Like many parents out there, I've been searching for a simple, easy way to manage Internet activity on my children's devices. I've tried some other apps and services, but Circle with Disney was the easiest one by far. We have a lot of devices in our house: Kindles, iPods, iPads, iPhones, laptops, desktops, etc and it worked for all these devices. I have been using Circle for about a month now and while I'm really liking it, I've learned a few things.
1. Teens will go around Circle on their iPhones by turning off the WiFi and use cellular data. Found this out when they doubled their data use last month!
2. Circle picks up a lot devices that are un-named. Using the Mac Address helps you identify them, but that can be a little tedious.
3. As I had many devices appear in Circle and I wasn't always sure which ones they were, I set the filtering for all unknown devices to the highest level of filtering. Then as we figured out who the device belonged to, I added it to the appropriate person's device list. This was also helpful for some devices that would not register the name of the device. Some devices would lose their identifying name for some reason and then reappear on my list as unknown device.
4. For shared devices like a desktop computer, I chose not filter that device with Circle and I used the parental controls built into the operating system.
I am still learning and tweaking the settings on my Circle. I would really like to find a way to allow some games such as "Clash of Clans" by creating a white list of apps/ websites to a profile. I realize that Circle can't have an inclusive list of games parents can turn on or off, but it would be really nice if they would allow parents to add apps to the list. I also hoping there is a way to limit cellular data without enabling restrictions on iPhones. I have read that Circle is planning to manage cellular connections in the future which just might be the solution.
Overall I really like Circle and would recommend it to anyone looking for a simple way to filter devices in their home.
For another review of Circle with Disney, check out Be Web Smart's review here here.
2. Circle picks up a lot devices that are un-named. Using the Mac Address helps you identify them, but that can be a little tedious.
3. As I had many devices appear in Circle and I wasn't always sure which ones they were, I set the filtering for all unknown devices to the highest level of filtering. Then as we figured out who the device belonged to, I added it to the appropriate person's device list. This was also helpful for some devices that would not register the name of the device. Some devices would lose their identifying name for some reason and then reappear on my list as unknown device.
4. For shared devices like a desktop computer, I chose not filter that device with Circle and I used the parental controls built into the operating system.
I am still learning and tweaking the settings on my Circle. I would really like to find a way to allow some games such as "Clash of Clans" by creating a white list of apps/ websites to a profile. I realize that Circle can't have an inclusive list of games parents can turn on or off, but it would be really nice if they would allow parents to add apps to the list. I also hoping there is a way to limit cellular data without enabling restrictions on iPhones. I have read that Circle is planning to manage cellular connections in the future which just might be the solution.
Overall I really like Circle and would recommend it to anyone looking for a simple way to filter devices in their home.
For another review of Circle with Disney, check out Be Web Smart's review here here.