How do Parental Controls work with a home network?

When setting up a home network through a router connection, the screen name used for setting up the router and accessing the web needs to have General (18+) access. It is this screen name that actually establishes the connection and, as such, it cannot be restricted. So Mature Teen, Young Teen and Kids Only screen names will not work on the router setup.

Parental Controls are still available within the AOL client, so any web access done through the client will be restricted in accordance with the Parental Controls settings of a user's screen name. However, where a computer is linked to a home network, the connection to the internet is made through the screen name that has been used for setting up the router without the need for individual users to sign on to AOL. As this is a General (18+) screen name, anyone accessing the internet through a home network will have unrestricted web access through external browsers such as Internet Explorer.

So parents should ensure that children are supervised at all times and install Internet Access Controls on all of the computers linked to your network, to limit access to inappropriate content on external web browsers.