@David-TP 

Thanks for the reply and appreciate the feedback.  I am sure you can understand, the main point of "parental control" for me is to see time usage (and type of data/traffic and apps).   My Unifi was excellent at that (until the PS died) so this Deco was my quick replacement that supported WiFi 6.  I also did purchase HomeShield, and as the Director of Inormation Technology, need to report there is a lot to be desired and have no problem if there is a report/feedback tool, as I would have a lot of suggestions to add to a feature list, etc. 

 

But as you can see, I can see that PS5 was shut off 12:44 or so, but the phone just looks like it was one for hours at a time.   Then when I look at screen time, its dark after around 1am.   So the key is to avoid taking the device and looking, so I am not sure what magic Unifi used to not show the basic sync things like iCloud, etc. but its clear the phone was not in use after 1am but this shows otherwise.

Thank you again and look forward to some good feature updates.  Willing to get on a beta group to help/report feedback as well if that helps.

 

  @j0k3r Hello,

 

Please help me understand. I have been an IT Manager at a major health system and when Providers or other employees say "Why can't the application do x?" I reply "Because we get what we pay for, and this is what we could afford." It's the honest answer between the two major EMR Vendor choices.

 

As the IT Director where on your list was the ability to do what you are asking? And I know why you are doing what you are asking, to protect your kids from predators but why do it secretly? What does it teach them?

 

And let's be clear and honest. Let's set the proper definition. A online Predator is anyone who pretends to be someone else in order to gain the trust of an individual so they can extract something from said individual.
 

At 57 y.o. I have been the victim of financial predators twice, and predators have been trying to blackmail me for 40 years because I'm G@y, or they call me periodically to tell me the IRS and Feds are coming if I don't pay back taxes. That started when I turned 55.

Fool me once shame on you.

Fool me twice shame on me.

There is at the moment no third time for myself. I could be fooled again, who knows. You cannot protect people by monitoring them and we are foolish to think "Oh it would never happen to me." 
 

In my home I have curtailed adults with a black out from 3 AM to 6AM. Why wouldn't you just do a time black out for their own health? They can't sleep then open a book or newspaper but not your devices. Set a ground rule that in this house you value the disconnect process so from 2 AM to 6AM all devices go quiet. 

Allowing them to keep their devices and then spying on them to see if they are doing good feels wrong.
 

What does it teach them? 

We trust you with these devices, and we trust you with where you go on the internet. We don't trust predators who are everywhere so we're going to monitor everything you do.

 

How does that teach them so when they are in their 30's, 40's, 50's, or 60's and they get a text or email or message that says...

 

- Hi <family member role + name>. It's me <name> and I'm in trouble and I can't tell my Mom or Dad. Can you send me $nnn.nn so I can pay the fine? -

 

...and they do what's asked of them. 
 

How did monitoring help them?

 

Every business, politician, and political party that's sending text messages is grooming others to be victims for a predator.
 

- Trust this text, it's me. Will you donate to us. -

 

And every employee in IT is ok with this grooming if it brings in profits. If they were not ok with this grooming they would have said...

 

- No. I'm not sending mass text messages. My family can't tell the difference and I work here. We're setting them up to be robbed by others pretending to be us.-
 

Example: Health system A sent a text to all patients and in the text it said "...Please reply YES if you would like us to call you to schedule a visit." When I receive the text I was furious. 25+ years working with VP's of IT, Director's of IT, Security Manager's of IT, Manager's of IT, and Analyst's in IT and all of us know to NEVER answer any message if you cannot tell who sent it. Every employee is told this too. So why would a health system send such a text to patients WHO CANNOT TELL WHERE THE TEXT CAME FROM? 
 

Patient: Oh look. This text message says it's from my health system. Gee then that means it must be real so I will answer them.

 

SUCKER. No you should not answer them.

 

To prove my point that they were grooming patients to be taken advantage of by predators, I created a new free texting number, copied the text message sent to all patients, sent it to a VP in that health system who did not know the number, and the VP replied YES. The VP replied with what ever I asked them to do because they thought it was from their health system.

 

Companies send out text messages like pedophiles send out candy.  Get the victim used to something then attack.

 

Monitoring anyone, kids or adults, erodes trust, period. It's spying no matter what. They will find another way to keep their stuff private, which means someone else will get in too under that radar. It's like saying to chickens "Come on out I'm ALWAYS watching to make sure the fox does not get you." and never periodically testing them to see if they even know what a fox looks like or how to respond when a fox approaches.
 

Always monitored by you is not possible. Their kindness towards others will be abused. It's how I became the victim of financial predators. The need to help others outweighing the hate and distrust I see in the world. I had to develop "No" skills that allowed me to be kind and help others while at the same time pruning out the predators.

 

If I was you I'd tell your kids until they are 18 y.o. they will periodically receive emails, text messages, and instant messages from you as someone they do not know. The process is to teach how to tell the good from the bad and how to handle responses, because they will respond. If they want to be kind then they will learn how to respond how where or how their kindness can occur.
 

If you wind up meeting your kid at the Police Station parking lot because you were buying or selling something with them then you did a dam good job because they are comfortable telling someone else "I'll meet you at the Police Station to complete our transaction."

 

The pressure after a setup can be 2 pounds of pressure over time "Sorry I cant make it today. I know this is the second time I've bailed. Problem at my job. Can we just meet ar the mall parking lot?"
 

Or it can be 100 lbs of pressure immediately. "Nahh. That's too far. Guess you're not serious. I'll find someone else who wants this for this price. Your just another player." 

Use practice tests versus monitor is my suggestion.

  @John-Gilbert 

Thank you for that long lecture on NOTHING that had to do with understanding something that is not accurate.

The "feature" is called "Parental Control" and it claims the device was online for hours at a time when in fact it is nothing more than a background sync and really not in use.  Clearly you didn't read the post as I said it was a phone, so what good is a blackout period when they can swap the WiFi off and use cell (or maybe you suggest a cell blocker around the house on a smart switch timer?

So as a straight 52yo (Figured it is common to put your preference in now), I don't like nor trust this world, and my son has a beautiful heart and trusts everyone, however both of those have NOTHING TO DO WITH THE TOPIC!   You got fooled at what age?  I did not ask this topic for advice on predators, scams, I am well aware of all the dangers and simply asked why I can have 3 devices, a PC, a PS5 and a phone all next to each other.  He goes to sleep, however that "parental control" says he is on one device for hours when in fact he was not!  He drives early in the morning and we want to make sure he is getting adequate sleep and as his parent, and person paying for that device and service, I have all the legal rights to do so.  His young attitude of I can do it all is normal and we want to have rules and have them respected.
 

 

 

  @David-TP 

 

Hi, just adding a little support for this topic.

 

The online time metrics in the Parental Controls would be more useful if it would separate traffic from services versus actual usage from the user. In the screenshot below, it shows the top 4  sites from the devices this month and they are all Apple related services. This information is not useful to me and I have to wade through hundreds of these URL's to see anything useful. Additionally, a user who can not tell that this is a service and "say what is this" may block it, then their child complains something is not working.