How To Add Parental Control To Your WiFi Router – Forbes Home

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Most parental controls allow parents and guardians the ability to manage which internet pages––websites, social media platforms and messaging apps––their kids can use and at what times they can use them. Your parental controls can vary depending on the router that powers your home network. But the following features are what most parental controls share in common.

  • Limit screen time
  • Group devices
  • Filter website content
  • Pause Wi-Fi

Limit Screen Time

You can curb the amount of screen time available for your kids by restricting usage with your router’s scheduling feature. For example, schedule an internet break for homework, chores, piano practice and at dinnertime. When it’s time for “lights out”, you can shut off the internet at a designated time for school nights and a different hour for weekends.

Group Devices

Many routers allow parents and guardians to group devices by users. This enables you to schedule shutoff for a younger child’s smartphone and tablet on weeknights at 7:30 p.m., turn off your teen’s off desktop and gaming console a couple of hours later at 9:30 p.m. and keep your own connection active for video streaming and when you need to work late.

You can do this simply by naming each device such as “dad’s laptop” or “David’s tablet” if you didn’t do this when you set up your electronic device. You can rename devices easily in the General/Settings menu on each device.

Filter Website Content

Routers with effective parental controls can filter website content. Filtering will allow you to restrict or blacklist certain types of content such as adult entertainment websites that are inappropriate for children. You can also restrict content based on topics and keywords. Consider using SafeSearch, a tool that blocks millions of adult websites.

Pause Wi-Fi

If you want to keep distractions to a minimum but feel the need to set up restrictions or daily scheduling, consider pausing your Wi-Fi. You can often sync your home networking router  with virtual assistants such as Google Assistant and Siri. Just say, “Siri, pause the kid’s Wi-Fi” and turn it back on after dinner.

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