What should I do if the Parental Control on the AC router does not work as expected?

Note: Parental control feature in AC router may vary by its model and hardware/software version. All descriptions and troubleshooting methods in this guide are only examples.

Some customers have setup the parental control to block the internet access of specific device or block some websites during the certain time periods, while it failed to satisfy their needs, the devices under parental control still access internet without any limitation.

Here we list some tips to help you to locate the issue.

1. How to setup Parental Control on the AC router.                                                                                  

a. For wireless router：https://www.tp-link.com/support/faq/1531/

b. For cable modem router: https://www.tp-link.com/support/faq/1493/

c. For ADSL/VDSL modem router: https://www.tp-link.com/support/faq/1740/

d. For 4G/LTE router: https://www.tp-link.com/support/faq/1668/

2. Please notice that the internet access time which most of you get confused does not mean that you can access internet at that time, instead, it displays the restriction access time period; in other word, the filter rules setup on the parental control page will take effect during the selected time period.

Note: For some devices, internet access time has changed to effective time.

3.  There are two more simple methods to test the performance of the Parental Control.

a. Add a device into parental control, select Whitelist but WITHOUT any key words, for the internet access time, please select all days (24/7); after that try to verify whether you can access internet.

Note： Theoretically, this device will NOT be able to access internet anymore.

b. Add a device into parental control, still choose 24/7 as internet access time, but this time, please select Blacklist but WITHOUT any keywords; after that please verify whether you can access internet or not. Settings as below:

Note: Theoretically, this device still be able to get internet.

Click https://community.tp-link.com/en/home/stories/detail/143 to get more information.