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[The Scrivener]

Having some problems with my kid, his phone, and his age lol

I know the oldschool approach is called for, i.e. remove the phone from the equation, but I wanted to try out some software anyway for the times I'm not at home (coronavirus says hi lol).

Family net security always seems like a bit of a scam, like the tech review sites and bloggers must be getting bribed, it's hard to tell. Then there's the generally bad reviews.

I looked at Net Nanny, but I'm in the lost part of Europe and God only knows if that works here. Plus it's 50 Euros and if it doesn't want to work, I'm sure I won't be getting a refund.

I tried tonight fiddling with OpenDNS, but couldn't get it working on the mobile, only the desktop PC.

As always GAF will probably have some honest help. Anyone here used family filtering tools? Any suggestions? Or just stick with the oldschool approach till he turns 18?

Edit: It's Andoid and Windows, not iOS.

 

[iconmaster]

You can do a lot with ScreenTime on Mac and iOS.

Additionally, Disney Circle has worked pretty well for us. You only have to pay for the device itself if you just want to manage the local wifi. If you want to manage your kids' cellular connections, they have a subscription service for that.

The biggest issue with Circle is that it can forget devices, resulting in dupes you have to clean up.

 

[poppabk]

Windows has built in family controls and filtering for edge. Android has built in family controls and filters on chrome.

Source:
I spend most of my weekends setting up controls on my kids devices (android, windows, iOS) and adding pins, passwords, time limits, locking down chat on games, managing accounts etc etc.

 

[The Scrivener]

Windows has built in family controls and filtering for edge. Android has built in family controls and filters on chrome.

Source:
I spend most of my weekends setting up controls on my kids devices (android, windows, iOS) and adding pins, passwords, time limits, locking down chat on games, managing accounts etc etc.

Hmmm... I will look into this, thanks.

 

[Tesseract]

ja the built tools are good and there's another pass expected on w10 before winter

bark is good, qustodio

 

[lock2k]

What is his age? Pardon me asking.

 

[The Scrivener]

What is his age? Pardon me asking.

Are you a cop? lol

He is 99% not interested yet, still too young, but yesterday he had some time on his phone in his bedroom and afterwards I checked his browsing history and saw some unappealing Instagram searches. Didn't load them myself, just took his phone away. Didn't chide him.

It's a trapping of modern parenthood, digital porn. I'm not upset with him, it's my responsibility to sort this stuff out before it happens.

Anyway been busy today, so I'm gonna check out the recommendations above asap. No phone till then.

 

[lock2k]

Are you a cop? lol

He is 99% not interested yet, still too young, but yesterday he had some time on his phone in his bedroom and afterwards I checked his browsing history and saw some unappealing Instagram searches. Didn't load them myself, just took his phone away. Didn't chide him.

It's a trapping of modern parenthood, digital porn. I'm not upset with him, it's my responsibility to sort this stuff out before it happens.

Anyway been busy today, so I'm gonna check out the recommendations above asap. No phone till then.

No. I'm just asking beause I'm a parent and I will try everything to hold up my kid from having a phone. That's why I'm curious.

My daughter is still 5.

 

[The Scrivener]

No. I'm just asking beause I'm a parent and I will try everything to hold up my kid from having a phone. That's why I'm curious.

My daughter is still 5.

Yeah, sorry, it was a joke. (He's 13, officer.)

Personally I would hold off for as long as possible. He needed the phone for school, because he's diabetic and needs it for emergencies. But it's a downward spiral outside of that!

I try to go oldschool, but it's easier said than done. It's too late now if he clicked on dodgy hashtags on Instagam, God knows how "hard" it is on there. It's not the first time, as he's home from school sometimes while we're at work. And sexdoll searches came up in the history lol they get this shit from school.

FML as a dad.

 

[Virex]

Just use adguard DNS. For your kid :

176.103.130.132
176.103.130.134

For yourself

176.103.130.130
176.103.130.131

The one for yourself is good because it doesn't filter like the family protection one. It only blocks ads, malicious sites etc. It's really good and pretty privacy friendly as well. Hope this helps you

 

[poppabk]

No. I'm just asking beause I'm a parent and I will try everything to hold up my kid from having a phone. That's why I'm curious.

My daughter is still 5.

My kids are 7 and 9 and both have old phones of mine that have no sim cards. They mainly use them for Minecraft, which they also play on an old PC. My son also has an iPad from school, and then my wife's old iPhone just got repurposed purely for my daughter to FaceTime her friend from school.
It's a jungle out there so you gotta stay on top of it, not just the perverts or dodgy porn sites but also setting time limits and pushing them towards more educational apps.

 

[lock2k]

My kids are 7 and 9 and both have old phones of mine that have no sim cards. They mainly use them for Minecraft, which they also play on an old PC. My son also has an iPad from school, and then my wife's old iPhone just got repurposed purely for my daughter to FaceTime her friend from school.
It's a jungle out there so you gotta stay on top of it, not just the perverts or dodgy porn sites but also setting time limits and pushing them towards more educational apps.

A phone without a sim card is very smart. It's like a little tablet.

My daughter plays some educational stuff on the ipad but it's always on airplane mode.