As with others noted, we recently swtiched to the new Verizon Smart Family. As isntructed, I added the Family Companion to my child's cell phones. When Monday came, they had signficant issues at school. While their school allows them to connect to the WiFi, their school blocks all VPNs from internet access as they were having issues with students utilizing VPNs to mask their identities. I contacted the School's IT Director and they denied my request to allow my child's VPN. Not shocked, they just cannot allow one VPN and block others. Now I have reached out twice to Verizon for a work around. I would like to keep the Smart Family as I need to monitor my child's devices but they need thier phones at school as several assignments and extra credit projects are on the web. Frustrated, Verizon, what is the solution here?
Longsnap67, we understand the importance of making sure you are able to monitor your children’s activity at any time of the day. Regrettably, the way the Verizon Smart Family application is designed the established VPN profile is required through the phone in which all internet-related activity passes. We use the VPN connection to provide you with these Smart Family features: content filters, time restrictions, and web and app activity monitoring. We recommend that you continue to work with the School if you want to continue to utilize the Smart Family application through their cellphones during school hours. As a potential workaround, if you may have a tablet at home, your children may have the option to utilize the tablet while in school in order to connect to the school's Wi-Fi to complete and conduct the research they may need to do. Does this clarify things for you?
SylviaT_VZW
This makes it so that I have ro remove Smart Family from her phone because either 1)She will burn through TONS of data, and Verizon earns more $ 2)She cannot participate in class with anything that requires internet access, which is not practical in 2020 3)I have to buy, and she has to carry a whole new device with no Smart Family protection, which makes having Smart Family one one device (but not the other) pointless
I do understand where you are coming from, Siggivg. Having this much technology in the classrooms is both a good thing and a bad thing. I wish that there was a way around this on our end, but my co-worker mentioned the reason why it is set up the way that it is. I hope that this helps clarify.
ErinW_VZW
Your child can easily work around the VPN, which makes the App completely useless. My son had it turned off within an hour of installation, meaning the phone is disconnected from the plan and all parental controls.
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