COVID-19 and Parental Controls at home

As the tech Dad at my son’s school, I’ve volunteered to help with a lot of the glitches common in supporting computers which support our kids distance learning. Our home networks our being used intensively by our kids, who are our new co-workers. If your kids are always on-line these past weeks, you can’t always monitor where they go to. So, in the spirit of chipping in, here is a short and simple write up for non-Geeks on how to protect them at home by inserting parental controls into your network.

“Parental Controls” are best setup on your network at your home, on the router that your internet provider sent you/setup for you to give you internet and wireless in your home. The router is usually a small box with antennae that is plugged into your service provider. The provider usually puts these in a closet and/or basement/attic.

These days the “parental controls” function is centrally managed and downloaded by your internet provider to your router. This is so your internet provider can centrally track the list of websites, categorize them, and then download the information to your router. As this is quite a complex task, there may be some extra charge to turn on/use “parental controls”.

You should also be aware that as this protection was applied to your home network, it will not work once the computer/ipad/mobile phone leaves your home network. You can contact your mobile phone provider for similar protections that can be installed on the mobile phones on their cellular networks.

Each internet provider has a webpage that will help you on this also. Search for “how to activate parental controls on xxxxx” where xxxxx is your provider. Here is BT’s page: https://www.bt.com/help/security/how-to-keep-your-family-safe-online-with-bt-parental-controls-an#settingup.

The first thing you need to do is to setup a login with your provider to their web page.

1. If you have an account already, go their webpage (e.g. my.bt.com).

2. If you do not, call up the technical support helpline of your provider. The best place to look for that is on the web or on your latest bill from your provider. They should be able to provide you with a login and temporary password on the phone, and maybe even help you configure the parental controls.

3. Once logged in, there is usually a place on the webpage to manage “parental controls”. You may have to go through other menus to get there: for example, for BT you have to

a. Scroll down to and click on the Manage your extras button

b. Then you have to go to the “BT Parental Controls” Section, and click on Manage BT Parental Controls link

4. Once you click on the link, the web page will either ask you if you want to activate the controls or they will be activated once you click on the link. This is where the internet provider may tell you there is an additional charge for this.

5. You’ll then receive a confirmation screen.

6. Usually the default filter is a “light filter”, which blocks anything too bad, but may still let your family go to places on the internet you judge inappropriate. If that is the case, then there is usually a place on the same page, or a link to another page, where you can choose a more restrictive setting. The most restrictive setting usually blocks everything except those sites rated for children (e.g. Cbeebies).

a. You can also customize the filters by category of website, and even block or allow websites by name.

b. The settings will apply your whole home network, so they will also apply to you. Some of the providers will provide you with an adult override code which you can enter when you go to webpages.

7. It should take some time (usually 1-2 hours) for the filters to download to your router at home and become effective.