Why I Built This
I was 10 years old when I first encountered porn. I didn't go looking for it. Like most kids, I stumbled into it. And like millions of people, I spent the next decade and a half trapped in a cycle I couldn't break.
Thousands of hours lost. The mental fog that never fully lifts. The anxiety. The stress. The version of yourself you know you could be, always just out of reach. If you're reading this, you already know what it costs. You don't need me to describe it.
Every Tool Failed Me
I tried Covenant Eyes. I bypassed it in minutes. I tried DNS filters — they missed content on mixed-content sites like Reddit and Instagram, or I'd find what I was looking for on a domain the filter didn't know about. I tried more advanced filters. They all failed me when it counted most — late at night, when willpower was gone and the urge was the only thing left.
Every tool I tried had the same fundamental problem: it wasn't built by someone who actually understood how a determined user thinks. The filters were always just good enough to slow me down, never good enough to stop me.
The Moment Everything Changed
It was late at night. I had just relapsed after a 90-day streak. Ninety days of discipline, gone. And as I sat there in the aftermath, I realized something that changed the entire trajectory of my life:
No one who builds these tools actually cares enough to make one that works.
I remember reading the developers of one of the most popular filters write something like: "It's impossible to make a porn filter that works 100% of the time. Users need to rely on self-control." That enraged me. It was the sound of developers making excuses for why they couldn't build a better product. Self-control is the one thing an addict doesn't have in the moment they need it most. That's the entire point.
So I Built One Myself
I'm a software engineer by trade. I know how browsers work under the hood. I know how DNS works. I know how extensions work. I know every trick a user can pull — because I've pulled every single one of them. VPNs. Incognito mode. Alternative browsers. Creative misspellings. Unicode tricks. New domains the filter doesn't know about. I know every gap, every edge case, every exploit.
And I realized: if I can bypass every filter on the market, then I'm the only person who can build one I can't bypass.
I didn't set out to start a company. I just needed something that actually worked. Every feature in Peace of Mind exists because I personally needed it. The panic button exists because I know what 2am feels like. The 3-day delay exists because I know how fast willpower collapses. The pre-blur exists because I know that seeing an image for even a second is already too late.
Where I Am Now
I've maintained well over a year of freedom. Not because I suddenly developed superhuman willpower. Because I finally have the right tools. The urges still come. The difference is that when they come, there's nothing I can do to act on them. The filter holds. Every time.
Why I'm Sharing It
After reading and hearing the struggles of thousands of people whose filters constantly fail them — after hearing how jaded people have become, saying things like "not a single filter works" — I knew I couldn't keep this to myself. These people aren't weak. Their tools are. They deserve software that was built by someone who understands what they're going through, not by a company that treats their addiction as a market segment.
Peace of Mind is the tool I wish existed when I was 10. It's the tool I wish existed for the last fifteen years. It exists now. And it's impossible for even me — a software engineer who spent years finding ways around every filter on the market — to bypass.