Managing Family Devices

A 12-year-old with 45 minutes and a search bar can undo three years of parental controls. Here’s how to actually stay ahead of it.

The typical family has somewhere between 8 and 15 connected devices. Phones, tablets, laptops, smart TVs, gaming consoles, the ancient iPad no one admits still works. Most parents set up parental controls on one or two of them and call it done. The other thirteen are wide open.

Stoix runs DNS filtering across all of them from a single dashboard. But the setup strategy matters as much as the tool.

Setup Strategies

Strategy 1: Router-Level (Recommended)

Configure DNS on your home router and every device connecting to your network gets filtered automatically — phones, tablets, smart TVs, the PlayStation, the Alexa your kid figured out before you did.

The tradeoff: it only works at home. The moment a device jumps to cellular or connects at a friend’s house, the filter disappears. Also, everyone on the network gets the same rules, which creates problems when a parent and an 8-year-old have very different internet needs.

Best for: Primary home protection layer.

View router setup guide

Strategy 2: Device-Level

Configure DNS directly on each device. The protection follows the device — school, travel, a friend’s Wi-Fi. Rules can be different per person, per device, per situation.

The tradeoff: you have to set up each device individually, and a motivated kid who finds the DNS settings has a potential workaround. Lock down those settings before you hand the device back.

Best for: Mobile devices, personalized rules, protection outside the home.

Strategy 3: Hybrid (Best Approach)

Router handles the baseline. Individual devices get their own profiles layered on top. This is the one that actually holds up.

A practical example of how it breaks down across a family:

Router: Blocks malware, ads, and adult content across everything
Child’s iPhone: Additional blocks on social media and gaming during school hours
Teen’s laptop: Moderate filtering, more breathing room
Parent devices: Malware and trackers only

One setup doesn’t require constant monitoring. The other doesn’t leave gaps when someone’s sitting in a school parking lot.

Device-Specific Setup

Kids’ Phones (iOS/Android)

The configuration profile approach is the move here. Create a profile in your dashboard, set filtering to Strict, enable the relevant categories — adult content, gambling, drugs, social media if you want it — install it on the device, then lock the settings via Screen Time on iOS so they can’t pull it off without your password.

It works on cellular data. Protection follows them everywhere they go, not just when they’re on your Wi-Fi.

Teens’ Laptops

Moderate filtering at the system DNS level. Block the genuinely harmful categories — adult content, gambling, drugs, malware — and leave the rest alone. A teen who feels like everything is blocked has very strong motivation to learn about VPNs.

The goal at this age isn’t containment. It’s keeping the worst stuff out while not making the device feel like a prison sentence.

Kids’ Tablets

Strict filtering, full category blocks, plus an allowlist of approved sites so they have somewhere to actually go. Layer the device’s own parental controls on top of DNS filtering for redundancy. One system failing doesn’t mean everything fails.

Smart TVs

Configure DNS in the TV’s network settings. Moderate filtering focused on adult content and malware. Most people forget smart TVs have their own browsers and app stores — they’re not just streaming boxes anymore.

Gaming Consoles

This one requires a little thought. Configure DNS in the console’s network settings, set filtering to Light to Moderate, and don’t block the gaming category — it’s a gaming console. Block adult content and malware, leave the functionality intact. A console that can’t connect to gaming servers is just an expensive box.

Creating Device Profiles

Profile Types

Young Child (Ages 5–10)

Filtering: Strict
Blocked: Adult content, gambling, drugs, extreme violence,
         social media, chat & messaging, user-generated content
Allowed: Educational sites (allowlist)

Tween (Ages 11–13)

Filtering: Moderate to Strict
Blocked: Adult content, gambling, drugs, extreme violence, anonymous chat
Consider: Time-based social media restrictions

Teen (Ages 14–17)

Filtering: Moderate
Blocked: Adult content, gambling, illegal drugs, malware
Social media: Open conversation rather than hard block

Parent (Adults)

Filtering: Light
Blocked: Malware & phishing, ads & trackers (optional)

Setting Up Profiles

Go to Dashboard Setup
Click “Create Device Profile”
Name it (e.g., “Emma’s iPhone”)
Choose filtering level
Select categories to block
Generate configuration

Managing Multiple Children

The 8-year-old and the 14-year-old in the same house are not the same situation. Same tool, different profiles. Create separate device configurations, apply the right one to each device, and adjust as they age into the next category.

When the younger one notices the older one can access things they can’t — and they will notice — the honest answer is that it’s age-based, not arbitrary. The 8-year-old’s restrictions loosen when they’re 14. That’s the deal.

Monitoring & Analytics

What You Can See

The Analytics dashboard shows per-device and family-wide views: total queries, blocked domains, top categories accessed, and timeline of activity.

What You Can’t See

Specific pages within allowed domains. Search queries. Form data. Content of pages. Personal information entered anywhere.

This is by design. DNS filtering operates at the domain level — it knows that instagram.com was accessed, not what was posted or scrolled. That’s the line between protection and surveillance, and Stoix doesn’t cross it.

Using Analytics Effectively

A single blocked attempt isn’t alarming — curiosity is normal. A consistent pattern of attempts to reach specific categories at specific times is worth a conversation. Focus on trends, not individual data points, and don’t use the analytics as ammunition in an argument.

Handling Common Challenges

Kid Changed DNS Settings

It happens. The fix is prevention: on iOS, lock network settings via Screen Time restrictions. On Android, use Private DNS. On Windows, put kids on standard user accounts that require admin credentials to change network settings. On the router, change the admin password from the default and don’t post it on the fridge.

If it happens anyway: restore the settings, lock them down properly this time, and have the conversation about why they felt the need to change them.

Device Left Home Without Protection

If DNS is only configured at the router level, a device on cellular data or a friend’s Wi-Fi is unprotected. This is the argument for device-level configuration on anything that leaves the house. Router filtering is the baseline. Device filtering is the failsafe.

”I need this site for homework!”

Check it yourself first. If it’s legitimate, add it to the Allowlist. The dashboard supports both temporary allowlist entries that auto-expire after a set number of days and permanent additions. For a one-week project, temporary makes more sense than a permanent exception you forget about.

Technical Tips

Preventing DNS Changes

iOS: Settings → Screen Time → Content & Privacy Restrictions → Network Settings → Don’t Allow Changes

Android: Enable Private DNS in settings — it’s significantly harder for a kid to modify than standard DNS configuration

Windows: Create a standard (non-admin) user account. Changing DNS requires admin credentials they don’t have.

Mac: Standard user account, require admin password for network changes, layer Screen Time parental controls on top.

Router Security

Change the default admin password. Use something they can’t guess from watching you type it twice. Disable remote management. Keep firmware updated. The router is the foundation — if someone gets admin access to it, every other layer of protection is irrelevant.

Best Practices

Setup phase: Start with the router for baseline protection, add device-level profiles for the devices that need them, test everything before handing devices back, build out the allowlist for known educational and legitimate sites, and tell the family what to expect.

Ongoing: The system runs automatically — no daily action required. Do a quick analytics check weekly. Monthly, sit down as a family and talk about what’s working and what needs adjusting. Once a year, do a full policy review. Kids get older. Rules should too.

Next Steps

Questions? Contact us — we’re here to help.