Give me actual control of my child's web content.

December 25, 2020 10:53 AM

How can I add a page served by a local server to the pre-approved websites on a Kindle Fire kids' profile?

I'm trying to set up my daughter's Kindle Fire 7 so that she can access a local page served by her Raspberry Pi. The Rasberry Pi is running My Naturewatch. When you connect to the Pi's local WiFi network, you access a page at camera.local to control the camera.

I have enabled the Web Browser on my daughter's Kindle. However, I am unable to add camera.local to approved sites. I click on the + icon, enter the address but there's no way to add it to the approved list. The allow button does not show. Not even when I change to the My Naturewatch wifi. Does anyone know how I can add the local page to approved websites?

posted by popcassady to Technology (4 answers total)

This sounds like a cool project. I don’t have any experience with Kindle mobile browsers or My Naturewatch, but I would suggest trying the IP address they list here on their site.

Here’s a quote:
Note: some browsers insist on the full http address, which is http://camera.local

Tip: if your browser rejects the URL try entering the My Naturewatch Camera IP address instead: 192.168.50.10
posted by mundo at 3:51 PM on December 25, 2020

The Kindle Fire tablet may have funky handling of "local" root-level domain. Your network might also use "home" so check with your router for what alternatives to use.

I would expect http://camera/ or http://camera.home/ to be viable options.
posted by k3ninho at 5:11 PM on December 25, 2020

Response by poster: I have no problem pointing a browser running in an adult account to the Pi's web page, it's getting it to work with a child account that's the problem. It seems that to add a site to the child's approved web content list, some computer over at Amazon has to have access to the site also. I've discovered an even bigger problem though. When I connect to the local server, the Kindle detects that there's no internet connection and removes the browser from the child account.

I experimented with creating a second adult account -- trying to make it child safe -- but there's no way to prevent that account from accessing other WiFi networks.

There doesn't seem to be much online support for these devices. Anyone know of any active forums where I might find help?
posted by popcassady at 5:51 AM on December 26, 2020

There's a Kindle Fire Subreddit but I've never posted on it myself.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 9:24 PM on December 26, 2020