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Knowledge document #8

Restricting internet use with parental controls

You want to block internet access for individual devices or set up time budgets for access profiles? ✓ You can do that with the FRITZ!Box parental controls.

In the FRITZ!Box you can block and unblock internet access for devices in the home network with just one click.

You can also set up access profiles for all of the devices in the home network to define in detail how long and when internet use is allowed on individual days of the week. In addition, you can block access to certain websites or only allow access to certain websites. General access profiles are already preconfigured in the FRITZ!Box for this purpose:

  • Standard: All of the devices in the home network use this profile by default and it is automatically assigned to all new devices in the home network.
  • Unrestricted: Devices that use this profile can always access the internet without restrictions.
  • Guest: This profile applies to all devices in the guest network.

If you want to regulate the internet use of individual users or user groups, you can create your own access profiles.

Each access profile can be assigned to one or more devices, thus ensuring that a child's smartphone, computer, and game console are subject to the same restrictions and shared time budget, for example.

Note:You can also use MyFRITZ!App on your smartphone or tablet to quickly block and unblock internet use for individual devices.

Requirements / Restrictions

  • Devices in the guest network are always assigned to the "Guest" access profile and cannot be regulated individually.

Note:All instructions on configuration and settings given in this guide refer to the latest FRITZ!OS for the FRITZ!Box.

1 Creating an access profile

Set up separate access profiles for users or user groups whose internet use you want to regulate individually:

  1. Click "Internet" in the FRITZ!Box user interface.
  2. Click "Filter" in the "Internet" menu.
  3. Click on the "Access Profiles" tab and then the "New Access Profile" button.
  4. In the "Name" field, enter the name of the user or user group you want to regulate internet use for.
  5. In the "Period" window, specify the times when internet use should be allowed.
  6. In the "Time Budget" window, specify how long the internet can be used on the individual days of the week. Time budgets are not suitable for use with messengers such as WhatsApp because they access the internet all the time.
  7. If you set up a time budget and want all of the devices with this access profile to share the available time, enable the option "shared budget".

    Important:It only makes sense to use shared budgets for access profiles for users who access the internet with more than one device (for example for your child's smartphone, computer, and game console). This option is not suitable for user groups.

  8. Enable the option "Use of guest access blocked".
  9. If you want to limit access to websites:
    1. Enable the option "Filter websites".
    2. If you only want to allow access to certain websites, enable the option "Permit websites".
      • If you want to block certain websites, enable the option "Block websites". You can create your own filter list or only block websites that are indexed by the German federal government (BPjM module).

        Important:If a filter list is enabled, it is not possible to directly access IP addresses on the internet. We describe how to create filter lists for websites further below. The BPjM module is only available if you select Germany as the country of use under "System > Region and Language".

  10. Click "OK" to save the access profile.

2 Blocking devices or assigning them to an access profile

Block the devices that are not allowed to access the internet or assign a suitable access profile to the devices in the home network:

  1. Click "Internet" in the FRITZ!Box user interface.
  2. Click "Filter" in the "Internet" menu.
  3. Click "Block" for all of the devices that may not access the internet.
  4. Select the desired access profile for all of the device that have unrestricted or only restricted access to the internet:
    1. Click "Change Access Profiles".
    2. If the device should have unrestricted internet access, select the "Unrestricted" access profile from the drop-down list.
      • If you want to limit internet access for the device, select one of the access profiles you created from the drop-down list.

        Example:
        You created the access profile "John" for your son. John uses his smartphone, computer, and game console to access the internet. To ensure that John's time budget includes all of his devices, assign all three of them to the access profile "John".

    3. Click "Apply" to save the settings.

3 Creating filter lists for websites

The following step is only necessary if you enabled the option "Filter websites" and want to block access to specific websites for one or more access profiles:

  1. Creating filter lists for permitted or blocked websites

4 Implementing additional security measures

Changing the FRITZ!Box password

To prevent unauthorized persons from logging in to the FRITZ!Box with the password on the bottom of the device and changing its settings, configure a new password:

  1. Click "System" in the FRITZ!Box user interface.
  2. Click "FRITZ!Box Users" in the "System" menu.
  3. Click the (Edit) button next to the user for the FRITZ!Box password (for example "fritz1234").
  4. Enter an individual password that is strong enough. Do not use a password that you already use for other services, such as an email account, Amazon, Facebook, or Google.
  5. Click "Apply" to save the settings.

Adjusting the "Standard" access profile

To ensure that new devices in the home network cannot bypass the parental controls, block internet access for the "Standard" access profile:

  1. Click "Internet" in the FRITZ!Box user interface.
  2. Click "Filter" in the "Internet" menu.
  3. Click on the "Access Profiles" tab and then the (Edit) button for the "Standard" profile.
  4. Enable the option "never" in the section "Time Limit".
  5. Enable the option "Use of guest access blocked".
  6. Click "OK" to save the access profile.

Now the parental controls are fully configured.

Note:To see which restrictions apply to a device, you can call up http://fritz.box on the respective device.



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