Post #1014398

2026-04-01 12:57 UTC

I’m in the process of getting my kids their first PC this Christmas. They’ll both get a mini-PC, with severely restricted Internet access. I’m actually thinking about just letting them connect to the home server where I’d mock the Web sites I pick for them. For this reason, Win11 with its online account requirement is automatically excluded from consideration. I wated to give them Mint anyway, but this was the argument that convinced my wife.

Replies (7)

@eli@lemmy.world 2026-04-01 14:44

You should keep an eye on Gnome. Their recent release, Gnome 50, just introduced parental controls to limit access to programs and they're looking to implement website access as well. I don't like Gnome, but my kid's first PC will have Gnome on it now because of these new features, which I greatly appreciate

Open ##1302423
@Bytemeister@lemmy.world 2026-04-01 18:20

Mocking up whole websites seems like a pain. With a Pihole, you can create different service groups for computers and apply a whitelist to just their machines. Plus you get adblocking too!

Open ##1302424
@epicshepich@programming.dev 2026-04-01 16:21

I saw a deal for a pair of mini PCs with decent specs on eBay right after I got my annual bonus, so I jumped on it because I want to do the same thing for my kids. May be jumping the gun a bit...my son just learned the alphabet (uppercase only) and my daughter just learned how to flop off the couch head-first.

Open ##1302428
@Skv@lemmy.world 2026-04-01 15:32

Just put 3.1 on those and let them play solitaire to their hearts content.

Open ##1302429
@osanna@lemmy.vg 2026-04-02 00:36

Whoa. Parents…. Parenting?? In all seriousness, if more parents were proactive like you, we wouldn’t have all this under 16 social media ban and shit.

Open ##1302430
@melfie@lemmy.zip 2026-04-01 22:49

My kids’ devices are blocked from internet access in my OpenWRT firewall and I run a Squid proxy on my server with an allowlist of domains they can access.

Open ##1302431
@BackgrndNoize@lemmy.world 2026-04-02 01:45

Smart move, with the brain rot cancer that internet has become these days, it's best to keep your kids away from it until their brains finish developing a bit

Open ##1302432