set elapsed time limits by category for kids

[ek912]

have searched the forums and can't find much on this topic, which seems like it should be a common problem

I'm using an Untangle z4 appliance with HomePro

I'm looking for a way to configure time limits for categories for my kids' wired devices

e.g.
no more than 2 hours/day of gaming on school days?
no more than 1 hour/day on social media?

or if not by category, is there a way to do this for specific sites?

or if this cannot be tackled with untangle, does anyone recommend an add-on to the network that could provide this? The original Circle was good for this, but only wired with wireless devices (my kids PCs are wired) and also degraded throughput. I've considered adding a router with parental controls on a subnet, but I have not been able to find a good recommendation for one.

thanks in advance for any pointers on how others are solving this problem today

[jcoffin]

It's not possible for a firewall since the time on site is not possible to measure without being on the browser itself. For example, many gaming site download the necessary processes and data and merely run on the browser.

When my children were of school age, I just set the time which they could use those sites. For example from Friday 4pm to Sunday 7am. It's much more difficult today to limit as there are VPNs, cellular, etc.

[hpaunet]

I'm looking for a way to configure time limits for categories for my kids' wired devices

no more than 2 hours/day of gaming on school days?
no more than 1 hour/day on social media?

or if not by category, is there a way to do this for specific sites?

Adding a bit to John's suggestion. You can use Policy Manager with Web Filter and Application Control to set times when kids are able to do gaming and social networking. Here's an article with examples, and additional examples below.

Use Policy Manager to set up the schedule that you want, for example, stop these activities after 7pm.
schooldaylimits1.png

For the conditions, you can use Username, MAC address or Hostname (You could check NG Firewall Dashboard -> Devices to see, or enter a Username).
With Web Filter and Application Control installed for your policy, you can then use Web Filter to control the Categories "Social Networking" and "Games". In Application Control, in the Applications tab, you can Filter by "Games" and adjust what is allowed.

[frosterrj]

I use Qustodio on my kids' phones and PCs. It's not free, but not expensive. You can set total daily use limits as well as amount of time per app, as well as time range when the device is usable (block from 10pm to 8am for example, and by day - every day gets it own time configurable range).

Probably most useful for phones in this case since Untangle can't block the Cell signal, but it works well on wired devices and has specific settings for YouTube and Facebook.

R

[frosterrj]

Adding a bit to John's suggestion. You can use Policy Manager with Web Filter and Application Control to set times when kids are able to do gaming and social networking. Here's an article with examples, and additional examples below.

Use Policy Manager to set up the schedule that you want, for example, stop these activities after 7pm.
schooldaylimits1.png

For the conditions, you can use Username, MAC address or Hostname (You could check NG Firewall Dashboard -> Devices to see, or enter a Username).
With Web Filter and Application Control installed for your policy, you can then use Web Filter to control the Categories "Social Networking" and "Games". In Application Control, in the Applications tab, you can Filter by "Games" and adjust what is allowed.

Can you confirm that the time of day can be set up (in combination with a firewall rule to block WAN completely) so that the time frame circles over to the next day - like from 10:30pm to 8pm the following day? 22:30 to 20:00? Is that just a complication and instead just set access time (no block WAN firewall rule) to allow 20:00 to 22:30? My policy stack never seemed to work on blocking the xbox device correctly.

[jcoffin]

I use Qustodio on my kids' phones and PCs. It's not free, but not expensive. You can set total daily use limits as well as amount of time per app, as well as time range when the device is usable (block from 10pm to 8am for example, and by day - every day gets it own time configurable range).

Yeah, that is completely possible since it is an endpoint. There are similar apps for browsers too. Firewalls will not have the on screen amount.

[Armshouse]

One thing I'd add to this in case anyone has a good solution...

I had a similar thing with one of my kids and time of day based rules. Usually, he's in a profile that doesn't let him access full-fat YouTube because there's no easy way to filter it. Because of the whole home-schooling thing, as part of the lessons - they'd have the kids occasionally watch video on YouTube. What I did in the past, was have a password setup so I could bypass the Untangle block screen. This worked OK till YT started displaying an overlay on unauthenticated users which required them to accept cookies or agree to some (lack of)privacy terms blah blah. Problem is... that box is white - the text and buttons don't show up, so something in NGFW is blocking it. Anyway... Without clicking "I accept", you can't watch the vids.

What I did to get around this was to stick my kid's devices in a policy during school hours that lets him onto regular YouTube. This is fine EXCEPT that if he keeps that browser open beyond the time at which the policy reverts back to the more restrictive one - it doesn't change with the rule. I know this is probably something to do with the "session", but yet another spanner in the works!