, O2 or EE.
Did you know your ISP has probably been limiting the websites you can access? All major internet providers in the UK offer filtering that blocks potentially harmful or adult websites on your network.
Some ISP blocks are helpful, like the ones that stop you from accessing dangerous or fraudulent websites. But many ISP blocks can be unhelpful, especially because, since 2013, the default approach for this kind of web filtering has been opt-out rather than opt-in. This means your ISP turns on web filtering by default.
Because web filtering gets applied across your ISP’s entire network, using an incognito browsing window won’t help you access blocked pages. The only way to access websites that are blocked on adult grounds (like lovehoney.co.uk!) is to adjust your account’s security or safety settings.
How do I change my ISP filters?
Fortunately, adjusting your filters is pretty simple.
- First, log in to your account with your ISP.
- Look for the option to adjust parental controls, web safe or kids safe filters. Different ISPs call their web filtering different things.
- Adjust the settings to suit your needs.
- You may also need to confirm your age via your bank card (you won’t be charged anything to do this).
We’re totally in favour of adults having their own space on the internet, and we recommend adjusting your ISP’s web filters to something that works just right for you and your family. For example, if your ISP gives you the option, you could ‘whitelist’ lovehoney.co.uk and leave the rest of the filters as they are.
If you have kids at home and you’re worried about them accessing adult content, don’t worry. Many ISP settings can be changed so sites are filtered on specific devices or at particular times of day. If you have teens or older kids, just make sure to require a password to change the settings after you’ve set them up to your liking.
Internet Matters.org provides detailed explanations on how to adjust parental settings for most major ISPs in the UK. https://www.internetmatters.org/parental-controls/broadband-mobile/