Parental Controls

[I_Terrabull]

I am the parent of a teen and tween looking to control internet access in my home. Sending a kid to their room isn't quite what it used to be. Although they don't have TVs in their rooms they do have pc/tablets.

I just looked at my netflix account and realized they my teen has watched about 8 seasons of Law and Order; mostly after 11pm when he's supposed to be sleeping. Meanwhile the tween is posting facebook updates at 12:30am.

I know can just take the devices away, but I don't want to be so draconian. If they can't sleep at night and want to listen to some music, edit photos/videos or indulge in all the fancy things their devices can do.. I don't have a problem with that. I just don't want them streaming videos, going on facebook after a certain time. I'm sure there's other things I want to block, i just don't know it yet..

I finally got the neighbor to turn of his guest network, so now their only access is through the family wireless network. That was step one. Now I want to focus on my network.

I have 2 Ipads and 1 MB Pro that my kids and wife use interchangeably. I also have 2 laptops and a PC that myself and my wife use interchangeably.

What router based options exist that will allow me to control internet access at the device and user level?

 

[GregN]

There is an excellent and free package, SquidGuard, works in conjunction with Squid, the high speed caching proxy server.

It offers access control lists, dynamic categorical filters, time constraints, logging, redirection, and the ability to disable IP based browsing, the whole shebang. Since Squid can run transparently, there is no way to bypass the proxy. It is an industrial solution, geared towards offices, and internet cafes - but works great at home as several users here have found, especially for parental control.

It is packaged as part pfSense, the DIY router distro (which is really turnkey), if you are willing to convert an old machine to pfsense. PFSense has put a really easy to use Web GUI on top of Squidguard, making it even more attractive.

There are probably other packages, but I don't know of any that are perimeter/router based that are nearly as comprehensive. I suspect that other router distros also include Squid/SquidGuard and would be alternatives.

Here is SNB's article about SquidGuard part of the pfSense DIY Unified Threat Management series.

Hope this helps.

 

[MrFixit]

You could try a Netgear UTM device if you don't want to mess with a DIY approach. It is probably a bit more expensive (you need the annual subscription) but it should be simpler to deploy / configure. While it may not be as capable as a pfSense solution I think it can do what you are asking (I use a UTM5 at home and use it to block Internet access in a fairly granular way).

 

[stevech]

I am the parent of a teen and tween looking to control internet access in my home. Sending a kid to their room isn't quite what it used to be. Although they don't have TVs in their rooms they do have pc/tablets.

A close relative of ours has the PC in the family room and teens are not permitted to use a PC in their own room, nor do they have iPAD/tablets, etc.

Lots of gripes. But it works.

also, forcing all devices to use OpenDNS and their/your blacklist is often used by parents.

 

[Bonez]

Many of the newer routers have parental controls that do this well (if you're not looking to setup a proxy machine). I used a DIR-825 for years to control my son's access in the 'go to your room' scenario. Eventually, I had to control DHCP/etc. as he got more intelligent but I was always able to stay a step ahead of him (well, at least that I'm aware of )

you can always go the device-route as well. lots of client software that runs on computers, etc. that allows you to control time-of-use.. I believe even netflix offers the ability to create a secondary profile with a secondary login and restrict movies to PG and below, etc.

 

[bilboSNB]

most routers now a days allow time based clocking of websites. eg netgears have basic settings I can set facebook.com to be blocked between 00:00 & 07:00 for example.

Some routers can do this based on mac address, so you could set up a restriction for just your tweens ipad for example.

The newer netgears also have parental controls which work in conjunction with opendns and allow you to block certain categories as well as set up bypass accounts, have different seetings for different users althou I think the bypass accountutility is limited to windows and wont work on ipads AFAIK.

 

[sfx2000]

I am the parent of a teen and tween looking to control internet access in my home. Sending a kid to their room isn't quite what it used to be. Although they don't have TVs in their rooms they do have pc/tablets.

Many routers have time based controls based on MAC address...

When this same issue cropped up in my household, I just showed my son the logs and what/where/when - explained to him that this is a matter of trust yada yada yada... once he understood, the problem pretty much took care of itself.

Technology is no replacement for good parenting...