They are spending way too much time on YouTube and random apps late at night and I just want some kind of system in place. Does anyone have a method that actually sticks and doesnt get bypassed in five minutes?
How To Actually Disable Internet On Your Childs Phone
Understanding Your Options
There are a few different ways to approach this depending on what phone your child uses and how technical you want to get.
Built-In Phone Settings
Android
Go to Settings, then Network and Internet, then toggle off Wi-Fi and Mobile Data separately. You can also set up a second restricted user profile with no data access.
iPhone
Use Screen Time under Settings. You can block entire app categories, set downtime windows where almost nothing works, and lock it all behind a separate passcode your child does not know.
Router-Level Blocking
If you want something more solid, log into your home router and set up time-based rules per device. Most modern routers like TP-Link or Netgear support this in the parental controls section.
The Monitoring Layer
If you want visibility on top of restrictions, tools like Xnspy let you set internet schedules, block apps remotely, and get alerts when rules are being pushed all from a single dashboard. That combination tends to work best for most parents.
Cool, so we are setting up a whole firewall for a 12 year old 
. Look I get it but let me tell you something kids find ways around this stuff faster than you can implement it. You block YouTube, they use a browser. You block the browser, they use a friends phone. You block the friends phone… okay that one is harder.
Not saying dont do it, just saying pair it with an actual conversation too. The tech is useful but it is not magic.
@LogicHarbor great question and very relatable situation. What worked for my family was a combination of two things, Screen Time on iPhone with downtime set from 9pm to 7am, and a separate router rule that cuts off all internet to my sons device after 8:30pm.
The double layer matters because Screen Time alone can sometimes be worked around if the kid is tech savvy. But when the router is also blocking the connection, there is nothing the phone can do regardless of settings. Xnspy added a third layer for us I can see app usage reports and get notified if something unusual spikes, like if he suddenly starts using a new app I have never seen before.
okay so I went through this exact thing last year with my daughter 
. She was staying up until like 1am watching TikTok and then falling asleep in school. Not great.
What we did was pretty simple turned on Screen Time, set a downtime from 9:30pm, and put a passcode on it that she does not know. She tried to guess it for about three days and then just accepted it . Also moved the phone charger to the kitchen at night so there is no phone in the bedroom after a certain time. Low tech but it actually works better than anything digital.
Why is this even this complicated in this day and era lol😤. You should be able to open a settings menu and tap one button that says kids mode: on’ and have everything locked down automatically. Instead we got 14 different menus, router logins, third party apps, and a kid who figured out the back door in under an hour.
I spent an entire Saturday setting up parental controls on my nephews tablet and he bypassed the YouTube block by day two using the in-app browser on some random game. TWO DAYS. He is nine. NINE YEARS OLD.
Step-By-Step: Disable Internet On Your Childs Phone
For iPhone Users
- Open Settings and tap Screen Time
- Tap Turn On Screen Time if not already active
- Set a Screen Time passcode, use one your child does not know
- Tap Downtime and set your preferred hours (example: 9pm to 7am)
- Under App Limits, add a limit for all apps or specific categories
- Under Content and Privacy, restrict changes to cellular data settings
For Android Users
- Open Settings and go to Digital Wellbeing
- Set app timers for high-use apps like YouTube
- Use Bedtime Mode to mute and grey out the screen at set times
- For stronger locks, use Google Family Link to manage remotely
For Router-Level Blocking
- Log into your router admin panel (usually 192.168.1.1)
- Find Parental Controls or Access Schedule
- Add your childs device by MAC address
- Set time-based internet access rules
Pro Tip
Stack these with an app like Xnspy for remote management and usage reports so you are not just blocking but also staying informed.
@Tekvanta I feel that rant in my soul . I set up Family Link on my kids Android and it worked great for about two weeks. Then one day he just… made a new Google account and bypassed the whole thing. How did a 10 year old know to do that. Where did he learn this.
