Education education education.

Explain how the internet works. Explain companies. Explain evil intent and malicious behavior.

Imo, if you put your child under surveillance that’s not the right way. If bad things happen despite good education, fine, introduce limits and guardrails.

Don’t do things you wouldn’t want for yourself. Be consistent.

Basically, do good parenting.

You couldn’t stop them if you tried, which instead will result on them using dodgy methods to access it, which puts them at even higher risk than if you gave them unrestricted access.

Teach them, teach them that the internet is both fucking terrifying and fucking terrific

I wouldn’t allow them to have a phone at all until they’re around 12 to 14 (just like my parents). When it comes to the internet on a computer, the same thing would apply, but they can when supervised. If possible, their only web browser on their internet device will have uBlock Origin installed with custom block lists to prevent them from accessing websites they aren’t supposed to. I would also like software (whether I’d have to program it if it doesn’t exist or not) to prevent them from using their devices at bedtime. Not a father, but those are the basics of what I’d imagine I do. Expect one last thing: Roblox is completely out of the question. I don’t care how much they beg. It’s a predator nightmare so it would be completely banned

Access to the Internet is not something that the parents are actually capable of restricting. As soon as one kid in the has a phone, their entire peer group is exposed.

The question isn’t about restriction. It’s about who will be teaching these kids about the Internet. The first kid learns from their parents; every other kid learns (mostly) from other kids.

If your kid is the last in their class to have a phone, everything they know about the Internet they will have learned from their peers. They sure as hell aren’t going to tell you they already know about all the things you’ve been trying to hide from them.

No access until teenagers. If it was like when I was a kid probably younger but it’s so fucked rn

crontab, it’s enough to :

• kill any add during specific period
• accumulate usage per app
• check if tabs are opened

and it’s pretty straighforward to configure, e.g.

* 8-17 * * 1-5 killall SlayTheSpire && date >> ~/shame
# prevents from playing during weekday working hours

or for accumulation (which can be reset daily, weekly, etc by simply deleting the minutes file)

pgrep mpv && >> mpv_minutes; if [ $(wc -l mpv_minutes) -gt 1000 ]; then echo beyond threshold; fi

That works also for turning up/down network interfaces.

PS: I use this on myself. I’m not a child but I don’t have perfect self control. It works.

I have an 11 year old son. He has neutered Internet that can do normal searches on. An hour budget a day for games. An hour for YouTube. Other than that he can talk to his friends on Discord or text. I check his Discord every now and then. He only talks to his buddies or my gaming buddies.

Block every site except itch.io until they turn 13, so as to recreate my childhood on addictinggames.com

Only with my eyeballs in presence. My son is autistic and barely verbal. He also has combination ADHD. I wish I could forbid the tablet entirely but it just doesn’t work with a child facing these challenges. For example, he can’t sit still through dinner so if we go out, he uses tablet until the food comes. He’s obsessed with Legos. All the content he watches is Lego builds. He watches that on YouTube kids with me present to make sure he doesn’t slip through the cracks. My eldest is 19 now and we let him access the internet unabated, that was a huge mistake I highly recommend people know exactly what their kids are watching and you should restrict traffic to safe content only.

Limited time and very limited access to content, only content that is age appropriate.

Use the device’s parental controls to limit apps, downloading, purchases, sites, hours available and total time allowed. Doesn’t matter if it’s a phone, tablet, or PC. LAN parental controls if available as a secondary layer of site blocking and overall internet blocking at internet curfew time.

Been doing this for years. It’s a must. Parents are responsible for limits on mobile devices and content. Having the software do the limits is far, far easier than physically demanding the phone from the kid, shutting it off, or looking over their shoulder to see what they’re using it for.

I’d wait until they’re older, 7-8 years of age at least. Then I’d make sure they learn how it functions in some capacity and not just operating it mindlessly.

No social media at all. Heavily curated Youtube, and honestly at the end of the day I’d rather them play outside under supervision than spend all day online. The internet as it is does not go well with developing minds.

Electronics are for amusement. If he isn’t having fun (fussing), time to do something else.

We use it together and communicate during. Zombie mode --> time to do something else.

Great firewall of my house (whitelist). I’m sure he’ll figure out how to bypass it one day, and hopefully by then I’ve raised him well enough to process the horrors of the open web.

ublock origin, no ads, only libretube or freetube

FOSS

children under 12 should not have one, it has been shown they actually have problems reading and writing in HS, and doing math. 13+ they can have it, assuming they arnt trying to do something illegal, like stealing credit cards and buying games or whatever.

No unsupervised access to any techno-gizmo until they’re like 7 or 8, besides a dumb phone to call me or mom or watching me play/do things, maybe play together sometimes or limit it to formative things. Ain’t no hypothetical child of mine gonna be raised by an iPad and cocomelon, and since I don’t necessarily trust other parents to raise their kids decently I would get them a dog or 2 to play and bond with.

Then, once they start being old enough I will give them their own tower computer, obviously with Linux, privacy-redirects, limited access to the internet (I’m mostly gonna let them access games, wikipedia and stuff that is formative) and their access to YouTube is gonna be via FreeTube with channels I think they’d benefit from watching as already subscribed (plus whatever interest I know they have). Throughout the time I will be teaching them things, indulging their curiosity and gradually explain, reveal and open up things to them. Of course I’d also secretly monitor what they’re doing, not to judge but to make sure they’re safe, until I know they can safely navigate on their own. As for phones they’re getting something locked down with some custom ROM like /e/OS or whatever and just the bare minimum they need to function (Signal to talk to me and mom, calendar, alarms, etc). No social media for them, they at most get to see some of it via privacy frontends. I want them to grow up in a way that the internet is a place they can leave.

Once they’ve teenagers and understand things I’d start gradually letting them do their own things and gradually giving them more access, allow them to make mistakes and be sure to be there for them to learn rather than just punish. The goal is that by 18, when they’ll have full access, they’re digitally literate and can safely navigate on their own, or at least be as careful as 18yos can be. At that point they’ll also have to gradually start paying for their stuff on their own.