Best and Safest Flash and HTML5 Blockers for Firefox, Mozilla

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The best and safest flash and html5 blockers for Firefox webbrowser and detailed instructions on how to use them

The best and safest flash and html5 blockers for Firefox webbrowser and detailed instructions on how to use them

Note: Since the urls below will show some images, I advice you to install an image blocker first before entering the sites.

Flashblock

Flashblock for Firefox is the first of the three flash/html5 blockers I recommend that you install in order to surf the internet and especially video sites safely (and I will explain why and it is a little complicated, which is why I advice everyone to just use Google Chrome instead since everything would be so much easier).

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/flashblock/

Important: Do not put youtube or any other video site as an exception in this flash blocker (I will explain why further down).

Note: Even though it blocks flash content completely from playing automatically on all websites and disables it on youtube, it does not, however, disable html5 audio and video on youtube from playing automatically while Fast Image Blocker is enabled, nor does it disable html5 audio and video from playing automatically on news sites and similar sites while Fast Image Blocker is enabled (although it blocks the visual content if another image blocker is used). This is obviously a problem that must be fixed since Fast Image Blocker must be used since it is so much safer; but the fix, in order for youtube also to work as it should, requires three different Flashblockers in addition to having one other image blockers installed (for youtube), one being activated, the other not, and if this is not so, it won’t work! (Don’t worry, my fix needs only one click for the audio to be played on youtube, and another one for the video.)

FlashStopper

FlashStopper is the second flash/html5 blocker you need to install in order to be able to see the visual content on youtube (it won’t work without it if you have the two other flash blockers installed):

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/flashstopper/

Note: Unless you need to put something into the exception list in this flash blocker (along with the other two), you don’t have to do anything with this one in order for youtube and other sites to work safely as they should.

Important: Do not put youtube as an exception in this flash blocker while the other flash blockers are activated unless you don’t care about the visual content, for if you do, youtube won’t play at all when clicking on the video screen (even though the audio is running if you don’t click on anything), as you will notice if you try to do so when this error message is displayed. Don’t ask me why it happens, it just does.

I have no problem with the visual content not working at all and only the audio playing though since I avoid watching the videos my self, but I know most people won’t accept this and hence would stop using a flash blocker or use some other flash blocker which is not as good, unless I told them how to fix it.

Flash Control

Flash Control is the third flash/html5 blocker you need to install:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/flash-control/

Note: In order to be spared one extra click and in order to avoid conflicts when on youtube, put youtube as an exception in this flash blocker, and no problems should be occurring as sometimes happens (see image below).

To put youtube as an exception in Flash Control, click on the flash icon of this program and press the text: “Allow: "www.youtube.com"”

Also press on this flash icon and click “Open Config”. When the config box has opened, see to it that the following contents is checked and activated (they should already be checked):

Block Adobe Flash
Block HTML5 Video
Block HTML5 Audio
Block Hidden HTML5 Audio

Note: I imposed the “Open Config” dialogue in this image. When you click on it, this information is displayed.

This is the only flash/html5 blocker in Firefox that I know of that actually completely disables html5 video and audio content on youtube and outside of youtube.

Why using all three flash blockers is recommended

So why do you need all three? Well, firstly without Flash Control html5 video and audio content won’t be blocked while using Fast Image Blocker. Secondly, without FlashStopper youtube videos won’t play when having the Flash Control blocker installed! And thirdly without Flashblock you will loose the possibility of watching youtube videos without having to see the visual content.

There is one great advantage with using Flashblock and in doing everything to make it work on youtube, and that is when it comes to playing videos on youtube or other websites (which is why I always have Flashblock activated in Firefox when listening to youtube videos—unless I take the youtube link and download the video in mp3 instead through “youtube to mp3” websites or programs (enter it without images on, of course, since I have no idea of what it may show!).

