Parental Control time accumulation (M4)

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Parental Control time accumulation (M4)

This thread has been locked for further replies. You can start a new thread to share your ideas or ask questions.
Parental Control time accumulation (M4)
Parental Control time accumulation (M4)
2019-12-30 20:08:28
Model: Deco M4  
Hardware Version:
Firmware Version: 1.9.13

Day 1 of parental controls are we're a little confused.  My kids were given 3 hours of device time through the parentals controls feature.  Each kid has 4 devices and nothing is blacklisted/blocked.  They both were able to burn through 3 hours each in about an 80 minutes.  I have questions.

 

1) Is this expected and normal?  Anyone else experience this?

2) I see many URLs in the Insights history which have me confused.  I assume that if a device is on, it very well may be communicating with a service unknowingly.  And this activity will count towards the alotted time controls.

3) I also see many differnt URLs in the Insights history with the same timestamp.  I assume that a device may hit multiple URLs in the same minute and this activity may count double towards the alotted time controls.

 

Not exactly sure what's going on, but setting 180 minutes and only getting 80 minutes is confusing.

 

If anyone has feedback, it'd be great.

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6 Reply
Re:Parental Control time accumulation (M4)
2019-12-31 22:23:09

@jcdean518 

 

That's unusual the parental controls are suppose to be cummliative however if all 4 devices are streaming or using data at the same time that might account for the 3 hours in only 80 minutes.  We will investigate and test but before we do are you able to tell us if more than one device was bieng used at the time?

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Re:Parental Control time accumulation (M4)
2020-01-02 19:43:55

@Carl 

in response to question:  "if more than one device was bieng used at the time?"

 

No

 

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Re:Parental Control time accumulation (M4)
2020-01-02 19:57:47

@jcdean518 

 

 

Thank you we will do some testing locally and get back to you as quickly as posisble.

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Re:Parental Control time accumulation (M4)
2020-01-06 19:30:56

@Carl 

 

I have more information that allows me to understand the time accumulation better.

 

1) Yesterday, my son's xBox accumulated almost an hour of time on it's own before it was ever turned on.  It is hard wired via ethernet.  We were out of the house just about all day, and I checked the insights before we got back home.  My expectations were to see 0 minutes for the insights, but had 58.  It's worth mentioning that the xBox was powered off, but also it is a hard wired device.  And as I understand hard wired devices...  they are never off.

 

2) Yesterday, my daughter's Nintendo Switch accumulated 37 minutes of time on it's own before it was ever played with.  It is a wireless device.  We were out of the house just about all day, and I checked the insights before we got back home.  My expectations were to see 0 minutes for the insights, but had 37.  It's worth mentioning that the Switch was in sleep mode.  It was NOT off.  I assume if it were off, it would have accumulated 0 minutes.

 

My conclusion:  Time controls are not linked to the user's activity on a device.  Time controls are linked to the devices activity regardless if a user is involved or not.  Which kinda stinks considering the parental controls parents want to impose.  We tell our kids 3 hours, they see the clock and can do simple math.

 

John

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Re:Parental Control time accumulation (M4)
2020-01-14 23:15:38

@jcdean518 

 

If a device is off or in standby mode It should not be accumliated data because it does not have or rather should not have an IP address.  For instance when I turn my PS4 off through the software or put it into sleep mode it drops from my DHCP devices.  It only has an IP when it is on.  Now if automatic updates is turned on that could cause an issue.  Automatic updates would represent usage becaue data is being sent.  If its not on then this is something we need to investgate further with the software team. 

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Re:Parental Control time accumulation (M4)
2020-01-20 01:27:06

@jcdean518 

I have found that if my son leaves his Android tablet and his phone powered on they use time even when he is not using them.

Once I explained that all internet devices use time when on, he shut them off when not in use, and his 3 hours lasted close to 3 hours.

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