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Security report for commonsensemedia.org

Common Sense Media · Non-profit · United States

Low risk. 3 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view and SSL/TLS.

Security score

80/100

Risk levelLow

0–100, higher is better. How it is calculated

Common Sense Media is a well-established nonprofit organization dedicated to providing trusted entertainment and technology recommendations for families. The website serves as a comprehensive platform offering age-based media reviews, parenting guides, and educational resources. It holds a strong market position as a leading independent source for family media advice, supported by a consistent brand presence and partnerships with major companies. The technical infrastructure is modern, leveraging Drupal CMS, PHP 8.3, and integrates Google Analytics and Tag Manager for analytics, alongside OneTrust for privacy compliance and mtcaptcha for form security. Security posture is robust with HTTPS enforcement, captcha protections, and cookie consent mechanisms, though there is room for improvement in security headers. Overall, the site is professional, accessible, and trustworthy, with no indications of adult or inappropriate content.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
53/ 100 · Medium
Checks completed
7of 7

NIS2 Art. 21(2)

  1. (a) Risk analysis and security policies: Not visible from outside
  2. (b) Incident handling: One indicator
  3. (c) Business continuity, backups and crisis management: Not visible from outside
  4. (d) Supply chain security: Not visible from outside
  5. (e) Secure acquisition, development and maintenance, including vulnerability handling: Partly checked
  6. (f) Assessing the effectiveness of security measures: Not visible from outside
  7. (g) Cyber hygiene and security training: Not visible from outside
  8. (h) Cryptography and encryption: Partly checked
  9. (i) HR security, access control and asset management: One indicator
  10. (j) Multi-factor authentication and secured communications: Not visible from outside

This scan rated NIS2 with an earlier keyword method that is no longer shown; rescan for the per-article view. Risk management, continuity, supply chain, training, MFA, management oversight (Art. 20) and incident reporting (Art. 23) need internal evidence, and Guard cannot tell whether NIS2 applies to this organisation.

GDPR is indicative only, based on publicly visible signals: Articles 7, 12, 13 and 32 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive. Not a certification or legal assessment.

Priority findings

3 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • High

      No Cookie Policy found

      GDPR requires clear information about cookie usage

      What to do: Add a dedicated cookie policy explaining cookie usage and purposes

    • High

      No Cookie Consent Banner found

      GDPR requires explicit consent for non-essential cookies

      What to do: Implement a cookie consent banner that appears on first visit

  2. SSL/TLS

    TLS encrypts the connection and proves the site is really yours. Weak or expiring certificates trigger browser warnings and put traffic at risk.

    • High

      Weak SSL Key Length

      SSL certificate uses 256-bit key, which is considered weak

      What to do: Use at least 2048-bit RSA or 256-bit ECC key

      • CWE-326
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • Mozilla TLS: Mozilla Server Side TLS 6.0 intermediate: rsa_key_size 2048

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Keep watching commonsensemedia.org

This scan found 16 issues across 6 checks. Monitoring re-runs those checks daily, emails you when something material changes and records each fix, so you can show progress.

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  • TLS certificates and expiry
  • DNS records
  • SPF, DKIM and DMARC
  • Security headers
  • GDPR and NIS2 posture
  • Exposed services
  • Third-party trackers
  • Security score drift

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Results by check

Each check with its score, findings and the evidence it collected.

How this score is calculated

The security score runs 0–100, higher is better. It is the plain average of the security checks that completed in this scan, each counted equally. A check that could not run is left out: it counts neither as a pass nor as a fail.

Counted in this score

SSL/TLS
75
Security headers
80
Email security
85
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
80

Not counted

  • NIS2 outside view: Re-weights evidence from the TLS, email, DNS, network and hygiene checks, so counting it would count that evidence twice. Shown on its own.
  • OffSeq Observations: An AI reading of the site, useful context but not reproducible evidence. Shown on its own.

Findings that cap the score at 49

Each of these is serious on its own, so while any is present the site cannot rate better than high risk, however good the other checks are.

