How can you create a sensor to monitor an app in Android or iOS screen time?
I am new to HA and somehow can not wrap my head around it
The only parental control which works is built in iOS “screen time”.
Googles “family link or how it is called” is an app and kids just changes phones’ time and date settings to reset /offset time to get more time.
PS5 timer is just for looks. When the time runs out it suggests the kid to log out 
I can’t speak to the other consoles, but the Xbox integration only allows for a single instance (tied to one XBL account), so it’s not possible to track playtime for multiple users via the integration.
So surely the request should be for an improved Xbox integration?
Dunno, but are people in this thread really asking for parental controls for something that ha doesn’t have an integration for.
How about looking at your router logs. Surely these apps communicate with the internet?
So surely the request should be for an improved Xbox integration?
That should be one of the requests here.
I assume you’ll do a new feature request for the 
Nope, there already was one, I just didn’t have the link handy when I mentioned it the other day: Multiple Instances of Xbox Integration
A unified platform for cross-manufacturer parental control is like a holy grail. But such an integration would be daunting to implement and maintenance-intensive.
I think the integration in Home assistant that should be available native for a generalize parental control system should be providing the interfaces into all the from parental control solutions of individual providers.
What I mean with that is a UI interface like the energy dashboard that covers the general settings you I calendar and user management, that is common to all the different platforms.
Should be something like an API or Interface you can connect other parental control systems on to with individual integrations, as much as these individual providers allow for.
Unfortunately neither “Microsoft Family Safety” nor “Google Family Link” provide in API to access these systems as of today, AFAIK.
But I think parental pressure will increase over time, and the companies will be forced to also offer an api-based access.
I know there’s some parental control in PlayStation, and I think the Microsoft parental control also covers the Xbox comma and PCs.
Another piece of the puzzle would probably be the Amazon ecosystem.
Possible stuff like children smartwatches and possibly connection into whatever the Apple ecosystem office could be additional integration points.
The Home assistant integration, oh rather the “Home Assistant Aggregator” functionality, would need to provide the common denominator in functionality to tie all these parental control systems together.
Home assistant would provide the central entity “a child”.
And the interfaces to be able to control time and dates, duration of activity per day, additional time requests from children, access request from children, a time-duration for digital silence (21:00 - 8:00), der ability to define a school schedule in which access should limited, and possibly more of such features .
As soon as APIs are available, plugins could be created for the individual parental control systems of individual companies.
I think the needs to be able to control children in their digital journey is already a daunting task for parents, and will be even more difficult in the future.
A centralize parental control system within home assistant could be as important for home assistant, as being the central hub for smarthome gadgets and automations.
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Never in a million years !, seems like(spite you all talks about various/multiple system/and websites) You don’t seems to realize the impact this would be on HA, communicating with multiple API’s, with multiple different " code/programming language etc etc etc.
IF anyone decide to build such a Multi Generic “Parent Control system” it would be in line with a humongous surveillance system.
Im totally baffled about the ideas here, as The Only Common Factor is “time-control/multiple different account-control/ multiple different API-access, to multiple different Devices” …if one can call these factors “Only”
I assume some of you are parents, so maybe you should reconsider, yours and your children current situation, and make the best “common” solution out of it.
As Nickrout mention, you might have an “unbareable situation”, cut the damn line ! , implement screen-time ( im sure you have fairly “pinned” eating times/ sleeping times )
So if you as a parent find that your children should only have total screen-time of i.e X Hours, talk with your children about it.
You can’t control their “screentime” if they are “out of the house” , using other wifis/3-5G, this can only be limited on that particular device/or the specific “destination” ( Not through HA ), Basically you are Limited to the time they are “home” Every Router has parental control , on atleast IP/mac/device level , and external urls ( some Router integration in Ha has this “feature” also, to a certain extend.
If find your Children needs to be “limited” talk with them about it, and simply cut the line, if you can’t agree, or they wont respect the house-rules, they have an option to affect ( If it’s something you talk with them about )
If it aint, You are the responsible person, for forcing rules upon them, which they might have hard to understand or/and in particular, G.A.S about, Im sure this is an even more unbearable situation
Cut of their devices after bed-time, even untill the are suppose to go to school ( what do they need to do before?, eating breakfast, doing their homework etc.etc. ),
And so on, You your self know, which time is “acceptable” and which are not ( there you have already a valid timespan to cut them from using ethernet/wifi , while home.
All talk about the individual place/apps etc., is just something in your mind, because this particular app/site offers this.
It’s ridicules to deside whether they should use the evening(specified time) with Youtube or gaming, You are not to decide which interests your different children should have.
