Kids born today have unlimited access to technology and internet connectivity. Managing the screen time for your kids can feel like a huge ordeal. Parents of today have tons of stuff to think about as kids can access almost everything online. Parents have started to limit screen time for kids as children in the U.S spend most of their days learning online due to online classes. Covid-19 has left the kids in front of computers, laptops, or smartphone screens for the most part of the day. Due to this, it is crucial for parents to limit screen time for kids.
Kids now are in front of their screens in comparison to their life before the global pandemic. This dependency on technology doesn’t mean parents have to throw away their screen time rules out of their homes.
If you want the simplest solution to keep your kids off the screens for a certain part of the day then read our guide on how you can limit screen time for kids. The best thing you can do is to control your home WiFi access. If you also want to monitor what your kids are doing online then you can download any of the trusted data monitoring app or parental control app. Here’s how you can limit screen time for kids by blocking WiFi access.
1. Purchase a Parental Control WiFi Router
Parental controls are one of the best ways you can limit screen time for kids and also block the content they are getting access to. Our advice is to purchase a parental control router to control your WiFi access. As technology is ever-evolving, each router with parental control is different and comes with different features. Regardless of their differences, most of them will allow parents to gain control of their children’s screen time in one of the three ways.
- Pause WiFi connectivity on any particular app.
- Schedule WiFi to automatically turn off at a specific time.
- Restrict devices from being able to access certain websites whenever you want. Websites such as YouTube, Netflix, or social media sites.
The best thing about these features is that you won’t have to turn off the internet connectivity for everyone in your home. You could still be working till midnight and turn off WiFi access for your kids after a certain hour. If your kids need to do homework then you don’t have to limit their WiFi access entirely, you can just restrict their device from accessing websites you don’t want them to waste their time on.
If you don’t have the time to sort through long lists of best parental control routers then go through the below-listed options as they have almost every feature you need.
- Gyrphon Guardian
The Gyrphon Guardian parental router comes with a custom ad that provides a content filtering option, view browsing history, the ability to set bedtimes & homework schedule. That’s not all, you can even limit screen time, enforce safe search, enforcement of safe YouTube, and the ability to suspend the internet connectivity anytime you want. The cost of the router is just $99 and the parental control app costs $4.99/mo. However, the first three months of the app are free.
- Nighthawk Dual-Band Router
Same as Gyrphon Guardian, the Nighthawk dual-band router comes with an app that allows the parents to set filters on any app they want. Parents can also set filters on any device, pause the internet, check their children’s browser history, schedule automatic WiFi turn off time and monitor WiFi usage. There are tens of other features that parents can take benefit of. The cost of the router is $189.99 and the app is free of cost.
2. Purchase a Parental Control Router Accessory
If you don’t wish to purchase a new router but you still wish to limit screen time for kids or monitor the activities your kids are doing online, then you can get an add-on service for your current router. The “parental control router accessory” plugs into your router and then provides you with the capabilities of a parental control router. Here is our pick for the most popular parental control router accessories:
- Circle Home Plus
Circle home plus allows parents to monitor the screen time of their kids and block any kind of content on any device through the circle home plus application. The cost of the circle home plus is $129 (1-year subscription) or $299.99 (lifetime subscription).
- CleanerNet Mini Safe Internet Filter
CleanerNet Mini Safe Internet Filter allows parents to block their children’s access to any website or application. If they want, parents can also set time limits, pause the internet, monitor and manage the internet use on any device connected to home WiFi. The CleanerNet Mini is compatible with most routers but not every single one of them. The cost for the subscription is $99.99/year and $9.99/mo.
3. Download a WiFi Blocking Application
If you don’t want to pay extra money for any kind of device, then you can always download any WiFi blocking application to control your kids’ screen time. The app we suggest to limit the screen time for kids is the WiFi Blocker.
WiFi Blocker allows parents to control and monitor their kids’ internet access whenever they are connected to home WiFi. The app is not compatible with all the routers so you will have to do some research before buying the app. The cost for the app is $5.99 per mo.