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Parental controls often block specific web pages. We recommend that you talk with your parents about disabling parental controls, but there are ways to bypass such controls. This can be done on phones and computers using virtual private networks (VPNs), an administrator account, and resetting mobile devices.
What is parental control?
In order to limit the child’s access to network resources, such a useful thing as parental control was invented. Parental control is usually understood as a set of opportunities to control programmatically the time that a child spends on the network and access to certain network resources.
Parental controls can be configured in various ways.:
- Through special programs and computer or phone settings,
- By setting up browsers and their plugins,
- In the antivirus settings,
- Network device firmware.
Most modern routers have a built-in parental control function, which provide the following features:
- Set the time when the child will be allowed to use the network. For example, limit the time of use in the evening to 22.00. That is, at this time, the Internet on the device that the child is using will simply turn off.
- You can also allow access only to certain sites.
Consider how to do this, with specific examples.
Setting parental controls on the router
First, make sure you have the right feature on your router. To do this, go to the web interface and find the menu item that will be called: “Parental Control” or Parental Control, if you have an English-language interface.
We will consider step-by-step configuration using the example of the popular TP-Link router. For routers from other manufacturers, the algorithm of actions will be similar.
Controlling computer
Most likely, the parental control function on your router is disabled. Therefore, first we need to enable it.
We go to the menu item "Parental Control" and put the switch in the "Enable" or Enable. Next, enter the MAC address of the computer from which you will control the function in the field below, so that the settings can not be changed from other devices. Most likely, you entered the web interface from this computer, so you can just click the “Copy Above” button.
Parental control is included. Click the "Save" button. And you can proceed to the settings.
Rules for a controlled computer
You need to create rules for the device from which your child accesses the Internet. To do this, in the list of devices below (it is empty for now), click the Add New button and specify the MAC address of the device for which settings will be made. For convenience, in TP-Link routers you can simply select the desired MAC address from the drop-down list. It has all the devices currently connected to the router.
You can allow access to sites for this device. To do this, in the "Site Description" field, write any word in English or Russian letters. For example, we designated it as a “test”. The main thing is that the description is unique. Next, in the fields "Allowed domain name" (there are eight of them), enter the addresses of the sites. Writing a website address is completely optional. Just enter google, for example, in the field, and access to all sites that have this word in their address will be allowed.
Below there are two more fields - “Time of action” and “Status”. If “Always” is indicated in the “Duration” field, then the access rule will be valid all the time. And in the "Status" field you need to select "Enable" if you want to restrict access to non-specified sites.
You can create access rules for each device in any quantity, enable or disable them at your discretion.
Schedule Setting
If you need to set a schedule for the created rule, you can do this by clicking on the “Schedule” link above the “Status” window. Or by going to the "Access Control" - "Schedule" section. Here you can create the desired schedule - enter any word in the "Schedule Name" field, for example, naseti. And we indicate on what days and at what time the access rule will work.
Please note that the start and end are displayed with 4 digits. In this case, it will indicate the beginning at 9 o’clock in the morning, and the end at 19 o’clock in the evening.
We save the parameters, return to the "Parental Control" section, click the "Edit" button next to the desired rule in the list and in the "Action Time" field select the schedule that was created before that from the drop-down list. That's it, now your rule will work according to the schedule you set. 
Setting the router clock
For parental control to work on a schedule, it is necessary that the router clock is configured. This can be done in system tools. Select the item “Time Setting”.
Choose your time zone here. Then we prescribe the IP addresses of the NTP servers (the main and spare ones just in case). After that, click the “Get GMT” button. Servers will be automatically saved and the exact time will be set.
For example, you can use the addresses 89.109.251.21 and 89.109.251.21 just in case. They can also be written as follows: ntp1.vniiftri.ru and ntp2.vniiftri.ru.
During automatic operation, if a power reset occurs, the router will automatically connect to the server after loading and set itself the correct time value.
Function in google chrome
- First, let's go to our google chrome and select “Management and Settings” in the right corner, and then “Settings” accordingly. But you know that.
- Now go down a bit and find the “Users” column, your current user should be displayed there, under which you are sitting. But here you need to click "Add User".
- After that, a separate window will open for you, where you will need to select the child access icon and name it as you want. After that, check the box where it says “Browse sites opened by this user and control his actions. ". Well, then just click on "Add."
A new browser shortcut will be created on your desktop that will restrict access to many obscene and unpleasant resources and pictures.
Now let's check how we managed to block the sites.
Go to the newly created children's label and try to enter an obscene query, for example, "porn". You yourself can make sure that the search did not find anything at all. Those. the thing works, because in normal mode it finds everything perfectly.
Now go to Google pictures and enter “dismembered” or “corpse”. You will get a lot of pictures, but they are all quite adequate and there is no particular dismemberment there. There are issued ketchup sausages, cakes, toys, etc. There is no tin. Now try to do this in a regular browser. Yes, you’ll just be horrified by the pictures seen there, so it’s better for the faint of heart not to experiment with this.
In addition, you can see what Internet resources your child visited. To do this, go to your browser settings and in the column "Users" familiar to us, click on the link "Profile Control Panel". A window with settings will open where you will have to select a controlled profile. I created a profile under the name "Daughter." 
Now we open the list of "Sites" and see what requests we entered, where we went. Oops. So I slept).
Parental bypass on the router
However, do not rush to rejoice - parental control is not a guarantee that everything is under control. Children now go smart, they know how to use Yandex and Google, and if they have computer skills, they can bypass any prohibitions.
Since the parental control on the router is configured by the MAC address, the easiest way to bypass it is to change the MAC address. You can do this without special software, right in the Windows interface.
