(Credit: Ground Picture / Shutterstock)
Were you one of those kids who secretly stayed up late, watching TV or reading comic books under your covers after bedtime? Kids today are no different—except they have the internet. But screen time for kids has been out of control in recent years. Try to manage their screen time, say with Apple's Screen Time feature, and many know how to get around the limitations you impose. If you need to give your children a forced break from the web, or just need them to stop hogging all your bandwidth during the day, a few router settings can help make that happen.
Change the Password
For a quick fix, just change the password to your Wi-Fi network and kick off every device in the house. To do this, you need to access your router’s admin page. Type the router’s IP address into the address bar of your browser, press Enter, and log in with your credentials (if you don’t know them, the default password may be written on your router, or listed here).
(Credit: PCMag / Google)From the router's settings, find the wireless options and change the Wi-Fi password. This setting’s exact location can vary from router to router, so you may need to hunt around. Once you find it, enter a new password and click Apply. Make sure you're using the more secure WPA2 or WPA3 protocol, and that the password is changed for the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. The process is much easier with a mesh network, since you'll be using a phone app.
Note that your computer will disconnect from the network at this point, so you will have to enter the new password to reconnect (unless your PC is connected over Ethernet). Your kids will similarly lose connection, and have to find something more productive to do (unless they also have an Ethernet connection). Once you change the password, you'll need to reconnect each device individually, using the new password. You can also change the password back later and everything will reconnect.
This is obviously not an ideal solution, since you lose access to your own computers, phones, TVs, and smart home devices as well, but it's a fast and easy option that will work in a pinch. As a compromise, you could keep all your devices on the main network and put your kids on a Guest Network, then disable the guest network whenever you want to kick them off. It's not the most convenient method, since you have to do this manually, but at least it won’t disrupt everything in the house.
(Credit: PCMag / Asus)Block Specific Devices With MAC Filtering
If you prefer not to cut everyone off from the network entirely, you can instead block specific devices with a feature called MAC Address Filtering. (No, it has nothing to do with Apple’s Mac computers—MAC stands for media access control.) It isn’t a particularly effective security setting, since it’s easy to bypass, but it will work for this purpose. Again, you'll need to hunt around for this router setting.
Turn the filter on, and you should be given a choice to either allow certain devices, blocking all others, or block certain devices, allowing all others. Since you probably have more than a couple Wi-Fi devices in your house, choose to block on certain devices. My Asus mesh router calls it WiFi Deny List, which allows you to choose specific devices that will be denied access to the Wi-Fi.
In order to block a specific device, you need to know its MAC address—a 12-digit number unique to it. You can find a device’s MAC address by checking your router’s list of connected devices, which might be under the “Network Map,” “Client List,” or similarly named option. It will match MAC addresses to conventional names like “Jack’s iPhone.”
Sometimes, these names are difficult to understand—many Windows computers have names like DESKTOP-BD0GFIT—so you may need to do some extra digging with third-party software to get more information on a given device. For example, you may not know whether your daughter’s laptop is DESKTOP-BD0GFIT or DESKTOP-SE8WDRE, but if you can determine which is the Dell and which is the HP, you can figure out which MAC address belongs to her.
With the MAC address in hand, add it to the aforementioned block list, and apply your settings. They should get kicked off the network until you unblock them. Be sure to block both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz band, if given the option, and block all their devices. Just note that it is technically possible to spoof a different MAC address and get around these controls, but your kid would have to be particularly tech savvy (or just really good with a web search) to get around your controls.
(Credit: PCMag / Asus)Enable Parental Controls
If you want to automate the process, so you don't have to constantly block and unblock your kids’ devices, many routers have built-in parental controls that perform similar functions. You may find these settings in the Parental Controls page or as part of your router’s security suite. Some routers may require a separate subscription. If your router doesn't have parental controls, you may need to purchase a device like the Firewalla Purple or install parental control software on all your kids’ devices.
Again, setup will vary from router to router and device to device, but even basic parental controls on a router will allow you to enter a MAC address and limit mature content, certain protocols like streaming or instant messaging, and set time limits, so your kid can’t connect after a certain time. My Asus ZeniWiFi mesh router, for example, allows me to manually block device access or set up a schedule for when access should be cut off. Check your own app or settings to see if you have anything similar available.
(Credit: PCMag / Asus)What About Mobile Devices?
Fiddling with any of the above settings can help you take control of the devices that access the internet through your router, but what about your child's phone? Since Wi-Fi settings won’t apply to their cellular data plan, there are other options available. The Screen Time feature on iPhone can help you take control of what apps they can use when. For those on Android devices, Google's Family Link app can serve a similar role. You won't be able to cut off access to their data plan, but screen time settings can take away access to their favorite apps and features.
For additional control around data and functionality, you can turn to your wireless carrier for a (paid) solution. If you have AT&T, it costs $7.99 per month for Secure Family. T-Mobile charges charges $10 a month for FamilyMode. Verizon has a free Verizon Family service that includes certain features, but you'll need to pay $14.99 per month for access to parental controls.
