Why you are seeing inappropriate websites on your phone or computer

A few messages have been received about people trying to access websites but are taken to inappropriate sites instead, or sites that are not at all related to what they clicked on. There are a few reasons that this may be happening to you.

One reason, which is somewhat of a new problem, comes in with advertising blocks on websites. The websites are not at fault and generally speaking, neither is the advertising platform. What happens is that a script is run from deep within an advertisement, that script will cause your device to redirect to a different website when you click on a link. The interesting part is that this will happen randomly and may be hard to repeat. So, one time you may try to go to a website and you are redirected, but the next time, it make work fine.

What can you do to resolve this problem? There is a limited number of actions to take. If you are on a computer, you can disable redirecting, depending on what browser you use. The same applies to mobile phones. You can also disable javascript from running, but that will cause some websites to function improperly. The ads which contain these scripts are, of course, most likely to be found on social media, especially Facebook and Google.

If you are using Mozilla Firefox, you can help the issue by changing the setting in Preferences. Click on "Advanced" and on the General tab, check the box for "Warn me when websites try to redirect or reload the page".

In Google Chrome, click on "Customize and Control Google Chrome", then click "Settings", "Show Advanced Settings". Go to Privacy, and click "Enable Phishing and Malware Protection".

There are no settings for this option in Internet Explorer. You can change the security level to high by clicking on the gear icon (tools), then Internet Options, and choose the Security tab and change that to High. By using this option, some websites may not display correctly.

For mobile phones, there are few options you can try. Some apps will try to block redirects, a few of them are:


Adblock Plus for Android


Weblock for iOS


Adblock for iOS

You can also disable JavaScript, but, as mentioned earlier, this will cause websites to display incorrectly.


To turn off JavaScript on Google Chrome for Android and iOS, go to "Settings" in the Chrome menu, then "Content Settings".

For Safari, in Settings, click "Advanced" and toggle "JavaScript off".

Nothing is 100% effective and usually, it is a short amount of time before the advertising networks get to the bottom of the problems and resolve them.

Viruses and malware can also cause this behavior. There are many web browser hijackers out there and more will surely be coming. You should always have a good antivirus and anti-malware program on your computer. A few freebies are:


Avast


MalwareBytes

Mobile phones are also susceptible to viruses and malware. Check your phones app store for current software.

Added note: If you experience a redirect after clicking on a link, instead, try entering that url directly into a web browser. If the page loads properly, the problem is likely an ad script. If the page still redirects, it is likely a virus or malware.