But if you find it “too much” talk with them, and implement total screen-time, with in a timespan ( which is normally after school untill bed-time ( and weekends )
yeah ive seen this “discussion” in several Topics/FR, im still amazed that people think a generic-API , for all current sites/apps etc etc, and even tomorrows coming, could be a good thing to “Control” In HA, beside it shouldn’t solve their/yours “issues” , because you haven’t talked with your Children about, and apparently you can’t figure out to cut the line, if they don’t respect you advises or “house-rules”
There is at best , a total screen time in, 1,2,3 time span a day, from specific device, im sure little-bro, can’t use big-sis phone, or ipad etc, and if other Devices is beeing missused, block it, and “ban” the kid , if you find out who … IT’s called in “old-terms” Upbringing, nurture or education, or all, if you try to explain your reasons, for your decisions
Get a grip of the situation, instead of thinking an APP solves such
I once saw an advertisement for this website（https://www.gps-phone.net/）. They said that their location service can mark the physical location of the mobile phone and monitor the real-time addresses. I think this can be taken into consideration when we decide to set a parental control in kids. After all, apart from Internet world, the safety of children in real world is important as well.
If you’re not a parent, please refrain from making such comments or giving advice to those of us who are. You really have no idea and are making judgments without any basis.
Home Assistant is not solely aimed at programming experts; those of us who are not can also suggest ideas and improvements, even if we do not fully understand their scope
I’ve been a kid my self 
, thou i didn’t grew up/changed to be a naive adult, maybe you just “missed” the point in my “essay” , even thou one doesn’t have to be a “programming expert” to understand it.
btw, im not a programming expert either, in fact far from
Both those features already exist on the HA companion app. You get a GPS location and can see your kids on the map card if they have HA installed and running on their phones.
All that is already built in without going through a dodgy looking third party site who charges a subscription for this service.
The HA Companion is more than enough to track my daughter’s location and much more (ie, when she’s using the phone under the blanket after bed time). The iOS built-in parental controls also suffice to restrict apps, websites and other settings as deemed appropriate.
This misses the point the OP is not just talking about single devices from one vendor.
They are taking about multiple interaction channels and devices across multiple platforms.
Xbox, Nintendo, PlayStation, TV OSs, Browser, Social Media Apps, Game Types.
Norton Family does operate to an extent across platform and device with a certain level of granularity but it’s not a silver bullet. You can consider apps such as Bark, not available in the EU but can be made to work, for more invasive Social Media monitoring.
I think, hopefully, global government pressure driven by parents will push for a common interface for technology vendors to produce an open monitoring layer for children’s digital access and safety.
However children’s / people’s rights need to be considered as we are bordering on GDPR / Rights to Privacy on the Bark end of the scale.
Is HA the right place for this? Probably not but it does have the ability to provide rule engines.
For example I have a Helper Toggle that allows me to prohibit TV access. When a TV in the house is turned on then it turns itself off after 20 seconds. Also a YouTube Toggle that switches the TVs source back to Netflix when the Toggle is set to Off.
Everything is possible but a simple solution would be wonderful.
The OP couldn’t say what apps he/she wanted monitoring. If for example, you want to monitor how long your kid has been on Xbox today, create a sensor to do that.
Rinse and repeat for every thing you want to monitor.
The rest cannot be done without this basic information.
If you just want to stop them using the internet after x hours then that is simpler.
I get what the OP is asking for. These devices or services have parental features. For instance there is Microsoft Family Safety, which will allow a parent to monitor and/or limit device time for kids. Google has an app for Android and I believe Sony has one for Playstation, etc, etc.
What OP is asking is for integrations with these different services if at all possible so that there can be sensors, switches, etc and possibly a parental feature in HA.
This does seem like a good fit as HA is supposed to be a central “hub” for other devices and services.
I would love to see this feature in H as well.
I am a parent so I am allowed to speak, and I know enough about these systems to know it cannot be done. Systems like Nintendo do not provide API’s for it. Youtube can be accessed in so many ways you cannot count. So it is indeed like the Holy Grail. Microsoft did try to span its reach to Android phones, Bitdefender does some effort to span multiple devices. But Apple too is not easy to get hooks into.
And then my kids school started using computers for school work, and any parental controls I had went out the window, because it would cut them off from doing homework. Even those that limit internet access time. So you’re down to good old oldfashioned parenting skills.
And this is coming from someone who has integrated so much I could be called Big Brother if I wanted to make use of it all.
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Exactly.
Not that I have those in spades, but I try