Parental controls with schooling from home

Forums › Off topic › Parental controls with schooling from home

Inphinity

2780 posts

Uber Geek

#269982 18-Apr-2020 11:09

Hey all,

I tried to search for previous threads about parental controls, but couldn't find anything both recent and along the lines of what I'm hoping to achieve now that the kids are stuck at home for school for longer.

Can anyone recommend a router that will allow per-device restrictions (that apply even if the device moves between ethernet and wifi), on times of use, and times of use by site, e.g. the kids need to use youtube for some of the videos their teachers are linking them, but I don't want them to be able to use it in the evenings.

So, e.g.

Device 1 can use internet from 8am to 8pm, but only use youtube from 8am to 3pm

Does any off-the-shelf device have this sort of restriction? The ones I've seen can do the device time, or the URL based, but not URL by time.

If not, in general suggestions on parental control devices? The HG659b we've got is useless for it (it's rules don't even seem to be enforced properly even when set).

Thanks!

vexxxboy

4243 posts

Uber Geek

#2464606 18-Apr-2020 11:19

the fritzbox allows settings for every device on the network for internet use and you can white list what web sites the device can visit and blacklist all those iffy sites.

Common sense is not as common as you think.

Inphinity

2780 posts

Uber Geek

#2464607 18-Apr-2020 11:23

vexxxboy:

the fritzbox allows settings for every device on the network for internet use and you can white list what web sites the device can visit and blacklist all those iffy sites.

Does it let you restrict hours of the sites by device, e.g. DeviceA can use youtube.com but only 8am to 3pm?

vexxxboy

4243 posts

Uber Geek

#2464614 18-Apr-2020 11:35

Inphinity:

vexxxboy:

the fritzbox allows settings for every device on the network for internet use and you can white list what web sites the device can visit and blacklist all those iffy sites.

Does it let you restrict hours of the sites by device, e.g. DeviceA can use youtube.com but only 8am to 3pm?

it does, you set what times and what day , so every day can be different if you want and then when it is connected to the internet at those times then if you just set You Tube as a white list site then that is the only site that device will be allowed to go. it is called Parental Control under the menu

Common sense is not as common as you think.

Inphinity

2780 posts

Uber Geek

#2464616 18-Apr-2020 11:39

Great, thank you :)

vexxxboy

4243 posts

Uber Geek

#2464638 18-Apr-2020 12:11

the only draw back is that you only have 3 profiles to set to a device , unrestricted blocked and standard. it seems you can only set up the restriction on a standard profile , so if you have 2 devices set to the standard profile then both will have the same restrictions , you cant make one different to the other which may make a problem if you have children who need separate settings.

Common sense is not as common as you think.

Mark

1653 posts

Uber Geek

#2464653 18-Apr-2020 12:24

The Fritzbox does quite a good job of it, I have a 7590 here.

I have two boys, their Chromebooks are lumped into a "Kids" Access Profile, that access profile is only allowed to access the internet between 8am and 8pm, each device in the profile can have a time budget of 3 hours per day (I can be mean and have them share a budget too), the access profile is also linked to what websites can be permitted or blocked as well as network protocols that can be permitted or blocked.

Then on the Chromebooks their accounts are in Google Family Link so you can see what they get up to and what applications they install (or want to install via request).

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
79250 posts

Uber Geek

Administrator

ID Verified

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#2464668 18-Apr-2020 12:42

The Fritzbox limits device times but not specific application times.

I don't think any consumer router will offer service-based blocking.

Equinox IT

Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.

davidcole

6029 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#2464710 18-Apr-2020 12:49

Family zone - which is a school/parental control service, also sell a router/ap for just this purpose.

They’re based out of oz. I only know about them cos our school gives us a plan for it and want all child devices to be controlled by it. I’ve not tried their network device though.

Previously known as psycik

Home Assistant: Gigabyte AMD A8 Brix, Home Assistant with Aeotech ZWave Controller, Raspberry PI, Wemos D1 Mini, Zwave, Shelly Humidity and Temperature sensors
Media:Chromecast v2, ATV4 4k, ATV4, HDHomeRun Dual
Server Host Plex Server 3x3TB, 4x4TB using MergerFS, Samsung 850 evo 512 GB SSD, Proxmox Server with 1xW10, 2xUbuntu 22.04 LTS, Backblaze Backups, usenetprime.com fastmail.com Sharesies Trakt.TV Sharesight

surfisup1000

5288 posts

Uber Geek

#2464713 18-Apr-2020 12:57

The fritzbox has the best parental controls of any router I've used to date. The blocks and restrictions aren't so fine grained as you would like -- Either the internet is entirely on , or entirely off. You can set time windows, hours online , and group devices under one profile for easy management.

You could try combining the fritz with opendns -- it would be nice if you could schedule a job to change the opendns settings for the times you don't want them to use youtube. You'd have to investigate that one.

I got called a bad parent for wanting to use technology to control their internet use haha.

ANglEAUT

2320 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2464716 18-Apr-2020 12:59

vexxxboy: the only draw back is that you only have 3 profiles to set to a device , unrestricted blocked and standard. ...

You can create additional access profiles. Go to Internet > Filters > Access Profiles

However,

* a device can only have one profile assigned

* Only one global whitelist, not per device

* I see no option to restrict websites based on time of day

Something to remember as well, that doing this type of restriction at the router level is device based, not user based.

* Families with shared computers won’t work here

* What’s to stop child A “borrowing” the device of child B to circumvent the restrictions for child A?

Have you considered implementing a proxy server? Or maybe getting some parental control software installed on every device? Netsafe.org.nz might be a good starting point for this.

Please keep this GZ community vibrant by contributing in a constructive & respectful manner.