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Description
Include an easy to configure content filtering application. Ideally this application could also be configurable to have different thresholds for different logged in users so that say, your 5 year old daughters threshold would be stronger than your 13 year old childs threshold. Include ability to limit users from logging in during specific hours. This functionality is present in Windows Vista and Mac OS and would be very much appreciated by parents of young children.
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kab wrote on the 2 Mar 08 at 16:00
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Parents should teach their children how to deal with all kind of information and not prevent them from it. We live in a free world and all human beings, including children, have a right for information.
I really don't now from what some parents are protecting for. This will only lead to grown ups with no eye for the real world out there.
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travis wrote on the 2 Mar 08 at 16:09
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@kab, that's theoretically great, but I don't want my kid getting goatse'd/tubgirl'd/2girls1cup'd
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jreyst wrote on the 2 Mar 08 at 16:23
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Travis: Exactly. There are some people who think that all people of all ages are mature enough to understand all things but I subscribe to the notion that some things are not safe or ideal for younger eyes. I don't want my 9 year old doing research for a school project on goats to get a very rude surprise.
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hspaans wrote on the 2 Mar 08 at 17:00
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I agree on that parents and teachers should teach the children how to work with computers and Internet, but how also deal with bad content and people. But I also agree with the parents who want to give there children the "freedom" and "time" to experiment with both computers and Internet.
GNOME, the default desktop environment in Ubuntu, has already capabilities to limit the desktop for corporate us and this may be a start to also has some builtin things like limiting websites in the Epiphany browser for example. But also setting time limits like you may only use the computer between 07h30 and 21h00, and you have a week limit of say 20 hours and a day limit of 3 hours.
I can't see why this shouldn't be possible and maybe a nice one for Google's Summer of Code 2008 as most of the framework is already there in GNOME. I give this idea a +1 as it may help young people to get some more time to experiment with computers and Internet. Both at home and on schools.
And about the goats and pussies, Google doesn't list them in there index for years now. Minor detail ;-)
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Pekkalainen wrote on the 2 Mar 08 at 18:24
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I don't belive in censorship. A computer is a tool for adults. Children should only use them under adult supervision. There is no program in the world that can block everything a child should not see. Trusting these "parental control" programs is actually rather naive. It is a false sense of security.
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peterjs wrote on the 2 Mar 08 at 20:34
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You're going to have a hard time selling censorship no matter how well meaning to the free software crowd. The people that tend to work on open source projects value freedom (and personal responsibility) to a high degree. Censorship is the antithesis of freedom, and that doesn't fly around here.
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waspinator wrote on the 2 Mar 08 at 20:47
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"A computer is a tool for adults."
WTF? I don't even know where to start with that ... There are countless ways kids can use computers productively and for entertainment. You don't need to be 18 to have a use for them.
About censorship ... This isn't about Ubuntu or the government censoring/protecting you. It's YOU protecting YOUR kids. Parental controls are the same as ratings for movies and games. Or tobacco, alcohol and porn.
Please don't take parental controls as an attack on your freedom. The internet can be a wonderful and resourceful place for kids when properly managed. Just like video games and movies ... they don't all have to be rated R or X. Let's try to give kids a G rated internet.
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chrisl wrote on the 2 Mar 08 at 21:12
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So your saying that parents should talk to their 12-13 year old children about porn and tell them what ? this is ridiculous please. And while a 11 year old boy is searching for games or whatever pictures and adds of porn rise up, explain to them then........... oh god anyway whatever
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blablum wrote on the 2 Mar 08 at 21:14
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I see a lot of rejection here for parental control and I cant understand why. I don't have kids and I'm not even religious, but I still think there are situations where it is good. No matter how good of an education, an eight year old is not ready for midget porn, and there should be a way to (at least try to) stop that from happening. And yes, if a teenager really wants to get around it he'll probably do it, but it still does not invalidate the effort. Good parenting does not equal censorship.
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worldlybedouin wrote on the 3 Mar 08 at 00:52
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I'm not a Linux geek...so a simple GUI which provides me with the ability to limit my kids would be nice. As much as I like to believe my kids are like "the Beav" we all know kids do the darnedest things...especially when the pressure to be more like their friends or cliques. That being said...nothing wrong with adding a tool to the parent's arsenal (along with communication, rules, and respect).
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jreyst wrote on the 3 Mar 08 at 03:32
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I don't understand why this has such a negative score, other than the possibility that those voting it down do not have kids. The internet is a window into some really disgusting things that young children are not prepared to deal with yet. Why is it so terrible to want to shield your children from these things?
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sparc128 wrote on the 3 Mar 08 at 04:49
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I have four kids under 10 which I am trying to keep them off Windows. Are they suppose to not go on the computer until I get home? I'm suppose to babysit them while they are on the computer? Let's be realistic, the majority of working parents are too busy. Computer are suppose to improve our lives not create extra work. Parental Controls is a basic requirement for any computer. Without Ubuntu including something, it will drive many families away from it since Vista and OSX have it.
