Blocking YouTube

[James_N]

Hi All

We have two kids (one of which is autistic and watches a lot of YouTube!). We need to limit it somehow in the house. We have a Hisense TV which has no form of parental controls on it for things like this really (you can block live tv channels, but not set a pin code for apps for anything like that!) so i need another solution.

Looking on the google play store (I'm android), there are a number of parental control apps out there, but none have particularly glowing reviews.

So I'm appealing to the parents of PH! Are there any efficient ways to block it?

I did have a circle app with my NetGear router which when blocking googlevideo.com and youtube.com prevented the TV app from loading up, but now i've got rid of that router, I'm left with nothing and its becoming a problem.

Thank you

[Prak]

Are you wanting to block Youtube altogether, or enforce restricted mode which blocks dodgier videos and turns off comments?

Depending on how techie you are you might like to have a look at pfSense/opnsense which might give you more control over what can go where.

[nyt]

Apparently you can use pi-hole.

https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/how-do-i-block-you...

Looks a bit fiddly

[James_N]

Prak said:

Are you wanting to block Youtube altogether, or enforce restricted mode which blocks dodgier videos and turns off comments?

Depending on how techie you are you might like to have a look at pfSense/opnsense which might give you more control over what can go where.

Block it altogether but have times (say an hour after school) where they can watch it, but having it unblocked constantly isn't working in our house! They are like zombies, sat in front of youtube!

[Monkeylegend]

Saw the thread title and expected something different involving a plumber and plunger.

As you were.

[TEKNOPUG]

What devices are they using to access the internet?

[randlemarcus]

You'll still have a router, yes? If that doesnt have blocking functionality, might be time to upgrade to one that does? It's the only sensible place to do it, if you dont fancy fiddling with piholes or pfsense.

[Munter]

Assuming this is all going through your router (not mobile devices that can be turned to use mobile network), you could use a DNS service and block certain domains.

E.g. like instructions here for OpenDNS https://support.opendns.com/hc/en-us/articles/2280...

Have I ever done this. No. Do I know if you have to pay for it? No. Is it the best idea? I don't know. But it may be a way.

[TEKNOPUG]

Any half decent router should be able to schedule access to devices via MAC address. That's going to be a lot easier than trying to block specific websites. Also, there are many video streaming sites. Just blocking YouTube will mean the will go and look at something else.

[xeny]

James_N said:

I did have a circle app with my NetGear router which when blocking googlevideo.com and youtube.com prevented the TV app from loading up, but now i've got rid of that router, I'm left with nothing and its becoming a problem.

Thinking back, you were using the NetGear for routing and WiFi, and are now routing on the superhub and wif via an AP?

Switch back to routing on the NetGear (so you've got the blocking functionality) but turn the wifi off on it.

[FunkyNige]

randlemarcus said:

You'll still have a router, yes? If that doesnt have blocking functionality, might be time to upgrade to one that does? It's the only sensible place to do it, if you dont fancy fiddling with piholes or pfsense.

We've got a TP-link Deco Wi-Fi mesh thingy and that seems to have all the functionality the OP is after - you can assign devices attached to your network to a user, then decide the daily limit for different types of services:

[James_N]

xeny said:

Thinking back, you were using the NetGear for routing and WiFi, and are now routing on the superhub and wif via an AP?

Switch back to routing on the NetGear (so you've got the blocking functionality) but turn the wifi off on it.

Correct. I sent the AP back as it was useless. so i'm now just using the Virgin Superhub.

Turning the TV off is something that works, but the autistic one gets up at 5am every morning and comes down to watch TV on his own for a bit, so would like to be able to block it somehow. I think the virgin Superhub is pretty basic in terms of settings, but i'll investigate further.

It is mainly the TV they watch it on. Its easy enough to block it on the computers, but the TV seems slightly harder. In hindsight, when we get them a TV for their room, i'll get a Samsung, as you can pin code the apps on those!!

[anonymoususer]

If you had a Netgear router you could do this quite cheaply
Something like a Netgear D6300 can be picked up off the bay of E for around £20
Its often mistakenly thought it's just a BT/ Telephone line type router but it also works perfectly well as a fibre router
Popping the Superhub into modem mode and then installing the Netgear will take a few minutes
You can then go into advanced settings and block sites
Oh and the wifi on these is significantly better than the Superhubs own

https://kb.netgear.com/24055/How-do-I-block-intern...

[James_N]

anonymoususer said:

If you had a Netgear router you could do this quite cheaply
Something like a Netgear D6300 can be picked up off the bay of E for around £20
Its often mistakenly thought it's just a BT/ Telephone line type router but it also works perfectly well as a fibre router
Popping the Superhub into modem mode and then installing the Netgear will take a few minutes
You can then go into advanced settings and block sites
Oh and the wifi on these is significantly better than the Superhubs own

https://kb.netgear.com/24055/How-do-I-block-intern...

I had a netgear nighthawk. It actually made wifi coverage worse, hence why i got rid of it! The superhub isn't great but i'm yet to really find a half decent solution to that problem too!

[TEKNOPUG]

Change the WiFi password. Don't update the TV

[FunkyNige]

James_N said:

anonymoususer said:

If you had a Netgear router you could do this quite cheaply
Something like a Netgear D6300 can be picked up off the bay of E for around £20
Its often mistakenly thought it's just a BT/ Telephone line type router but it also works perfectly well as a fibre router
Popping the Superhub into modem mode and then installing the Netgear will take a few minutes
You can then go into advanced settings and block sites
Oh and the wifi on these is significantly better than the Superhubs own

https://kb.netgear.com/24055/How-do-I-block-intern...

I had a netgear nighthawk. It actually made wifi coverage worse, hence why i got rid of it! The superhub isn't great but i'm yet to really find a half decent solution to that problem too!

The TP-link Deco Wi-Fi mesh I mentioned earlier? You get 2 or 3 little boxes to put around the house and it extends the WiFi.

[fat80b]

We have similar challenge with our Samsung tv.

You want wifi connected for Netflix etc but there is no way to stop YT. (And I want to use YT myself as well)

within YT, there is no way to block some channels, videos, creators etc. No parental control whatsoever

Even if there was, the kids have already worked out that all they need to do is log out of the YT a/c and they can access anything they like anyway…

[anonymoususer]

James_N said:

I had a netgear nighthawk. It actually made wifi coverage worse, hence why i got rid of it! The superhub isn't great but i'm yet to really find a half decent solution to that problem too!

Very odd that anyway I'm sure the suggestions of mesh will sort that out
Good luck mate

[deckster]

Thing is, you have a non-technical problem ("They are watching too much Youtube") and are looking for a technical solution ("How to I block Youtube").

Now the problem with a technical solution, is that there will be a technical way round it. They can use another website, or change the router settings, or hotspot to their phone. Or, or, or. Are you confident that your technical knowledge will be enough to stay one step ahead of your teenage kids? For the avoidance of doubt: the answer is "it won't be".

Boundaries. Establish them and enforce them. If you don't want them watching YouTube, then make that a rule. If they break the rules, there are consequences. I don't mean trivialise the issue but fundamentally this isn't about blocking a website, it's about you setting the parameters of acceptable behaviour.

[NMNeil]

I don't know what model you have but it seems that you can use a parental control on some models.
https://www.hisense-usa.com/assets/ProductDownload...
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