Are parental controls effective?

[rea5245]

I have a Quantum Fios router. I did an experiment that suggests certain types of parental controls are ineffective.

During homework time, I want my kid to able to do research on the web, but block sites like Facebook. So I did a test where I blocked a site for myself and confirmed I couldn't access it. Then I unblocked it and confirmed I could access it. Then I blocked it again, but I was still able to access it!

I think what's happening is that the router is blocking DNS lookups. But since I had just accessed the site, my PC had cached the DNS info, so it didn't need to do a lookup.

That means that it's not possible to block certain sites at certain hours. If your kid has accessed the site previously that day, he'll probably be able to access it even when you're trying to block it.

Have other people found this? Am I right that time-based blocking of certain sites is ineffective?

Thank you,

   Bob

[Seeker1437]

This is an interesting find. You use using the Home Network Protection feature on this router?