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Parental controls on children’s tech devices are out of touch with child’s play (theconversation.com)
submitted 2 days ago by otters_raft@lemmy.ca to c/parenting@lemmy.world
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The "protection of children" has been the cited reason for a lot of controversial laws and measures recently. A common response is that parents should use parental controls to manage that on their own instead of relying on the government to do it to everyone. I found this article interesting since it touched on how the existing tools aren't that good, and addressing that problem might be a better thing to focus on

Authors:

  • Sara M. Grimes | Wolfe Chair in Scientific and Technological Literacy and Professor, McGill University

  • Riley McNair | PhD Student in Information Studies, University of Toronto

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[-] mr_unfamous@lemmy.myserv.one 7 points 2 days ago

Depending on your technical level and home network equipment, this can be accomplished. You can assign a static IP to those devices and block internet traffic to and from certain domains for those specific IPs.

I agree though, the default base level stuff is awful, but I'd bet that its terrible because it doesnt have a big enough financial return. Companies dont do things that dont make money. If they did, we wouldn't need regulations.

[-] wetbeardhairs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 day ago

That's a good idea. It won't last for long though because many devices are trending toward secure dns lookups.

[-] AliasVortex@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

I was just thinking that a PiHole might make for a pretty good parental control too. Slightly more advanced networking, but that way you could block YouTube (and anything else) on a per-device basis while still allowing software updates and the like though (at least until your kid figures out how to override the network provided DNS, but at that point they're hopefully either responsible enough for YouTube or well on their way to a promising career in tech). Plus it gives some observability into what sites are being visited if that's needed.

Very much agree though, it shouldn't take an IT degree/ hobby to do parental controls.

this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2025
62 points (100.0% liked)

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