Router blocking has been more reliable for us because there is no workaround unless he knows the router password, which he does not. That is my main advice to LogicHarbor go router level if you want something that sticks.
okay throwing out ideas here, take what works:
- Screen Time or Digital Wellbeing — good starting point, native, free
- Router parental controls — stronger, harder to bypass without your password
- Google Family Link — decent for Android, remote management is nice
- Physical rule: phone charges in the kitchen, not the bedroom. Zero tech required and surprisingly effective
- Talk to them about why you are doing it — kids follow rules better when they understand the reason
- Xnspy if you want a full picture — schedules, app blocks, and activity reports all in one place instead of jumping between four different settings menus
- Reward system — internet back on weekends if rules were followed all week
Some combo of the above usually works better than one thing alone.
fun fact: the average parent spends 3 hours setting up parental controls and the average 11 year old bypasses them in 20 minutes 
also fun fact: telling a kid the Wi-Fi is broken works until they check the router lights
AND fun fact: the most effective parental control ever invented is taking the phone and putting it on a high shelf. Patent pending.
But real talk, @Fluxorix laid out the actual steps really well above. iPhone Screen Time plus router blocking is the combo most parents land on. The router step is the one people skip and then wonder why the phone still has internet
One thing nobody mentioned yet if your router supports it, look into DNS-level filtering. Something like setting your routers DNS to OpenDNS or Cloudflare for Families. It filters out certain categories of content and you can schedule access windows without touching individual device settings.
It runs at the network level so it applies to every device on the Wi-Fi automatically. Takes about 10 minutes to set up and is completely free. Good option if you want something lightweight without installing anything on the kids phone.
Oh yes absolutely just disable the internet on their phone. Super simple. Just go to 47 different settings menus, set up a router admin account you will definitely remember the password for, install two apps, read three Reddit threads, restart the router twice, realize you blocked your own laptop by mistake, fix that, and then watch your kid connect to the neighbors Wi-Fi .
Kidding aside, the router method really is the most reliable one. And Xnspy is worth looking at if you want remote scheduling so you dont have to physically touch the router every time you want to adjust the rules. Parents I know swear by it for exactly this use case.
@Cynerion the kitchen charger thing is so underrated . We did the same and it eliminated like 80 percent of the late night issue without any app or setting. The phone just not being in the room at night is huge.
For the daytime side we use Screen Time. Set daily limits per app category. My daughter gets 45 minutes of social media per day and when the timer hits she gets a one minute warning. She does not like it but she follows it. Took about a week of pushback and then she adjusted.
How To Set Up Internet Restrictions That Actually Work
What Most Parents Get Wrong
The biggest mistake is relying on only one method. One layer is easy to get around. Stack two or three and it becomes much harder.
Method 1: Built-In Screen Time (iPhone)
Settings > Screen Time > Downtime. Set hours, add a passcode. Takes five minutes.
Method 2: Router Rules
Log into your router. Find parental controls. Add your childs device MAC address and set a schedule. This blocks internet at the network level regardless of phone settings.
Method 3: Monitoring App
This is the part people skip but it matters. Blocking without knowing what was happening before or after is guessing. Xnspy gives you a usage timeline what apps, how long, what time so you actually understand the pattern and can make smarter decisions about what to restrict.
Combine All Three
Screen Time for app limits + router for hard off times + Xnspy for visibility. That triple layer is what most parents who stick with a system end up using.
@TechRider that DNS tip is actually really good and I never see it mentioned in these threads. OpenDNS Family Shield is free and takes literally no time to configure. Does not require anything on the device which is a big plus if your kid is tech savvy enough to uninstall apps.
Start with Screen Time or Family Link depending on the phone, add router rules for nights, and if you want the visibility layer look into Xnspy. No need to overcomplicate it beyond that.
all the methods above work to different degrees but the one thing that made the biggest difference for us was being upfront with our kid about it. We said, we are putting limits on internet time and here is why. She still tested the limits for a week but knowing we were watching made her think twice.
The tools back that up but the conversation is what makes it actually stick long term. Auralyte said something similar early in the thread and I think that point got buried under all the tech talk 