Now when using this image blocker in Firefox:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/image-block/

With this flash blocker (with both flash and html5 block enabled in settings):

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/flashblock/

With both of these activated at the same time (with Fast Image Blocker disabled) one can actually enter a youtube video in Firefox and the film will start to play and you will hear the audio but the video screen does not show itself and it is a black screen although the audio is playing, and unless you click on the screen one time for flashblock to unhide itself, it will remain black all the time. But even though the video screen is black, youtube captions or subtitles will still work!

This is great for those who do not want to see the videos and only listen to the audio!

And this is also the reason why youtube must not be put into the exceptions list in this flash blocker, for if one actually cares about avoiding sinful occasions, one will obviously avoid being exposed to youtube videos since youtube is so filled with evil and lascivious videos and thumbnails.

However, since html5 content outside of youtube remained unblocked and visible with only Flashblock installed while using Fast Image Blocker (no other image blocker exists in Firefox that I know of that blocks all images which is why people must use this one), the other extensions are also needed in order to make Firefox safe to use, but when they are installed, one will lose the autoplay feature*. But this is not a problem really since it only requires one click to hear the audio, and one more click to see the video; but if this is a problem for you, by all means, use Google Chrome instead since autoplay can be enabled there!

*Unless one is fine with the video content not working. If you don’t care about the visual content not working on youtube even if you would want to see it, put youtube.com as an exception in FlashStopper. To do so, click on the FlashStopper icon and press “Allow autoplay for https://www.youtube.com”. When you do so, the audio content will autoplay but you will get an error message when you try to see the visual content, as an image further above showed.

Note: These features will only work if you disable Fast Image Blocker for youtube since otherwise the other Flashblock extensions won’t work and the video screen will be seen when you enter and click on the video.

This is why you need to use the Image Block extension as noted above at the same time with Fast Image Blocker for Firefox which is much better in blocking images, and disable Fast Image Blocker when going to youtube after having activated the Image Block extension. If you do so the video screen will remain black when you enter youtube and click on a video.

It is not recommended to put youtube as an exception in Fast Image Blocker because if it is put as an exception, most people will probably enter youtube with images enabled since I believe most people will simply not think or care about enabling the other image blocker first (but if you surf with both images blockers enabled at the same time in order to be more safe, then it is better and safer to put youtube as an exception in Fast Image Blocker, since you don’t have to disable it in that case and hence risk making it not to block images outside of youtube if you don’t activate it again). Also, if youtube is put as an exception and no other image blocker is used, some youtube embed video thumbnails embedded on various websites won’t get blocked and hence you will see some video thumbnails, and this is obviously a problem; but these problems are easily fixed by always surfing with both image blockers activated at the same time.

Because of this, I am a little unsure what is the better advice to give. If people don’t disable or put youtube as an exception in Fast Image Blocker, then the video screen won’t get hidden when they enter a youtube video. But if they do put youtube as an exception in Fast Image Blocker and don’t surf with the other image blocker enabled, then all youtube images and videos will be seen, in addition that youtube thumbnails outside of youtube will show itself! But again, these problems are easily fixed by having both image blockers activated and always surfing with them on, and having youtube as an exception. But most people will simply not to this, since most people just don’t care about being perfectly safe and about always avoiding dangerous occasions. And this is also the reason why most are damned and why few are saved (Matthew 7:13); but than again, most people don’t care about that either. “The perverse are hard to be corrected, and the number of fools [and damned people] is infinite” (Ecclesiastes 1:15).

Solutions to some known problems when using the extensions

Problem: It just doesn’t work to get the video screen to show itself on some videos by following these procedures. And when it does work as intended, then when I go to another video afterwards, the video screen continues to be shown unless I refresh my browser. Then it gets blocked again, but if I try to see the video screen again, it may not work, even after I refresh the page. So I can essentially only listen to the audio on random youtube videos because of this!

Answer: Yes, I have noticed that my recommendations does not work as intended always for all users and on all videos (why it works on some youtube videos but not others I don’t know). That is why I simply recommend you to use Google Chrome instead if you must see the video content sometimes. Otherwise, get used to only listening to the audio, since this is much more safe.

