We tried blocking website access at the router but it made the Internet impossible to use in the house. For example, if one person watched a video such as for Thinkwell homeschool math, no one else in the house could look at any website at that moment. The same thing happened for YouTube. We have been using YouTube for educational history video watching. When I prep the videos to watch the kids could not do their math or any of their work such as reading engrade.com to get communications to and from their teachers at the homeschool co-ops.
We did not realize what the problem was until a Comcast employee suggested this to me via Twitter. (The best way to get expert advice on Comcast issues is to tweet the Comcast reps directly. They follow up via direct message - DM.)
Now that we know we cannot block sites at the router or control time of day usage of the computer we are back to using KidWatch with younger son. He says he likes this because he no longer feels tempted to sneak and do things online that prevent him from getting his work done.
Older son has no parental controls on his computer because he hacks them. We are working out a plan of action and goals with mediation with the counselor. I can't believe we have to pay a psychologist to handle my son's inability to self-regulate and self-monitor. And I can't believe that my husband and I can't handle this on our own.
The basic issue, if you have not been reading my past posts, is that my son was staying up late into the night on the Internet and then was unable to function the next day and he was not getting his schoolwork done either. Some of the internet activity was video games which are web-based. Some of the video games are free so it does not involve money from parents. The older son is also playing Fantasy Football now so that is the newest distractor. The good news is he has quit Minecraft, which he decided on his own.