How to Set a Wi-Fi Bedtime for Children
By the Guardian-CORR Editorial Team
End the nightly argument: set internet bedtime per child with different times for school nights and weekends.
"Two more minutes" is not a bedtime. If you are negotiating screen time at 10 p.m. every night, you do not have a bedtime — you have a repeated diplomatic summit. Here is how to hand the job to the network instead.
Why schedules beat nagging
When a parent enforces bedtime, every night is a negotiation with you as the antagonist. When the network enforces it, the argument leaves the room: the devices simply stop reaching the internet at the time you set. Consistency does the parenting.
Set up bedtime in the portal
Guardian-CORR makes this a two-minute job — see the full guide in bedtime & schedules:
- Open the child's profile and create a schedule.
- Set the window — for example, internet off at 8:30 p.m.
- Pick the days the schedule applies.
- Save. The gateway enforces it on every device in that profile.
Weeknight and weekend rules
Bedtimes should differ — 8:30 on school nights, 10:00 on Fridays and Saturdays, for example. Set two schedules on the same profile with different day rules. The parent dashboard shows every schedule at a glance.
What your child experiences
At the scheduled time, their devices stop reaching the internet. Games drop their connection, streams stop, group chats go quiet. Nothing dramatic — the internet just went to sleep. And if you need it back for homework, you can resume or pause from the portal in one tap.
Two tips that help
- Announce the schedule, not the countdown. Kids handle "internet ends at 8:30" far better than a surprise cutoff.
- Give a wind-down. A schedule starting at bedtime works better than one that begins mid-episode.
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