Never used these parental control thing, but recently visited a friend with kids, and saw how she uses it to 'mange' her children, and these parental control system feels totally like corporate ACL management software. I mean at some point why don't you just put a GUI in front of AWS ACL system and just call it a day.
That's technically what most parental control apps are.
Some people also do the reverse and set up parental control profile on their own devices to get easier management and more granularity than the bog standard ones like screentime etc.
Yeah I just think if we are getting to the point where we need that type of control of our kids, then we might as well NOT give them a smart phone.
Maybe first let them use fully open sourced computer so they know what is going on. Being on smart phone is like being a 2nd class citizen of computer. Let them use self-hosted app before using apps on smart phone alternatives. So they know what they are getting them selves into on the smart phone. Beside the with EFM harzard of these smart devices, it would be good to have kids focus more on real things when they are out about.
- adults also use these type of control on themselves (this very site has a setting for people who just don't want to stop by themselves)
- adults use these on other adults as well, and not just for security purposes
- falling back to a binary all or nothing seldom helps when it comes to education. I like your point on open source computers, but getting to learn a proper distance with a smartphone is also important and should be part of any kid's education IMHO, the same way they learn to cross the street or use electrical appliances. We don't tell them it's too complicated and put them in a cage until they're 18.
