Just figured out that my kid can still hotspot with familymode and family allowance all on. Its after the set bedtime. Everything should be paused. She figured out she can still hotspot then connect her laptop to the hotspot and get online even though I shut all her stuff off with familymode. Is there a way to deactivate hotspot on her account or a way to stop this. Seems like a major flaw in familymode 😥
Best answer by tmo_chris
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Hey
Thanks for taking the time to post to our community! What you are seeing here is actually a known limitation of the Family mode service. Depending on what kind of device she is using to connect to the hotspot, you may be able to adjust the parental controls within that device.
Just figuring this out too (first time since switching to tmibile/FamilyMode). We really need a way to monitor this. We're paying for this as a way to control screen time. I was told if I had FamilyMode installed on each phone I need to meet with nitor, this would work outside our home network. Unfortunately, if we can't control the Hotspot - it's not very useful.
I agree that if FamilyMode is so easily circumvented, it is worse than "not very useful" -- it is WORTHLESS and certainly not worth the $10/month that we have been paying! I also feel that T-Mobile has not been transparent about this HUGE loophole in their publications describing the "benefits" and features of FamilyMode!
Has this "limitation" (ie flaw) been fixed? If FamilyMode is so easy to circumvent, it is not worth a penny, much less the $10/month that we are being charged!
I joined Tmobile about a month ago. Service is good. Today sadly Tmobile revealed it lacked corporate responsibility. I guess Apple does too given that both offer half baked screen time solutions. Apple charges a lot for a phone and offers a service that any kid can circumvent. Tmobile actually charges for the family mode service. I wonder if corporate responsibility came up in the marketing meeting at Tmobile when someone decided to charge for it. Bad enough it does not work as it should. Shame on Tmobile. So many kids are having issues with home school and Tmobile has taken a profit oriented approach to helping.
Yes not being able to lock down the HOTSPOT makes this whole thing worthless! These kids know every back door to get on porn, games, crappy web content, incognito back-doors. And t-mobile can't hire ONE hacker to figure out how to keep kids off of GARBAGE CONTENT AND BACK-DOORS? REALLY. Then you want to charge us for this shitty service! Fix the problem. This is a worthless service so you might as well give to us for free!
Hey
Thanks for taking the time to post to our community! What you are seeing here is actually a known limitation of the Family mode service. Depending on what kind of device she is using to connect to the hotspot, you may be able to adjust the parental controls within that device.
Does that mean Family Allowance & Family do nothing with blocking the hotspot or internet during sleeping time? You told us to do parental controls on the other devices. If so, we gotta pay for other services who made & sold the devices. Why pay for you??? You collect money without doing any job.
What's wrong with parents? Can't you just take your device away from your child and not let them have it at night? Put it under your bed. Stick it in your bathroom drawer. Anywhere they can't go at night. Get a safe. There's no app that will do that.
Protect your children from the internet at night time. That's where everything bad happens.
What's wrong with parents? Can't you just take your device away from your child and not let them have it at night? Put it under your bed. Stick it in your bathroom drawer. Anywhere they can't go at night. Get a safe. There's no app that will do that.
Protect your children from the internet at night time. That's where everything bad happens.
That’s great. Except if I want to leave my 15 yo at home with a working cell phone to make calls. Not all children are ten years old. There gets to be a point where them being out in the world with a phone is a practical issue. If you think that kids are only getting into things after dark then that’s exactly how your kids are getting around your attempts to control.
August 31st, 2023 and so far T-Mobile has done absolutely nothing to solve this huge hole in their Family Mode service. In addition to this they no longer sell the hardware for the home station and the new version of the Family Mode App doesn't see the old Family Mode Home Base.
For an IPhone:
Go to Settings > Cellular, and make sure that the hotspot is disabled. Then go to Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions, and enter your passcode if prompted. Scroll down to Cellular Data Changes, and switch that to Don't Allow.
But the only way this will work is if you are the only one who has the numeric passcode for the phone. This way they can still use their face to get into the phone but they won’t be able to change anything on their phone without asking you for the numeric passcode first
I should have read the this thread before opting to solve the same issue of HotSpot still being stay on. I could have saved $10 per month…lol.
I add my voice here as well that IT IS A GARBADGE FUTURE WITHOUT ALLOWING TO CONTROL THE HOT SPOT FUTURE.
for most of you do you allow them to use the hotspot during normal hours or no? if not you should be able to go into your account and turn it off for their line. then theres zero chance they’ll be using it.
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