Interesting topic.
Personally I would prefer /e/ to be a bare minimum OS which gives users all the power to install / delete apps.
This additional requirement would mean having a framework in place which can set up such a ‘time-based app access’ feature as mentioned in the initial post.
Not sure if it is already present in Pie OS. If yes then it would be an easy implementation since Pi/e/ work has already started. If not this looks like a lot of work for the dev team later in the program 
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Thanks @Anonyme for your detailed feedback. Could you just explain me what you mean with “To give the ability to use an app/the phone for 15mins extra 15min in case it’s needed, but it would add this in the Parental Control tab with a “FireFox extra-time : 2” in order to inform parents.”
What is for you a Parental Control tab? Will it be on kids phone or on parents phone?
I am still doubting how to deal with the extra 15mins.:
- Do parents have to validate on kids phone (what if they are not in the same place)
- Or better allow validation per app on parents phone (apple seems to solve th issue appatently with a kids phone tied anyway close to parents phone as they use the same icloud space)
- Or could kids validate themselves but the time would be diminished from next days’ time credit?
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The Parental Control tab would simply be a sub-section in Settings. (In the Security & Privacy section I guess, like the “Trust” sub-section in /e/ Oreo)
Once all the phone or just a specific app is locked because the time ran out, it would display an “Extra time” button somewhere on the screen (if the extra time feature has been activated by parents in the Parental Control tab). When the child clicks on it, she/he would have 15min more, without the parents or an approbation needed.
But if an extra time is used, it would be indicated in the parental control tab so parents would know one extra time (or more) has been used.
(So the child will have to give the phone or just display the parental control tal to their parents of course because everything stays on the child phone)
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Ok I understand - everything on the kids’ phone.
I am not entirely convinced for 1 reason:
Imagine the kid is in town is checking last transports available. Then time is over. Kid prolongs, then the additional time is over too and phone locks. So the kid could call home but parents would not be able to unlock as they are physically separated.
- One solution could be: kid could prolong 15min eternally (but then the whole function is useless).
- Or parents could give the okay for extra time on distance
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Actually the child would be able to have extra time eternally (if parents set “unlimited” on the number of extra time available).
Eternally function is not useless because if the child uses a lot of extra time without good reason, parents will know (if they check it of course, nothing can replace parents job) and would be able to change the number of extra time to a limited amount and/or decrease the limit time of use.
Parents would be free to choose what they prefer :
- Flange/Block the child
- Making the child responsible. It’s very good to learn to a child not to do something even if technically he can (learn him not to click on “extra time” even if he could).
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Ok, thanks. Will consult some more parents this WE.
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I just wrote the feature proposal and added it to gitlab, it can be found here: https://gitlab.e.foundation/e/management/issues/360
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Thanks for your reply. Wouldn’t mind if could you give a user experience feed back for TimeLimit once you have used it for a bit.
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Just a few additional thoughts:
Yes, people do accept surveillance as normal, however, a 12 year old doesn’t really give a hoot that a faceless corporation has full access to all his most private messages, but sure does give a hoot if he/she knew his parents could see them, and would strongly and vigorously protest.
The question is when did privacy for a child become more important than a parent’s responsibility to their child to keep them safe from potential physical or emotional harm?
Reading these discussions, it is important to put boundaries on the scope of the /e/ foundation project, its expanding it seems to try to solve the world’s parenting problems in world with internet technology… Better a Minimum viable product with a clear vision (charter that all possible features can be measured against so as to never be in a situation where /e/ Foundation is questioning there “Don’t be evil.” ethics.
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Here may be one way for family protection browsing, you can use the free open source adguardDNS,
https://adguard.com/en/adguard-dns/overview.html#instruction
the DNS` that ends with132, and 134 are family protection DNS
Family protection DNS
Use the Family protection DNS to block access to all websites with adult content and enforce safe search in the browser, in addition to the regular perks of ad blocking and browsing security.
dont know how effective it is, as i`m an adult but am using their regular DNS server which blocks ads without extra software.
perhaps this DNS along side something else…Maybe some folk can test it and see if it good or not
To change the /e/ DNS setting in the /e/ OS i found it in settings>>wireless & networks heading under data usage click>>more, then Disable network DNS & then you can set a DNS address (tho theres only space for one DNS adress)
I’d love for /e/ to have some kinda kid’s version. What would be really awesome is a device that unlocks features as the kid learns about the technology. I have no idea how to implement something like that, but the idea that things are locked in a way, that the locks can be broken as the person gains knowledge about technology (in a wider sense, including ethics) sounds pretty cool. Think “level unlocked” but learning actual skills.
So the more the kid interacts in a proactive way, making things, learning about how things work, rather than say, spend hours watching youtube videos, the more features become available.
