Step by step for setting up a laptop for a kid
March 30, 2020 8:24 AM
I turned an old laptop into a kid laptop and did the basics of whitelisting certain sites. Unfortunately, this really sucks. I'd love to be able to import a massive whitelist of kid-safe sites. And I'd like to make YouTube "safer" for her to browse on. Is it best to just pay for a subscription - are there more/better tools for safer kid browsing that way?
Right now, we have her set up with Chrome. She's 9 and in the 3rd grade. They've just started using Chrome books in the last year and a half. Laptop is an old Mac without the latest OS because it won't upgrade. My problem is that every website has a zillion little embeds that call out every time you load something. I end up having to input my admin name and password a dozen times to get the math games website her teacher sent out to load.
Her teacher is sending out videos on YouTube. Right now I have an account and this enables me to see what endless Minecraft channels my kiddo is watching. However, when I try to lock it down to an age range, of course I get annoyed. No Colbert? C'mon. My daughter and I have had discussions about why I want to keep control of YouTube, this has ranged from "99% of the content is crap and yes, even that '100 kool krafts you can do with rubber bands' is crap" to "there's a lot of weirdo adult stuff out there and sometimes people make videos where it starts out for kids but then they put in some weird scary stuff meant to give you nightmares." She hates nightmares! How do you have this set up for your kid?
And for the laptop, I'm tempted to just leave the whole web open. She has bookmarks, etc.. The problem, honestly, is her friends. She was on a Zoom for a couple hours yesterday with her bestie and this friend got her running to me to download an app so they could play together! Which, um? What is this app? Why are there so many ads? Are you going to play online? How? She doesn't even know her handle. UGH! And her friends seem to have all sorts of questionable places they want her to check out online and apps to play.
I need a simple solution that whacks the largest moles regarding making the laptop kidsafe. Is this in the browser, at the router? I feel like over the years I've read a lot about internet safety for kids but when it comes to implementation, I'm just not having a lot of success! I need a step-by-step. If you have directions that you followed that help you do this, please to link!
Right now, we have her set up with Chrome. She's 9 and in the 3rd grade. They've just started using Chrome books in the last year and a half. Laptop is an old Mac without the latest OS because it won't upgrade. My problem is that every website has a zillion little embeds that call out every time you load something. I end up having to input my admin name and password a dozen times to get the math games website her teacher sent out to load.
Her teacher is sending out videos on YouTube. Right now I have an account and this enables me to see what endless Minecraft channels my kiddo is watching. However, when I try to lock it down to an age range, of course I get annoyed. No Colbert? C'mon. My daughter and I have had discussions about why I want to keep control of YouTube, this has ranged from "99% of the content is crap and yes, even that '100 kool krafts you can do with rubber bands' is crap" to "there's a lot of weirdo adult stuff out there and sometimes people make videos where it starts out for kids but then they put in some weird scary stuff meant to give you nightmares." She hates nightmares! How do you have this set up for your kid?
And for the laptop, I'm tempted to just leave the whole web open. She has bookmarks, etc.. The problem, honestly, is her friends. She was on a Zoom for a couple hours yesterday with her bestie and this friend got her running to me to download an app so they could play together! Which, um? What is this app? Why are there so many ads? Are you going to play online? How? She doesn't even know her handle. UGH! And her friends seem to have all sorts of questionable places they want her to check out online and apps to play.
I need a simple solution that whacks the largest moles regarding making the laptop kidsafe. Is this in the browser, at the router? I feel like over the years I've read a lot about internet safety for kids but when it comes to implementation, I'm just not having a lot of success! I need a step-by-step. If you have directions that you followed that help you do this, please to link!
There's YouTube Kids, which has an app for Android and for iPhone/iPad and also a website. You can install Android apps on modern Chromebooks, which you mention but then later say she's using a Mac. YouTube Kids is the main option for an officially-curated experience.
I have no experience trying to lock down a laptop for a kid, but I think if she has unsupervised access to a device with a web browser, she can get around any technical restrictions you put in place, particularly if she's being guided by tech-savvy friends. She can get around browser-level blocks by using an incognito window, or another browser like Safari. Blocking websites in the router's DNS is probably the best speedbump you can put in her way, until she figures out how to change the DNS server her laptop uses, use her phone as a hotspot, physically reset the router, install a proxy/VPN extension that unblocks DNS, or get her hands on a device with mobile access that you don't know about. I'm not in any way trying to judge you making the effort, but I think at her age it might be a lost cause. You might have better luck doing this with her, to see what she wants out of the internet and how you can make that happen while quietly guiding what she wants to match what you want.
posted by bright flowers at 3:50 PM on March 30, 2020
I have no experience trying to lock down a laptop for a kid, but I think if she has unsupervised access to a device with a web browser, she can get around any technical restrictions you put in place, particularly if she's being guided by tech-savvy friends. She can get around browser-level blocks by using an incognito window, or another browser like Safari. Blocking websites in the router's DNS is probably the best speedbump you can put in her way, until she figures out how to change the DNS server her laptop uses, use her phone as a hotspot, physically reset the router, install a proxy/VPN extension that unblocks DNS, or get her hands on a device with mobile access that you don't know about. I'm not in any way trying to judge you making the effort, but I think at her age it might be a lost cause. You might have better luck doing this with her, to see what she wants out of the internet and how you can make that happen while quietly guiding what she wants to match what you want.
posted by bright flowers at 3:50 PM on March 30, 2020
Not to get overwhelming with the technical advice, but yes, "at the router" is the more efficient way to do this. It would handle things like filtering out what sites / types of content ALL the devices in your house can reach; but Mom doesn't get locked out because she's got the bypass password. You can even do fancy stuff like device X can only access YouTube between Y and Z hours.
That doesn't solve the YouTube _content_ filtering issue, though. Might need to put her on the YT Kids plan for that.
posted by bartleby at 5:16 PM on March 30, 2020
That doesn't solve the YouTube _content_ filtering issue, though. Might need to put her on the YT Kids plan for that.
posted by bartleby at 5:16 PM on March 30, 2020
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posted by pyro979 at 9:53 AM on March 30, 2020