How to track what websites my kids go to and how long they are there...

[Anonymous]

Ok tech savvy parents, here's my setup:

-- 2 kids, each with chromebooks with kid profiles on them.
-- Google's parental controls allow me to control WHAT sites they can and can't visit, but don't allow me to see their history remotely.
-- Even logging into their account gives me only a very brief list of the sites they've visited, but it doesn't tell me when or how long they were on the site.
-- I've looked into several services, but it seems those are mainly used for filtering sites and tracking app use, but not collecting browsing history. I'd be happy to use one if it worked, but it seems like they are all missing the mark.
-- Only device is a chromebook, no phone.

I just need a way to monitor and check in that they are doing school work and aren't goofing off during school hours.

Any good ideas friends?

[Anonymous]

Have you tried asking them about it and correlating what they say with their grades instead of starting from the premise that they will lie?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have you tried asking them about it and correlating what they say with their grades instead of starting from the premise that they will lie?

Yes. And one had two mid term scores below 60.

Any actually useful help?

[Anonymous]

Do they make Go Guardian for parents? That's what teachers at my school use. You can see the website they are on, their history, etc. You can shut down websites. It's pretty awesome. You can also screenshot stuff to use as evidence. Yes, parents deny everything so it's perfect for parent conferences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you tried asking them about it and correlating what they say with their grades instead of starting from the premise that they will lie?

Yes. And one had two mid term scores below 60.

Any actually useful help?

Good luck with the surveillance strategy. I bet it does not work the way you hope.

[Anonymous]

We are looking for the same tool. For kids who can stay on task - conversations work. My kid with ADHD needs more help.

[Anonymous]

Www.screenagersmovie.com/resources-2

[Anonymous]

Circle. I have been using for 1 month or so and I can block whatever I want - I have different profiles like "school only" "X" "Y" etc... and I move it around (the device) as I need. For instance, school only has everything under the sun and its mother blocked. It pretty much can only be used for some specific education websites - no social media, no games, no blogs, etc.

But yesterday I just discovered I can look at the browsing history (from the app in my phone) and see which websites were visited and for long. Also, which websites were attempted (but unsuccessful since they were blocked) - and at what time.

Pretty neat if you ask me.

Also, from my app I can just hit "pause" on some specific profile internet access and everything is blocked suddenly if needed - pretty controlling, but effective for some stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Circle. I have been using for 1 month or so and I can block whatever I want - I have different profiles like "school only" "X" "Y" etc... and I move it around (the device) as I need. For instance, school only has everything under the sun and its mother blocked. It pretty much can only be used for some specific education websites - no social media, no games, no blogs, etc.

But yesterday I just discovered I can look at the browsing history (from the app in my phone) and see which websites were visited and for long. Also, which websites were attempted (but unsuccessful since they were blocked) - and at what time.

Pretty neat if you ask me.

Also, from my app I can just hit "pause" on some specific profile internet access and everything is blocked suddenly if needed - pretty controlling, but effective for some stuff.

Thanks for this! Dumb q - can it track things outside of our wifi? Like if my kid brings their device to another kids house, will I then not be able to see the info?

[Anonymous]

I know the password for my daughter's google account, so I just log in periodically and review her history. There's a "My Activity" section in the security settings under the profile. You can see all websites, search, images, youtube comments, viewing history, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Circle. I have been using for 1 month or so and I can block whatever I want - I have different profiles like "school only" "X" "Y" etc... and I move it around (the device) as I need. For instance, school only has everything under the sun and its mother blocked. It pretty much can only be used for some specific education websites - no social media, no games, no blogs, etc.

But yesterday I just discovered I can look at the browsing history (from the app in my phone) and see which websites were visited and for long. Also, which websites were attempted (but unsuccessful since they were blocked) - and at what time.

Pretty neat if you ask me.

Also, from my app I can just hit "pause" on some specific profile internet access and everything is blocked suddenly if needed - pretty controlling, but effective for some stuff.

A vpn gets right around circle. It’s really easy and they can’t fix it.

[Anonymous]

We have deco WiFi extenders. I just realized that there are controls where I can limit each device. Now I turn off the WiFi at a certain time for certain devices that are connected. I can also set it where I can see what they went on and the the total amount of time in a day. For example, it shows DC was on YouTube on the laptop for 1.5 hours. I don’t know if they were websites for school or personal. I can also see Xbox live and have the option to block anything I want for each device. I can’t keep up with what I need to block so this way I get a daily summary of what they are looking at. They don’t know I can see all this, or they would find a way around that too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have deco WiFi extenders. I just realized that there are controls where I can limit each device. Now I turn off the WiFi at a certain time for certain devices that are connected. I can also set it where I can see what they went on and the the total amount of time in a day. For example, it shows DC was on YouTube on the laptop for 1.5 hours. I don’t know if they were websites for school or personal. I can also see Xbox live and have the option to block anything I want for each device. I can’t keep up with what I need to block so this way I get a daily summary of what they are looking at. They don’t know I can see all this, or they would find a way around that too.

What’s a WiFi extender. Is this something that you monitor through Xfinity?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have deco WiFi extenders. I just realized that there are controls where I can limit each device. Now I turn off the WiFi at a certain time for certain devices that are connected. I can also set it where I can see what they went on and the the total amount of time in a day. For example, it shows DC was on YouTube on the laptop for 1.5 hours. I don’t know if they were websites for school or personal. I can also see Xbox live and have the option to block anything I want for each device. I can’t keep up with what I need to block so this way I get a daily summary of what they are looking at. They don’t know I can see all this, or they would find a way around that too.

What’s a WiFi extender. Is this something that you monitor through Xfinity?

We have Fios and purchases through amazon. We set it up a long time ago, before Covid, when DH would sometimes need to work from home and we found out we didn’t get strong WiFi in certain parts of the house. Now we have a few of these placed around and great internet in every room. The parental controls are a feature I recently discovered. It’s possible they can get around them if they set up a VPN. I am not sure how those work but my oldest tells me he can get around anything with VPNs. I’m not as worried about him as my younger kids anyway. https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Deco-Whole-System-2-Pack/dp/B0797D6853/ref=sxin_15_ac_m_rm?ac_md=1-1-dHAgbGluayBkZWNvIG01-ac_d_rm&cv_ct_cx=deco&dchild=1&keywords=deco&pd_rd_i=B0797D6853&pd_rd_r=aa49fe14-497f-4e42-b3df-0a692c35722a&pd_rd_w=YlHcC&pd_rd_wg=ioQaE&pf_rd_p=fce38ab9-6307-4836-b9f3-d7597dbce8d1&pf_rd_r=KTDD0KZTF1HVVCA3Z83T&psc=1&qid=1601767694&sr=1-2-87203c69-9404-44ba-aa52-290406ffe53a