Methods and systems for enforcing parental-control policies on user-generated content

1. A computer-implemented method for enforcing parental-control policies on user-generated content, at least a portion of the method being performed by a computing system comprising at least one processor, the method comprising:

identifying a web document, the web document comprising user-generated content that is not authored by an entity that publishes and/or hosts the web document;

identifying a subset of links in the web document that are related to the user-generated content in the web document by:

1) parsing the web document to identify a set of links in the web document;

2) identifying, within the set of links, one or more links which are related to the user-generated content by determining that the one or more links refer to the user-generated content, by determining that the user-generated content includes the one or more links, and/or by determining that the one or more links refer to a content-generating user responsible for generating the user-generated content;

3) excluding, from the subset of links, one or more links identified in the set of links that were not determined to be related to the user-generated content in the web document;

4) including, in the subset of links, the one or more links that were determined to be related to the user-generated content in the web document;

for each link in the subset of links:

identifying a target web document of the link;

determining a parental-control rating for the link based on the target web document;

generating a composite rating of the web document based, at least in part, on the parental-control rating of each link in the subset of links; and

enforcing the parental control policy based on the composite rating of the web document.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the enforcing the parental-control policy based on the composite rating further comprises:

identifying a suspect part of the web document related to the link;

blocking access to only the suspect part of the web document.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , wherein identifying the web document comprises:

detecting an attempt to access the web document;

determining that the web document includes user-generated content by determining that the web document includes a framework for user-generated content.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 , wherein determining that the web document includes the framework for user-generated content comprises:

parsing the web document to identify page elements on the web document;

determining that the page elements on the web document and/or an arrangement of the page elements on the web document are indicative of a publishing framework for user-generated content.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 , wherein excluding, from the subset of links, the one or more links identified in the set of links that were not determined to be related to the user-generated content in the web document comprises:

excluding, from the subset of links, one or more generic advertisement links.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein generating the composite rating further comprises:

determining a reputation rating for the content-generating user;

generating the composite rating based on the reputation rating for the content-generating user.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the web document comprises:

detecting an attempt to access the web document;

determining that the web document includes user-generated content.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 , wherein determining that the web document includes user-generated content comprises:

identifying a uniform resource locator of the web document;

parsing the uniform resource locator to identify a domain associated with the web document;

determining, based on the domain associated with the web document, that the web document is located on a website that hosts user-generated content.

9. A system for enforcing parental-control policies on user-generated content comprising:

a detection module programmed to:

identify a web document, the web document comprising user-generated content that is not authored by an entity that publishes and/or hosts the web document;

identify a subset of links in the web document that are related to the user-generated content in the web document by:

1) parsing the web document to identify a set of links in the web document;

2) identifying, within the set of links, one or more links which are related to the user-generated content by determining that the one or more links refer to the user-generated content, by determining that the user-generated content includes the one or more links, and/or by determining that the one or more links refer to a content-generating user responsible for generating the user-generated content;

3) excluding, from the subset of links, one or more links identified in the set of links that were not determined to be related to the user-generated content in the web document;

4) including, in the subset of links, the one or more links that were determined to be related to the user-generated content in the web document;

a rating module programmed to:

for each link in the subset of links:

identify a target web document of the link;

determine a parental-control rating for the link based on the target web document;

generate a composite rating of the web document based, at least in part, on the parental-control rating of each link in the subset of links;

enforce the parental control policy based on the composite rating of the web document;

one or more processors configured to execute the detection module and the rating module.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the rating module enforces the parental-control policy by blocking access to the web document.

11. The system of claim 9 , wherein the rating module enforces the parental-control policy by:

identifying a suspect part of the web document related to the link;

blocking access to the suspect part.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the suspect part of the web document comprises at least one of:

a comment;

an image;

a video;

a hyperlink.

13. The system of claim 9 , wherein the rating module enforces the parental-control policy by:

identifying an attempt to submit user-generated content;

blocking the attempt to submit user-generated content.

14. The system of claim 9 , wherein the rating module further generates the composite rating by:

identifying an incoming link that points to the web document;

identifying a source of the incoming link;

determining a parental-control rating for the source of the incoming link;

generating the composite rating based on the parental-control rating for the source of the incoming link.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable-storage medium comprising one or more computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to:

identify a web document, the web document comprising user-generated content that is not authored by an entity that publishes and/or hosts the web document;

identify a subset of links in the web document that are related to the user-generated content in the web document by:

1) parsing the web document to identify a set of links in the web document;

2) identifying, within the set of links, one or more links which are related to the user-generated content by determining that the one or more links refer to the user-generated content, by determining that the user-generated content includes the one or more links, and/or by determining that the one or more links refer to a content-generating user responsible for generating the user-generated content;

3) excluding, from the subset of links, one or more links identified in the set of links that were not determined to be related to the user-generated content in the web document;

4) including, in the subset of links, the one or more links that were determined to be related to the user-generated content in the web document;

for each link in the subset of links:

identify a target web document of the link;

determine a parental-control rating for the link based on the target web document;

generate a composite rating based, at least in part, on the parental-control rating of each link in the subset of links; and

enforce the parental control policy based on the composite rating of the web document.