Mac OS had the strategy to offer deals to schools and universities in order to capture younger users. Right now, smartphones are unavoidable and parents are worried. Seems like the perfect time to make something that parents can give their kids with less worries and get kids used to privacy as a default. De-normalize constant surveillance for the coming generation.
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One perspective in the privacy/surveillance debate is that kids actually want to share and talk about what they’ve seen. Phones do make it fairly simple to share something, but that would include sharing it in lots of ways and places. One thing that might be a neat feature is a simple “share with parents” button, that kids can use when they want their parents to see something. Maybe even with a couple of options like “this is cool, you need to see this” and “this is scary/weird/unsettling, what is going on here”. Let the kid get in touch with their parents if there’s something going on. We trust kids to do that when something is up at school, why not trust them to do that with phones as well?
One of the more frustrating things is kids talking about something online but having no clue where it was or how to find it again.
Oh, another thing would be to contextualise the stuff they’re looking at. Wasn’t there a Chrome extension that flagged paid for content? Something like that.
Maybe this is a whole special project and more than /e/ can take on at this time, but it seems like there’s this dystopian view of smartphones right now, that does revolve around some serious issues, but ignores the potential. Talking about the utopian version of devices for kids and just people, talking about what technology can do for people’s self-determination and consensus building is an important part of figuring out what direction to go in.
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I have 3 kids and I too really miss parental control on /e/.
It’s impossible nowadays to prevent kids from using cellphone.
And what really annoys me is that all systems (I’ve tested Android, iOS and XBox) are VERY intrusive and makes children think that being spied on is a fair price.
On the other hand, you cannot allow your kids to use phones without boundaries, because they would literally use them 24/7. (Mine would…)
The features I would love to see are:
- Downtime per day of week
- Number of minutes per day of the week
- Disable app installation without parents approval
- Ability to ask for extra time on lock screen, grant extra time remotely (via SMS ?)
- Limit access to configuration?
- Specific DNS for content blocking?
Ben.
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For dns you could have a look at Adguard DNS. Which has a Family Protection Mode
You can also set up Adguard Home for a locally hosted option. Have a look here
Set it up on a Raspberry PI 
You can set it up with the Blockada app from FDroid
I agree, at least some basic parental control features are missing - especially the ability to block out-of-the-box the installation of apps and to block the modification of the configuration settings would be highly desirable.
For now, I am using an app for this purpose from the /e/ Apps Store.called Lock App. It is small, easy to use, without ads and without trackers (but not Open Source). With this tool, the installation of apps is only possible when entering a predefined password first (like this, the access to the configuration settings or to a content blocker like Blokada can be blocked too).
Only downside for now is that it does not block the manual installation of apps (apk files).
I recently introduced another feature proposal to /e/ for a very light version of a parental control feature as I believe my initial proposal will take time to be realised. Just take a look here and comment if you like: https://gitlab.e.foundation/e/backlog/-/issues/1161
Hi,
For the moment, I am switching in 5 minutes with TWRP restore feature, between TWO systems backups,
one environment for the children’s with all critical apps or features (mail, browser, newpipe, settings, stores, bank apps etc…) closed buy a gesture code,
educative games, vlc, photo, paint, are allowed but no internet connection
and another environment all open for me when they are not at home.
It is quite easy because they are still very young…
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Dear Friends, Child safety option is important sometimes.
Unfortunately, I had to give a google phone to my 10 years old child /Family Link is installed.
Recently, he got lost during a school trip He called me, crying and could not tel me where he was as he was panicked. I just found him via google location share and brought him back home.
In my family everybody uses e/os/ including tablets except my child just because of this experience.
It would be so great if I could give him an e/os phone.
Wish you all a great day.
Understood.
My daughter is using /e/ and is happy with it.
- I just installed “Lock App - Smart App Locker” to make her not using the App store. (you just find it mentioned here in the thread a bit above.
- Furthermore we installed an app called “My location” on her device. It shows the users’ current address and coordinates. If needed, she could just send me her current location (i.e. via Signal), but we did not need it (yet).
If you feel better with a Google-like solution, I am sure there are alternatives to the one from Google that you could easily use with /e/ as well and that is not stuffed with ad trackers - just have a look yourself.
Actually, I just found one “ESET Parental Control”, I did not try it but it looks promising. B.t.w. ESET is a well-known and independent Slovak antivirus company.
Hope that helps.
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Thank you Rallxx. I tried Family link. It does not work at all. But, the others look good. I will try them all and give feed back here to help other people.
Merry Xmas all.
I have been using Eset Parental Control couple of weeks now, and it is working very well. Its has great settings to control your childs phone activity. But I noticed, when you put the child phone to ultra powersave mode, it disconnects the Eset-app. And child has the power to just delete the app, which is not so good thing.
I also added Adguard family dns to her phone. Next step is to make whole family use /e/os.