[Sugar-devel] Parental controls (UPDATE)

[Sean DALY]

As a parent of three, and concerned about Internet dreck, I have found that
parental control solutions at machine level fail because when kids are
motivated enough, they will crack whatever technical solution is in place
and moreover, will compare notes with all their fellow rebels. What has
worked in our family is restricting physical access to machines (e.g. when
kids should be out getting air on a sunny day) and being in the same room
with them, to keep an eye on what they are doing (our current rule is must
be 18 to have PC or Mac in bedroom).

My teenage son has presented the greatest challenge, cracking any parental
control system in place, Mac or PC. We have caught him trying to film his
keyboard with a concealed phone while I logged in to an admin account,
creating a hidden admin account with full rights, possibly using a 40-foot
Ethernet cable to bypass wifi at the access point, and using visiting
friend's smartphones as an internet gateway. Back when his computer was in
his room, my wife thought removing the keyboard was a good idea until we
found 2 spare keyboards in his closet. For now we (tediously) apply MAC
filtering at wifi access point level on school days and limit time to 90
minutes per day.

Filtering inappropriate adult content at home is a real issue. My son who
is 9 has been exposed to awful crud on YouTube. I don't think any parental
control software would have helped there.

Sean.



On Thu, Apr 24, 2014 at 3:01 PM, Walter Bender <walter.bender at gmail.com>wrote:

> Ryan,
>
> To add to what Gonzalo has said, while parental controls may not be
> acceptable upstream, there is also nothing to prevent you from
> offering them as a patch that can be selectively applied downstream.
> That said, I think others on the thread have pointed out some of the
> technical challenges you face in developing a robust solution.
>
> FWIW, I think the best parental control is a parent.
>
> regards.
>
> -walter
>
> On Thu, Apr 24, 2014 at 8:42 AM, Gonzalo Odiard <godiard at sugarlabs.org>
> wrote:
> > Hi Ryan,
> > We have a features process [1] to try get consensus before start to work,
> > and avoid the risk of expending time and effort in features not accepted
> by
> > the community.
> > Parental controls are a controversial topic, and go against all the
> > philosophy of Sugar.
> > In the end, to have a completely "sure" experience, you need to remove
> more
> > and more possibilities,
> > and practically is not the right solution.
> > You can't stop children going to porn sites if they want, creating a
> > blaklist one by one in the xos.
> > You will add playboy.com and there are a million of sites more to go.
> > I think will be very difficult we accept this feature, but I hope that do
> > not stop you contributing.
> > In the future, please share your ideas, follow the schedule, and write
> your
> > feature page[2].
> > This is not something arbitrary, you can see other features developed in
> > 0.102 [3]
> > Regards,
> >
> > Gonzalo
> >
> > [1] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Features/Policy
> > [2] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Features/Feature_Template
> > [3] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/0.102/Feature_List
> >
> >
> >
> > On Wed, Apr 23, 2014 at 10:41 PM, Ryan Cunningham <rvskmbrly3 at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >>
> >> Not only am I basing this on the inclusion of a similar feature in OS
> X, I
> >> am also basing this on the fact that some Nigerian children reportedly
> >> visited a Web site containing pornography. I have no other evidence.
> >>
> >> --
> >> Sent from my iPad
> >>
> >> > On Apr 23, 2014, at 6:33 PM, Paul Fox <pgf at laptop.org> wrote:
> >> >
> >> > ryan wrote:
> >> >> The releases with this feature would at least include Sugar 0.104
> >> >> onward.
> >> >>
> >> >> What inspired me to create this feature is that Mac OS X has a
> >> >> similar feature.  (This feature, other than that inspiration, has
> >> >> nothing to do with OS X.)
> >> >>
> >> >> In creating this feature, I am considering that the user would be a
> >> >> child using an XO or Sugar on a Stick at home and not as part of a
> >> >> deployment.  Deployments are free to use or remove this feature at
> >> >
> >> > have you observed an actual need for this feature?  or are you
> surmising
> >> > that such a need exists, based on apple's featureset?
> >> >
> >> > paul
> >> > =---------------------
> >> > paul fox, pgf at laptop.org
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Sugar-devel mailing list
> >> Sugar-devel at lists.sugarlabs.org
> >> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Gonzalo Odiard
> >
> > SugarLabs - Software for children learning
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Sugar-devel mailing list
> > Sugar-devel at lists.sugarlabs.org
> > http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Walter Bender
> Sugar Labs
> http://www.sugarlabs.org
> _______________________________________________
> Sugar-devel mailing list
> Sugar-devel at lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
>
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