To do this, run the device manager. In the Windows 10 interface, you can enter “device manager” in the search bar. We launch the found application.
In the device manager we find our network adapter, right-click on it and select "Properties".
A window will open in which we find the tab "Advanced", and in it the item "Network Address". In the example below, this item is designated as Network Address. And in the “Value” field, enter any MAC address other than yours. After that, click on the “OK” button. That's it, your computer will go online without any restrictions.
You can change the MAC address on your Android device using one of the free utilities.
If access blocking is configured by IP address, you can change it or use a proxy server or VPN.
So for the full effectiveness of parental control, you need to configure additional network policies. For example, to limit the range of IP addresses or to prevent devices with MAC addresses that are not in the white list, connect to the router.
Yandex DNS
There is another excellent tool called Yandex DNS. After you configure this thing on your computer, when accessing any site, Yandex will instantly run this address on its database of adult or other unwanted sites, and if it has this address in its huge database, then you will be sent to it will not be allowed. Let's see how to do it.
- Go to the Yandex DNS website and see the mode that suits you best. The basic mode is not worth taking, choose between the others. Safe mode blocks fraudulent (where you are bred to a phone number, for example) and infected sites. Family safety blocks the same thing, only plus websites and adult ads.
- Suppose I want to enclose a child from all the ugliness. Then in the notification area, and where you have a network connection, right-click and select "Network and Sharing Center."
- Click on the link of your network adapter and you will see the status window of this adapter. After that, click on the "Properties" button.
- Select IP version 4 (Win 10) or IPv4 (Win 7, 8) and click Properties.
- Now we register the address from Yandex DNS in the special cells of the window that opens. Where do we write them? Well, of course, to where it says "Use the following server DNS addresses." There are just two fields for two addresses, so here we write. I will write the addresses of the "Family Mode" to protect the child from adult content, which is full of the Internet. Well, this is not surprising, yet this is the most popular request)).
- And now log into any browser and any search engine, be it Yandex, Google, Rambler, etc. Enter a query (well, you understand which one) and go to the sites in the search results. What do you see? Window with lock? Well, then everything was done correctly and our plan worked. Hooray, comrades!
As you can see, this service is very simple and convenient. And by the way, getting around it will be much more difficult than the previous method, because if you put this lock on an ordinary account from an administrator account, then an ordinary person will not be able to change IP.
Of course, each service has advantages and disadvantages. For example, the first option works only in Google Chrome and getting around this point is therefore easier, especially since it only works for searching and if you go to this website through the address bar, then everything works fine. But on the other hand, it filters not only adult sites in search results, but other harmful content, for example, the same dissection.
Yandex DNS does not hide the issuance and does not allow access to sites, so you will not go to adult or fraudulent sites even through the address bar. In addition, this works in all browsers. And getting around this is harder. The disadvantages are that it does not filter other harmful content and you can’t see which child is visiting.
In general, choosing between these two methods, I still tend more to Yandex DNS. It seems to me that this setting is more practical and provides more protection. You can also use special programs. But today it’s hard enough to find a good free program. But if there is extra money, then why not? I’ll tell you about third-party applications later.
Of course, I understand that now a generation is such that from childhood they can pick on a computer so that their parents go nuts. But still, this can help protect the child from at least accidentally finding bad sites.
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Setting parental control on a Wi-Fi router
We go into the settings of your access point. To do this, type the address in the browser 192.168.1.1. Enter your username and password to access the settings. If you have not changed this data, then the default is admin / admin. Well, if you have changed and forgotten, then see the article How to reset the password and settings on a Wi-Fi router.
In the control panel, go to the tab Parental control. First we need to enable parental control. To do this, opposite the Parental Control, set the switch next to Enable.
Now we need to set the MAC address of the host computer, which will control access to sites. MAC Address of Parental PC write down the MAC address of this computer. And if you entered the settings from the computer that will be the main one, then just click Copy to above. And to save, click Save.
We have included parental control, now you can add sites that you want to ban, or only those to which you want to open access.
On the same page, click “Add New ...”.
Create a rule for access to sites
Opposite MAC Address of Child PC: specify the MAC address of the device to which this rule will apply. Below in paragraph All MAC Address In Current LAN: You can select one of the MAC addresses of the device already connected to the router. And if you do not specify a MAC address and leave the upper field empty, then the rule we created will be applied to all devices that connect to the router, but except for the parent device, whose MAC address we specified when parental control was turned on.
For the experiment, I indicated the MAC of my phone.
Next item Website Description: - here you need to specify any description (in English only).
In point Allowed Domain Name: we can specify eight sites that can be denied or allowed access. It’s not necessary to provide the full address, for example https://www.google.ru. You can only specify a word for example google. And this means that access will be denied / allowed to all sites whose address will be “google”. For example, to mail https://mail.google.com.
Paragraph Effective Time: let’s control access time, but I didn’t set it.
Now attention! Opposite Status can choose Enabledeither Disabled. If you set Enabled, it means that access will be allowed only to those sites that we indicated above. In my case, google.ru and all its services.
To save the result, press the button Save.
Check the result. On my phone, only sites with the word “google” were accessible. When trying to access other sites, an error appeared:
So everything works.
In order to delete or modify the created rule, go to the Parental Control page and you will see information about the created rules. By clicking on the link Edit, you can change the rule. And by clicking on the link Delete - delete it.
Well, that’s all, I think that you will come in handy. By the way, I recently wrote an article about a new service from Yandex, which also allows you to configure the router to filter bad sites, you can read - Yandex.DNS - a service for blocking dangerous sites. Configure Yandex.DNS on a Wi-Fi router (access point), computer and phone. Good luck!
