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Everyone loves to talk about the Duggar family. While their show, Counting On, is on hiatus, the chatter about the supersized family hasn’t let up. A massive social media presence and no shortage of announcements from the family have helped buoy conversation about the clan in their off-season, but does the famous family read about themselves online? Are they even allowed to have internet access?

Do the Duggars google themselves?

The Duggar family will never admit that they’ve read about themselves online, but it stands to reason that at least some of the older kids have gotten curious. After all, once they are out of their parents home, they are free to make decisions for themselves. Those decisions must include what they can and can not view on the internet.

The elder Duggar children don’t even need to go looking for commentary on their famous family. All they have to do is open their own Instagram profiles and read the comments. Fans have taken to criticizing the reality TV stars for everything from the food they eat to their parenting tactics. Jessa Duggar has become rather outspoken in her comments in recent years. In fact, she regularly claps backs at critics.

Internet access is restricted for the Duggar family

The kids that still live inside the Duggar compound, however, probably can’t go looking for information about their family. Jim Bob Duggar has noted that the boys in the family are not allowed to access the internet on their cell phones. He claims that each of the teenage boys has safari and internet browsing disabled. They are free to use essential apps, but they can’t run a Google search, whether it is about a bible verse or their older brother.

The family does, however, allow the kids to use the internet for their schoolwork. Their browsers are heavily locked down, ensuring a massive swath of the web is entirely inaccessible, according to In Touch. The moratorium on Google searches is likely related to the issues the family had with Joshua Duggar. The eldest Duggar son was embroiled in several controversies in recent years. It is rumored that Josh had initially been caught looking at pornography online long before the molestation and cheating allegations surfaced.

Adult Duggars are also not allowed to utilize social media until they are courting a significant other. Jana Duggar is the only Duggar child who has been given access to Instagram before courtship, but that’s most likely because she’s 29 and it looks like there are no potential suitors on the horizon.

Reddit fans have worried that Jim Bob and Michelle could be reading

While the kids are defiantly under browsing restrictions, Jim Bob and Michelle likely have unfettered access to everything on the web. One fan suggested that the existence of forums like Free Jinger could have possibly caused problems within the family. The statement hinges on the theory that Jim Bob could be privately reading people’s thoughts and gauging his interactions with each kid based on what other people think.

FreeJinger, named after the Duggar who, at the time, appeared to have the freest spirit, is a forum dedicated to everything having to do with the fundamentalist Christian movement. While the Duggars are not the only family discussed on the forum, they are by far the most commonly talked about.

Moderators of the most popular fan pages are concerned enough to enforce rules just in case the family is reading. Several forums and fan pages strongly discourage discussing the sexuality of the kids who still live in the home out of fear their family members could harm them.

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