@Tussockland 

My solution is to only provide my child with the password to the Guest Network.

Then I can just turn the guest network on and off.

Of course, with this option I do not have access to the other parental control features - but for me without a whitelist - parental control is WORTHLESS. 

Still very dissapointed with this product. 

My son:

plugs a wire - circumvents wifi password protection

uses a 3rd party software on windows to change MAC address - bypasses system setting preventing "Random Hardware Address" and bypassing all parental controls via a new MAC id every time.

uses misc accounts (likely including his moms' too) to bypass Microsoft parental controls

he also edits Windows Registry, I don't know what the hat he does with that

Here are my possible solutions:

everybody here go to Amazon and give 1 star to Deco products and write reviews

return it to the store

pour silicone in the ethernet port on all 3 mesh routers (I suppose this will still not solve the problem since he can use still abuse the single wifi connection the device has)

wait for him to be 18 and kick him out of the house 

Kofana wrote

My son:

 

plugs a wire - circumvents wifi password protection

uses a 3rd party software on windows to change MAC address - bypasses system setting preventing "Random Hardware Address" and bypassing all parental controls via a new MAC id every time.

uses misc accounts (likely including his moms' too) to bypass Microsoft parental controls

he also edits Windows Registry, I don't know what the hat he does with that

 

Here are my possible solutions:

 

everybody here go to Amazon and give 1 star to Deco products and write reviews

return it to the store

pour silicone in the ethernet port on all 3 mesh routers (I suppose this will still not solve the problem since he can use still abuse the single wifi connection the device has)

wait for him to be 18 and kick him out of the house 

  @Kofana 

You missed one obvious option: get different brand of WiFi mesh, the one that fits your requirements:

1) Parental controls;

and

2) Either whitelist or even better: assigning any new device to default profile for which you can define the strictest parental control rules.

  @TP-Link 5 years in and nothing?  You mark a response as a solution which everyone knows is not one... how can you be so incompetent?

  @Ctm83 Good point - the response being marked as a solution seems to means that TP-Link will ignore the thread - so I started a new one here:

https://community.tp-link.com/en/home/forum/topic/658132

and got a response from TP-Link advising they have added Access Control modes in other models!!!!!!

So follow this thread and add your concerns:

https://community.tp-link.com/en/home/forum/topic/658132

Ctm83 wrote

  @TP-Link 5 years in and nothing?  You mark a response as a solution which everyone knows is not one... how can you be so incompetent?

Yeah, LET'S ALL GO TO THE NEW THREAD TO GET SOME ACTION ! ! !

  @Tussockland Or do what I did and replace TP-Link with better equipment.

@TP-Link It really doesn't require anything comprehensive. Ancient "wifi-routers" used to have this.
It will make it annoying for apple & samsung users but that's the price that kids have to pay for not following the rules.

Seriously though, variable MAC just makes it trivial to circumvent and this is needed.

 

  @TheBuzzard This functionality exists in TP-Link AX-11000.

Security // Access Control // Access Mode => [x] Blacklist [ ] Whitelist. 
Blacklist is default. 
Whitelist is there for you ... 

  @100sCustomers I literally returned the TP-Link DECO product because in order to configure it you needed a working internet connection. A login to their website and a smartphone ... what garbage.

TP-Link AX-11000 is NOT a multi-access point setup but at least it works like i want it to. 

Might have to go the DD-WRT path to get what you really want.