Ubiquiti UniFi Cloud Gateway Ultra parental controls or schedules are not working

The checks in more detail

Add each child's devices to a group by their hardware addresses, and notice that phones and tablets with a private or random Wi-Fi address appear as a new device on each network, which slips past the rule. Turn off the private address for your home network on the device, or the group will not recognize it. Filtering by DNS can be bypassed. A device set to use a different DNS server, or with encrypted DNS in the browser, ignores the gateway's filter, so create a firewall rule that blocks outbound DNS to anything except the gateway, and block DNS over HTTPS in the content filter.

Mobile data bypasses all home controls, so the rules cover only the Wi-Fi at home. Schedules depend on the correct time zone in the gateway settings, so check it. If a rule blocks too much, look at the category list and the block page, and add a trusted site to the allowed list. After changing a rule, restart the device's Wi-Fi so that old connections end. Remember that filtering by category is imperfect, and it works best with conversations and device-level controls. Update the gateway software, as category lists improve.

If the rules never apply, check the logs in the application for the matching events, and read Ubiquiti's guide for your version, since the menu names have changed between releases. Talk to your children about the rules you set, since filters are only one layer and a teenager with a mobile data plan sidesteps all of them. Many families find that agreed screen times, shared spaces for devices and device-level controls on the phone itself work better than any router rule, and the router's schedule is a useful backstop at bedtime. Review the settings every few months as the children grow.