The Optimal Internet Parental Controls?

[concernedOne]

Hi,

We're planning to upgrade to fibre broadband. As part of that we want to improve our "parental controls" on the internet, which until now have been sporadic, unfocussed and insufficient. We have two kids - DD 13 and DS 11. DD is a social media and netflix addict, while DS is heavily into all things Minecraft. We don't object completely to these entertainments, but want to limit them, both since they are bad for family interaction and for homework. As well as laptops in the house, both kids have phones (well, DS about to get his for secondary school) and DD has a tablet. We use the internet for work, and in addition run a holiday let and our guests always want the internet, which is shared with our domestic one.

So, blanket filters are not an option. A single filter at the ISP is no good, and we don't want to have to install parental controls on all the kids' devices. It would be a huge job, expensive, and would need us to have a separate account and password on each device, which we really don't want to get into.

What we want is a tuneable system, which we have sole control of, and can a mange from one point. The obvious (to me) place to do this from is the router, since it is a single point through which all the internet comes, and nobody else needs control of it - we (parents) have the only password.

What we want is to be able to allocate time limits device-by-device, and different filters, device by device (and even time-limited filter sets, device-by-device). Since the router knows all about all the devices connected to it, this ought to be really straightforward, if the software in the router is up to it.

So, finally, my question. Does anyone know of a suitable wifi router, good for fibre broadband, which offers this level of control? Even better if it would be the default router provided by an ISP?

Thanks.

What you want does not exist in a consumer router. There are routers that will do part of what you want, but not the whole shebang. ISPs are, for good reason, pushing network level filters - a router filter is only as good as the updates you feed it, with network level filters they get to update centrally in one location.

There do exist systems that do what you want, but they are more technical and aimed at businesses, schools, etc.

You need something like Sophos UTM (as one example amongst many options) running on a box (a small PC such as an Intel NUC, with a second network card) through which all your internet traffic passes.

www.sophos.com/en-us/products/free-tools/sophos-utm-home-edition.aspx

If you're using fibre and have a white openreach modem, you could have such a machine connect between your wifi router and the openreach modem to filter all traffic.

If this sounds too difficult and complex, you may be better off with two internet connections, one filtered, one unfiltered, with different WiFi keys.

One other thought...
There is an organization called Strength to Fight in Canada that, I think, was trying to have discussion with an ISP to provide such a product. You might want to reach out to them.
They are an anti-pornography group. I know Josh Gilman who works there.