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Family Allowances seems to be some kind of joke
I'm looking into Family Allowances because I want to restrict my 10yo daughter from using her phone until early hours of the morning. She seems to be addicted. We take it away from her in the evenings, but she quite often finds it (she's very intelligent and sneaky). We tell her she isn't allowed to use it at night, but she seems driven to use it. So I decided to look into just shutting down her ability to use it.
I've heard from other parents that they can restrict all accesses based on time schedules (with their providers). T-Mobile doesn't seem to have that possibility. After reading through Family Allowances it seems it can only restrict calls and messaging? That is useless for this situation.
I read this in T-Mobile's family allowances description:
Schedule
- You can allow or block when your children (managed lines) can use their devices during predefined time periods, such as during school (9 a.m.-2 p.m.), during homework or dinner time (4-9 p.m.), or when they should be sleeping (9-11 p.m. and 11 p.m.-6 a.m.).
This indeed makes it sound like the "device" can be restricted, but this appears to be an outright lie based on everything else in the description. Everything else only talks about calls and messaging. Blocking the use of their "device" would mean everything can be blocked, not just calls and messaging.
Does T-Mobile have the ability to "allow or block when your children (managed lines) can use their devices" as described, or are they far behind other carriers in this area?
Just so I'm on the same page with you @rglaus, are you looking for something that'll block the devices built-in functions to be blocked? Our Family Allowances is designed to restrict the phone from using services on the network. Unfortunately, we don't have a feature that we offer if you're trying to block them from accessing the phone's internal features.
It's 2025 and T-Mobile still doesn't have the ability to allow parents to restrict phone usage by set hours: For Example. I don't want my son using his phone from 9am-2pm Mon-Fri-- which are school hours. The T Mobile Family mode app only allows you to set usage limits- i.e. 2 hrs, 3 hrs, etc. This parental control is completely useless.
Verizon has had this feature for over 10yrs!! When will T-mobile have this ability? If not soon, I'll just back to Verizon.
I had this same concern with my child in wanting to block certain hours of the day. Try looking into Googles Family Link App & see if this will help meet your needs.
I just got a phone a couple of weeks ago for my 12 year old grandson. When I asked them at the store how to set up the parental controls they told me to just google it. I have set up family mode which I have to pay 10.00 a month for and then I had to call them to add family allowances. I kept getting an error message every time I tried to put the times to limit the device. I tried both the app and the website. I called back several times and they could not figure it out. It would not save the changes for them either. I finally got someone that was able to get the times put in and save it. They told me the app would not work with that feature. I can look on the website and my app and see that the times have been saved but it is still allowing calls and texts to come through during the blocked times. I still get an error when I try to set up the web guard. I was on hold for almost an hour this morning before I was able to talk to someone and then after they still could not figure it out they were going to send me to tech but disconnected me instead. I have probably spent over 6 hours on the phone in the last two trying to get this resolved.
Old thread but
What this person was looking for is what's called today "family mode" from T-Mobile apps. It cost an additional $10 per month also.
You can limit specific apps on managed phones.
Also you can limit those apps specifically on iphones as well. With passwords. Never gave your child the Apple ID password solves a lot of problems.
Further, if you don't want your child use your phone at night, just take the phone away and put it in your bedroom by your bed. Under your mattress if you have to!
You're not supposed to be your child's friend ...do what they need. Be the parent.
Mark this as not resolved. Family allowances doesn’t block anything. I have the Wi-Fi well managed to shut off completely on demand. However, the internet still works for the phone via T-Mobile’s network. Also, the tethering of said data to downstream PCs that would not work otherwise, because the WI-FI is shut off.
Turning the line off via Family allowances only operates on the calls and texting. The internet access achieved though T-Mobile’s network is NOT disabled, despite what they say here and what the buttons & documentation say. Doesn’t matter if it is Apple or Android. It shouldn't matter. The data should be stoppable at the T-Mobile server end. Otherwise, the phone user can download a free phone app (Snapchat for example) and continue on as if nothing happened.
It would be better if the phone and text messages still worked, but the Data shutoff did not. At least we can track phone calls and text messages.Being a single parent, I need to be able to locate and communicate with my teens.
Please stop advertising that the Family allowances provides any kind of useful service.
I have an 8 and 9 year old and decided to get them cell phones. I signed up for the Family Mode and immediately installed the apps on both phones. I then set bed time and wake time limits on each phone through the app. And what do you know...at 9pm nothing on their phones worked. Even connected to Wi-fi they weren’t able to text, watch youtube, play games...nothing. They were not happy but I was oh so happy.
2 year old thread, problem still exists. What’s the latest there tmo?
Times are put in place to restrict calls?
I.e.
I blocked calls during school hours for my child but there is a gap in the time frames....
9am-2pm (where's 2pm-4pm)
4pm-9pm
Yes. Family allowance is a joke. I was controlling phone calls, text, and internet with AT&T. It was free with account with their interface before I switched. I was controlling WIFI through my router. TMobile charges $5 per month for something totally useless. The only option is to take the SIM card off, I guess. Guys provide a total solution for something you are charging as a service.
Forget everything suggested here if your phones are Android based... just use Google Family Link. Search for it in the Google Play Store. You're welcome... *drops mic*
Marissa (I can't tag you)
Personalizing and Controlling Your Home Network with Xfinity xFi -- that's Comcast's options. It's built into their router. The same functionality is available in my Google WiFi router, along with many other newer routers. The logic is to start controlling screen time, which the app T-Mobile is providing can do as long as it's still properly parented. I do agree that one shouldn't 100% rely on technology to parent (even though the television was my babysitter growing up).
When it's built in to the system, it's harder to circumvent. When it's an app, kids will circumvent. It's a start, but not the best. But, with it being an app, I don't know how T-Mobile's solution is any better than the other apps out there that offer similar results.
I'm not in a position to debate the options (I'm not the target consumer), but I would have thought T-Mobile would have come up with a network-side solution before (what appears to be) re-branding a third party software-based solution (that is a one-time cost of hardware vs a monthly fee).