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jreyst wrote on the 3 Mar 08 at 05:01
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Sparc128 - Thanks for the comments. I have set up my Vista box so that my kids have specific hours they can be logged onto it and when its bed time the box logs them off. I have my 5 year olds login set to only allow 4-5 sites (pbskids, nickjr, webkinz, and a few others). I don't want her accidentally clicking a link and ending up somewhere really unexpected, this prevents that. Is that so terrible? And my oldest daughter broke some computer rules so I block all sites for her id until she is ungrounded from internet. I still allow her to login so she can play Sims but internet is blocked. Its nice that I can have different settings for different users and even have one interface for checking logs to make sure everyone is following the rules. Vista gives me that, Ubuntu doesn't. I'd really like to see something like that in Ubuntu. If it doesn't work for you or your family then don't use it.
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jreyst wrote on the 3 Mar 08 at 05:38
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For those that are interested, you can download a web content filtering gui that was built for the Ubuntu Christian Edition at http://www.whatwouldjesusdownload.com/christianubuntu/2007/05/popular-packages. html
I am personally atheist so I have no specific affiliation with or interest in that Distro as a whole, but I do share their desire to want to offer some protection for little ones on the web. That gui took some tweaking and a lot of messing around with to get to work for me and it still doesn't do half of what I want, but its better than nothing and its mostly gui.
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onesimus wrote on the 3 Mar 08 at 09:38
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Having read comments on this posting they all seem to be regarding the pros and cons of parental control over the desktop. Whilst, there is a place for this wouldn't it better to discuss the actual content of what parental controls may include. For example:
Time management for specific users
Web filtering seems to be important but there are Firefox add-ons that are available: ProCon Latte, NoScript, AdBlock Plus. Rather, than re-inventing the wheel surely these could be integrated into a single system ?
What other features / functionality should a parental control system involve ?
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waspinator wrote on the 3 Mar 08 at 15:56
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"What other features / functionality should a parental control system involve ? "
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/1747/
Features:
1. Simple
2. Website logging
3. Website blocking (dansguardian)
4. Application logging
5. Application blocking
6. Chat logging
7. Time management
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yman wrote on the 3 Mar 08 at 21:22
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I believe there is a saying about this. Something like "If a child grows up at the entrance to a brothel, don't expect him to be saint". The saying has to do with how important it is to meat and overcome moral challenges, but that there is a limit to what a person can take before he loses the ability to choose his path.
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jreyst wrote on the 3 Mar 08 at 22:07
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Thanks Waspinator for your response. Those are the minimum requirements I feel for a decent Parental Controls application and coincidentally they are all (mostly) implemented in Vista. I'd love if they were in Ubuntu too.
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onesimus wrote on the 14 Mar 08 at 21:05
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I am surprised that this suggestion is getting so many negative responses and votes. Whilst, it is termed a parental control because it is primarily viewed at providing functionality for the parent I believe it has wider usage. It maybe that Ubuntu would be more widely adopted in schools if there was such features that the IT administrator could use. If Ubuntu is seen as a viable choice for adoption into the education system then people may become familiar with it from an early age.
Eventually, users would not be migrating from Windows (because that's all they have ever known) but using it as their first choice.
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jreyst wrote on the 15 Mar 08 at 04:41
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Thanks onesimus. I couldn't agree more and it continues to disappoint me how negatively this idea is viewed. I wonder how many of the actually have small children?
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kab wrote on the 26 Mar 08 at 14:17
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I don't know where the problem is. When I was 7, my parents gave me a book about the human being and talked with me how things in the corps and sex work. After that you see the entire world with different eyes and learn to deal with this kind of information. My parents gave me every information I wanted and I asked for, no different if it's about sex, porn, mathematics or something else. Exactly that has helped me to improve my knowledge over the years. In school we had some children with parents who have not teach their children and if we had discussion in school they came with horrible answers about things and I thought if they life behind the moon.
Second, children find always a way to get information. I know also kids who got some porn magazines from not so legal sources, because they had no other way to get information they needed. Information want to be free, and that is exactly for what we should work for.
By the way, I turned out as a normal person.
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spyyder wrote on the 26 Mar 08 at 16:15
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"Information want to be free, and that is exactly for what we should work for. "
That may be your opinion, but if you want to provide freedom to ALL USERS, than you must also allow information to be locked down. You can't have it only your way. Freedom runs both ways, and I should be able to control content on MY computer. You have no right telling me what to do with it, if you REALLY support the idea of "freedom".
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jreyst wrote on the 29 Mar 08 at 20:34
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kab: I do not want my 5 year old child seeing graphic sex on the computer accidentily, or even graphic scenes of violence or suffering. I have this naive idea that children should be sheltered from the darker aspects of life until they are mature enough to understand and deal with such subjects. I have different standards for what I allow my 13 year old to see and do online. If that offends your sense of freedom, I don't know what to tell you. Until such time that I can, with relative certainty, protect my children from these things on Linux, I'll be forced to have them use only my Vista box.
And spyyder, thanks for your comments. We seem to be in a minority for some reason. Again I speculate that those screeching about freedom this and openness that must not have small children.
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onesimus wrote on the 12 Apr 08 at 16:31
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Kab: If when you asked your parents for information on anything and everything don't you think that they may have filtered some of the information that they gave you. At seven you would have no idea if information was being filtered. In addition, you sought information from your parents (presumably a responsible source). Would your parents have had a different view if you sought information from a stranger that you met on the street ? That is effectively how children may be able to seek information on the internet - i.e. from strangers that they have met on internet chat rooms. Minors should be able to have the assurance that their freedom is within a safe environment.
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s.a.top wrote on the 2 May 08 at 13:30
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good idea not everything is ok online
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