A friend was asking how best to limit how much time one of their kids spends online (kid loves to fire up the tablet in the middle of the night). I went through some options with them, but then go thinking about a smarter way to do it. I'd be surprised if this doesn't exist, but I haven't found anything yet.
- Subscription service that acts as DNS / filter. Managed through web interfact
- Parent needs to change router DNS service to use
- Any new device connecting needs to authorise (cookie set) with parent pin
- Parent can then control access by device : hours per week, service times, blocked sites etc
It would have all the usual challenges that DNS isn't that hard to get around, but the per-device set-up seems more useful than what I've seen on offer (Just because I don't want my kids looking at midget porn, doesn't mean I'm giving it up, etc). Also ISP specific offerings and those build into routers suck.
I'm actually not into filtering at all, but device level policies managed offsite seemed sensible. In my friends case they want to limit the kids devices to being usable 7am-7pm, but everyone keeps suggesting that they turn the router off overnight (no tv, no parent internet) or set it on each device using whatever system each uses.