About The Rundown Today
Hi — I’m Andy. I built this because I couldn’t find what I actually needed.
I work in enterprise IT as a Staff Solutions Architect. My day-to-day is virtualization, networking, and backup systems at scale. I also have two teenage sons.
Which means I’ve spent the last few years trying to answer a simple question that shouldn’t be this hard:
What are my kids actually doing online — and what should I do about it?
The answers out there weren’t helpful.
- 40-page PDFs from nonprofits that don’t reflect how devices actually work
- Panic-driven news about “the latest dangerous app”
- Affiliate-heavy lists pushing whatever pays the most
None of it answered the only things that matter:
- What changed this week
- What actually matters
- What I can do in the next 20 minutes
So I started writing what I wish existed.
What makes this site different
I actually run this stuff
Every guide here is something I’ve set up on my own network or my kids’ devices. If it’s here, it works.
I go past the app layer
Most advice stops at “turn on Screen Time.” That’s surface-level. My background is networking, so I cover the stuff underneath — router-level filtering, VPN bypasses, device behavior on your network.
If you want real control, that’s where it lives.
I’m not hiding the monetization
Some links are affiliate links. I recommend what I’d tell a friend either way. If something pays me, you’ll know.
It’s just me
No content farm. No recycled posts. If something’s wrong or outdated, tell me — I’ll fix it.
The guides
The topics above all have full walkthroughs. These are the three I point parents to first:
- Apple Screen Time — the complete parent setup guide →
What all those toggles actually do and in what order to turn them on.
- Block adult content at the router with family-safe DNS →
Five minutes. Covers every device on the network, including the ones you forgot about.
- VPN apps on kids’ devices — how to spot and stop them →
The most common bypass attempt once the other controls are in place.
Or start with the full age-by-age setup playbook and work top to bottom.