Some Apple users say its parental controls aren’t working properly. A CEO who has 4 kids called it ‘frustrating.’::Parents told The Wall Street Journal they have to continuously check their Screen Time settings to ensure their children’s usage is limited.
Don’t rely on Silicon Valley to babysit your child. All software has flaws, and a kid who wants to watch more YouTube videos will figure out a way because there’s probably a dozen videos out there detailing each bug.
V-Chips didn’t do shit in my era, and we found ways around Bess, so none of this surprises me.
How can the kid watch videos on how to watch more videos when they are blocked from watching videos?
“Hmm… I wonder if Mom’s password to unlock the iPad is the same as her pin code for… holy shit is she really this stupid!?”
Or if that’s not enough, here’s my lazy attempt to see what the options are: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZaMNsGSvRE
Imagine if I put more than 10 seconds of thought into this.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=eZaMNsGSvRE
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source, check me out at GitHub.
Do you have kids? I can tell you as a parent that parental controls are godsend.
If I were to try to do the same myself, it would be 10-15 arguments a day. When the software does it, there is no argument or very little. Sometimes they ask for more, and I can evaluate their case. Much better than chasing them around trying to tear the iPad out of their hands.
All that being said, I’ve had to use other 3rd party software because Apple’s parental controls are buggy and unreliable.
Software can be very helpful for all sorts of situations. However, that doesn’t mean you get to abdicate all responsibility.
The person you are responding to is simply noting that kids are not stupid and often find ways to get around parental controls. There are also ways for content to get around controls while complying with controls. It’s unfortunate Apple’s software is buggy, it should be better.
Kids will definitely try to get around it. I’d be disappointed if they didn’t. It is a bit of an arms race, but having spent 30 years in IT, I’m up to the task. My only point is that using the tools at your disposal doesn’t make you a bad parent. Arguing with your kids every 10 minutes doesn’t make you a good one either.
Can confirm “the limit is the limit” 🤷♂️ works WAY better than “because I said so.”
It definitely does. Don’t use Apple products, but setting limits or bedtime alarms (on the switch) helps us all out. It cut down on the tantrums about stopping, it gives them the routine they need (we’re all on the ADHD spectrum in this house), and I set it up and it’s done (I have practically nil executive function).
Is it perfect? No. But it works for us.
My 5 year old is already sneaky enough that when I put him on starfall he will wait for me to get distracted and chnage tabs and type gibberish into search, or click the YouTube icon in chrome and do the same (which is more dangerous, YouTube has some really weird shit if you search special characters).
I alsready have dns controls on network etc and generally manage access by physically retaining control of a device. M
But as they get older adding some level of content filter that’s https aware may be needed.
Though as an IT admin I’ll try and rely on trust and communication over technology solutions. But still. Like borderline planning to dump them on their own vlan, with a Pi-hole and some extra filters, that also goes to Cisco umbrella and some sort of squid guard/sensei setup on my opnsense router or even websense or palo alto filter.
We use a combo of ScreenTime and eero’s parental filters to cut off internet access (what they mostly want to do anyway). Though, we’re looking to migrate the eero subscription to a Firewalla and get more features without a sub in the next year.
Keep trying, you will figure it out. Obviously you need to physically monitor as well as use tools. But my teenager finally gave up trying after I thwarted numerous attempts at circumventing the limit.
The alternative solution is to not give your kid a phone at all. Having been down the cat and mouse games with blocking, I can tell you that’s the only thing that works. The problem is that most schools require technology use, paper maps and public phones are non-existent, social pressure, etc. Pinwheel is the most nerfed smartphone for parents who want to limit their kids phone use but it’s a weird subset of Android, doesn’t nicely fit into Apple ecosystems, but effective if you need that.
parental controls across the board are an afterthought by these companies at best, even if the product is geared toward children. Internet is off on thier devices and they have a growing, curated intranet to enjoy.
Do some parenting? Not just leave them alone with gadgets if you don’t want them on them all day.
You’re going to need a more original/thoughtful response. I have kids and I think like this person. I don’t trust parental controls, kids and content creators know how to get around them. I, personally, think it is idiotic to assume parental controls do more than present a barrier to content, not usually a blocker.
What happens when your kids use other devices without parental controls at a friend’s house or school? Will your kids know about being responsible with content and how to navigate to safe spaces, or are they just going to go totally wild?
So, yes, I do have kids and no I do not blindly trust parental controls of any sort. Just want you to pack up that argument right now. Real annoying when parents think they can discredit a viable view because the person they are talking to hasn’t had a crotch goblin.
Why does using parental controls mean that you can’t also educate your children about good practices on the internet? Why the assumption that anyone who does blindly trusts them and doesn’t attempt any other form of education? I don’t understand this religious adherence to not using the tools that are available.
There are involved parents who still want to use parental controls. It’s not like everyone who uses the controls is relying solely on them. It’s not an all-or-nothing proposition.
What a hassle. Might actually have to be a present parent in your child’s life. 😰
Just going to follow you through the thread to remind you that a person who doesn’t have kids isn’t immediately unknowledgeable about a subject. That’s some parent gatekeeping bullshit so that you, as a parent, don’t have to think critically when being challenged.
Source: I have kids so apparently they that’s all that matters to you.
I can’t tell if you are joking or serious. Do you give surgeons advice on being surgeons? Or is not allowing you to do surgery “surgery gatekeeping”?
It’s easy to imagine being a perfect parent. Being one, however, is not so easy. Any actual parent knows this. People who don’t have kids don’t know anything about having kids and usually tend to be the ones who think they know the most.
People who are actually knowledgeable on a topic rarely look at things in such black and white terms when discussing it.
Whether or not I do, they won’t be “raised” by slipping into a YouTube Kids coma 24/7 unsupervised.
Ah yes, spoken with the surety and confidence of someone who has never navigated the waters of raising kids in the modern world. It must be nice to live in a perfect world inside your own mind.
That’s a typical layer-8 problem. #pebkac
