https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-026-00644-3
Research
A supervised system for curating browsing whitelists for individuals with cognitive disabilities under legal guardianship
1
Brno University of Technology, Brno, Czech Republic
2
Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia
3
National University of Sciences and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan
4
University of Galway, Galway, Ireland
a
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Received:
25
June
2025
Accepted:
16
March
2026
Published online:
30
March
2026
Abstract
Ensuring digital safety for individuals under legal guardianship due to cognitive disabilities is the responsibility of their legally appointed guardians. These guardians are charged with making personal and lifestyle decisions in the best interests of the wards, which include their online access. Traditional blacklists are often ineffective for this purpose, as wards may trust misleading or harmful content across the entire web. Whitelists are a more suitable solution, as they restrict access to a predefined set of trusted websites, thereby reducing exposure to misleading, manipulative, or harmful content. However, creating and maintaining large whitelists is challenging and requires frequent updates, particularly for hyperlocal websites that are most important for a ward’s social life and independence. We present SafeWeb, a supervised system designed to assist guardians in curating whitelists. Our method automatically curates relevant hyperlocal websites, which are essential for fostering ward independence but difficult to process with existing approaches. The processed websites are categorized into three groups: facility (e.g., schools and social centers), commerce (e.g., shops and service points), and prohibited (e.g., gambling venues and nightclubs). We provide the SafeWeb source code and curated websites for 20 countries (including USA, France, Japan, and Australia), along with validation results for selected countries. The results demonstrate SafeWeb’s effectiveness as a decision-support tool for guardians to act in the ward’s best interest.
Key words: Guardianship / Ward / Digital Inclusion / Website / Online Safety / Geography / Data Retrieval
The incorrect affiliation was indicated for Saeed Ur Rehman in the original publication, this article has been updated.
Handling Editor: Andreas Kaltenbrunner
© The Author(s) 2026
modified publication 2026
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
