This topic

Parental controls customisation

EssJay2 — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 11:38:07 GMT

I want to use parental controls to block harmful & dangerous content at all times, AND to block social media, YouTube and media streaming from 10pm to 6 am, but I can't work out how to do this. It seems like I have to choose between having everything blocked or everything allowed in each time block.

Am I missing something, or is there no way to do this?

If it's possible to do this but I can't understand how then the instructions are terrible and need to be rewritten. If it's not possible, then the parental controls options need to be changed to enable this because surely this is exactly the set up that the vast majority of parents want?

Re: Parental controls customisation

EssJay2 — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 11:52:41 GMT

Basically I need to be able to add extra websites to the "homework time" group of blocked things and I can't see an option to do that.

I have got around it for now by adding steaming, social media and games to the tick list of things blocked, and switching off parental controls from 7am to 10pm, because our biggest problem at the moment is late evening gaming and YouTube, but this is very unsatisfactory because it leaves my children unprotected from other harmful content all day. I also really need to be able to add other websites to the things that are blocked in a certain time frame.

Re: Parental controls customisation

Leanne_T — Sat, 14 Jun 2025 09:39:26 GMT

Hi there @EssJay2

Thanks for coming to the community.

You can find helpful steps and information in our BT Parental Controls - Keep Your Family Safe Online page.

If you would like to discuss the parental controls and get help on setting this up, please get in touch with our broadband tech guides.

Leanne.

Re: Parental controls customisation

Crimliar — Sun, 15 Jun 2025 09:06:41 GMT

Third-party routers and devices may offer different, potentially no more effective, "Parental Control" options, but the level of granularity and control is often not what is desired.

*I've used a commercial plug-and-play "Parental Control" device on my network, but the way it worked caused havoc on the network, so it's not something I'd recommend to my worst enemy!

Re: Parental controls customisation

EssJay2 — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 16:11:02 GMT

Thanks Leanne, but I was hoping for either info on how to do this, or confirmation that it's not possible, which I couldn't find on the page you linked to as I already explained.

Re: Parental controls customisation

Christopher_G — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 13:46:48 GMT

Hi @EssJay2

Looking through the help page that @Leanne_T posted, I can't see any way at the moment to personalise the parental controls to do exactly what you need it to.

It may be worth having a chat with our Customer Care team so that they can raise it against your account and look to see if there are any other options available to you.

Chris

Re: Parental controls customisation

EssJay2 — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 18:01:02 GMT

Thank you for your reply. I spoke to someone on chat and he confirmed it's currently not possible but he raised a request. It seems mad to me that it's not possible to do this as it must reflect a very typical family need - to keep kids safe all the time, and kick them off the specific websites they spend too much time on at certain times of the day. I don't understand why this wasn't picked up at the design stage of the service.