  • The certificate is not trusted by browsers
  • The website is not served over HTTPS
  • A database, remote desktop, file-sharing or Telnet service is reachable from the internet
  • The page loads a script from a compromised source
  • The domain registration has expired
  • SPF authorises every server to send mail as the domain

Partial scans

When the site blocks Guard or most checks cannot run, the score covers only the checks that ran (usually DNS and email), is capped at 75 and is shown as partial, without a risk level.

Risk levels

  • Critical0–25
  • High26–49
  • Medium50–75
  • Low76–100

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

The organization operates in the nonprofit sector, focusing on family and educational media. Its business model centers on providing free, high-quality content supported by donations and partnerships. The target audience includes parents, educators, and families seeking reliable media guidance. The website's extensive content, social media engagement, and clear calls to action for donations and partnerships indicate a mature digital presence. The absence of direct contact emails or phone numbers on the site suggests a preference for contact via forms and social media channels. The domain's WHOIS data is privacy protected or unavailable, which is common for nonprofits to protect registrant privacy. The company demonstrates strong trust signals including nonprofit status, comprehensive policies, and a professional web presence.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and use of captcha on forms to prevent abuse. Cookie consent is managed via OneTrust, indicating GDPR compliance efforts. Security headers are partially implemented; improvements could be made by adding explicit Content-Security-Policy and other headers to enhance protection. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. The absence of a public security policy or incident response contact is a minor gap but not uncommon for nonprofit informational sites. Overall, the site balances usability and security effectively, with recommendations to enhance header configurations and maintain regular security audits.

Recommendations

  1. Implement a comprehensive Content-Security-Policy header to mitigate XSS and related attacks.
  2. Add additional security headers such as X-Content-Type-Options and Referrer-Policy for enhanced security.
  3. Publish a clear security policy and incident response contact information to improve transparency.
  4. Regularly review and update third-party scripts and dependencies to avoid vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance contact options by providing verified company emails or phone numbers for support and security inquiries.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Common Sense Media
Description
Common Sense Media is the leading source of entertainment and technology recommendations for families. Parents trust our expert reviews and objective advice.
Key services
Media reviews (movies, TV, books, apps, games), Parenting guides, Educational resources, Advocacy and research
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10.5.1, PHP 8.3.26, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, OneTrust (cookie consent), mtcaptcha (captcha service)
Frameworks
Drupal
Performance
moderate
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Captcha on forms
  • Cookie consent banner
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Marketing tools
OneTrust
Transparency
good

Site quality

Design
excellent
User experience
excellent
Content relevance
excellent
Navigation
excellent
Professionalism
excellent
Trustworthiness
high

Key observations

  1. Website is professionally designed and well-structured.
  2. Content is focused on family-friendly media reviews and educational resources.
  3. Strong presence of privacy and cookie policies with consent mechanisms.
  4. No signs of adult or inappropriate content.
  5. No WHOIS data available from raw output, likely due to privacy protection or query error.
  6. Use of modern technologies and security best practices.
  7. Active social media presence on major platforms.
  8. No detected security incidents or vulnerability disclosures.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal 10.5.1 with PHP 8.3.26, indicating a modern and supported technology stack. It uses Google Tag Manager and Analytics for tracking, OneTrust for cookie consent, and mtcaptcha for form security. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and accessibility features. Performance is moderate, likely due to rich content and external resource loading. DNS and hosting provider details are not explicitly available. The site uses multiple preconnect and dns-prefetch hints to optimize resource loading. Overall, the technical implementation is solid with opportunities to improve security headers and performance optimizations.
Standards and sources

Reference chips under each finding point to the standard, regulation or specification the finding relates to. They are taken from the official datasets below and mapped conservatively: a finding with no defensible link shows none. NIS2 and GDPR references mark where a finding is relevant evidence, not a compliance verdict. Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690 binds digital infrastructure and digital service providers; for other entities it is the most detailed public reading of the Article 21 measures. WCAG, EN 301 549, European Accessibility Act and Web Accessibility Directive references name the requirement an automated accessibility rule relates to; they are not a conformance verdict.

Retrieved 2026-10-25

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