Note: Since the issue of the video screen “continuing to be shown” after you have enabling it when going to a new video (it is the same in Chrome/Opera), it is highly important that you refresh your browser BEFORE going to the next video.

Most videos, films, tv-series, news, youtube clips etc. contains immodest scenes, and especially immodest dress. That’s a fact. To knowingly expose oneself to this is a sin, and will lead to mortal sin. Doubt it not. “‘Can a man,’ says the Holy Spirit, ‘hide fire in his bosom, and his garments not burn? or can he walk upon hot coals, and his feet not be burnt?’ (Prov. 6.27, 28) Not to be burnt in such circumstances would be a miracle. St. Bernard teaches that to preserve chastity, and, at the same time, to expose oneself to the proximate occasion of sin, ‘is a greater miracle than to raise a dead man to life.’” (Hell’s Widest Gate: Impurity, by St. Alphonsus Liguori, Sermons 2-4)

That is why I have no problem with only the audio content working in Firefox for some videos. If you use Chrome, however, it will always work as intended and the youtube captions or subtitles also work despite that the video screen is hidden. So everything is just better when using Google Chrome/Opera for watching video clips, as we can see.

Problem: The recommendations given above on the three flash blockers doesn’t work and the youtube videos won’t play with the screen remaining black or the video just starts playing automatically without being hidden.

Solution 1: You may have Fast Image Blocker enabled on youtube. You need to disable this image blocker for youtube.com to work and instead use this Image Block extension on youtube instead.

Solution 2: You may have an extension forcing youtube to play their videos in flash format rather then in html5 format. If youtube play their videos in flash format rather then the html5 format, it won’t work.

Look through your addons and delete the following kinds of extensions:

YouTube In Flash [and those with similar names]

Disable YouTube HTML5 [and those with similar names]

This should solve the problem.

Solution 3: Install the following extension which you can activate in order to force youtube to play their videos in html5 format:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-flash-html5/

Note: The above extension can force youtube to play videos either in html5 or flash format. After you have installed it, flash is on by default. Click on the icon, then select the html5 icon on the right side and change it to the html5 format. The program should now say in the text below the flash and html5 icons: “YouTube HTML5 Player is Active”. You can now hide the program from the extension bar so that you don’t have to think about it anymore.

Solution 4: If it still don’t work then you must have more addons causing problems. Delete one after another of those you think are suspect until it starts working. If nothing works, delete all addons and start over, there must have been some conflict. If nothing works, then contact me and I will try to help you, since it is important to surf the internet and youtube with a complete image blocker and flash blocker enabled.

Solution 5: Surf youtube and other video sites with Google Chrome, since this is also totally safe if you follow the instructions as detailed in the “Google Chrome Image Blocker” section.

The reason I mention these solutions when it comes to watching or playing youtube videos is because I don’t want people to stop using the extensions completely if they don’t work as intended; otherwise I would prefer that no person watch youtube videos and only download them as mp3 or only listens to the audio. Watching motion picture media is an occasion of sin when we do not know what the video or film contains, and this shows us that God requires us to only listen to the audio of a video if we want to please Our Lord, since one may not risk one’s soul just because one wants some entertainment or fun in watching motion picture media. It is easy to just scroll down and see nothing of the screen while listening to the audio, or downloading the audio, or following our instructions.

Important: Since the image block addon recommended above for youtube does not block every image, and cannot add exceptions, it is not recommended to use that image blocker by itself except when surfing on youtube with Firefox.

Tips: If you want to make the Flashblock extension icon visible in Firefox among your other extensions, click “View” in Firefox, then go to “Toolbars”, click on “Customize”. Or you could just click the three stripes and press “Customize”.

When in customize, you can rearrange almost every button in Firefox after your liking, in addition to removing those buttons and icons you don’t want by dragging them to the place among the other icons. If you want to make the flash icon visible, click on it and drag it to where you want it placed in your Firefox webbrowser. If you want to add the menu bar at the top of your webbrowser, click on “Show / Hide Toolbars” and click “Menu Bar”. When finished, click “Exit Customize”.