My kids are circumventing the family restrictions

[gcsupraman]

I own a Google Wifi system and I discovered that my kids are easily circumventing the family wifi  restrictions by renaming their devices.

After the family wifi was setup and a schedule was created, my kids just renamed their IOS devices (settings, general, name) and then disconnected from the network and reconnected.  The google wifi wasn't smart enough to know that it was the same device. 

Thoughts?

[olavrb]

Both the Family Wi-Fi/ parantal control and the pausing functionality has been broken by design ever since MAC randomization became a thing years ago. More on MAC randomization from:

• Apple: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/security/secb9cb3140c/web
• Google / Android: https://source.android.com/docs/core/connect/wifi-mac-randomization-behavior
• Microsoft Windows: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/ac58de34-35fc-31ff-c650-823fc48eb1bc

You should probably look at controlling access on a different level, for instance the device itself. With products like:

• Apple screen time: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/ipad/ipadb15cb886/ipados
• Google Family Link: https://families.google.com/familylink
• Microsoft Family Safety: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/family-safety

[Jeff]

Thanks for the info, olavrb!

Hi gcsupraman,

I just wanted to jump in real fast to see if you saw olavrb's reply and to see if you still needed some help on this or if you were able to get it sorted out. If you are still needing some help, just let us know and we'll be happy to continue helping.

Thanks,
Jeff

[gcsupraman]

I got confirmation that they don’t work so I guess I’m all set 🙂

Love the product otherwise.

[Jeff]

Thanks for letting me know, gcsupraman. I'll go ahead and mark this as resolved, but if you need anything else, definitely let us know.

Thanks,

Jeff