I use pihole running on our household synology nas. Kids devices are in a group, there’s a rule that blocks all DNS lookups. Kids are trained to set timers, and I set one too, and when the timer goes off, I pull out my phone and click the single button that turns off their DNS. There are exceptions for Kahn Academy, Wikipedia, Prodigy Software; maybe will add more as kids age. Been very happy with this setup. And I’ll be so proud when they learn to bypass it.
Ask HN: Parents: Best screen-time limiting software?
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Re: Ask HN: Parents: Best screen-time limiting software?
#12If you have a Google Router, you can set up "family wifi" and schedule when your son should be doing his homework instead of being online. https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/7535858#schedul...
Re: Ask HN: Parents: Best screen-time limiting software?
#13That should be your responsibility mate. Use a timer if you need one, five min before it rings let your offspring know (no one likes to be interrupted in the middle), once the time is up that is it.
> That should be your responsibility mate. This type of commentary online is contradictory and lazy. - Parent puts in effort to manage their child's time (and or access). WHY AREN'T YOU PARENTING?! - Parent doesn't put in effort to manage their child's time (and or access). WHY AREN'T YOU PARENTING?! Plus when a parent really goes whole-hog on the whole protective thing they get criticized for being authoritarian and…
I belong to neither of the groups you mentioned. The only responsibility a parent has is to their child - there is nothing contradictory or lazy about this.
Otherwise you seem to project personal stuff I have no opinion on.
Re: Ask HN: Parents: Best screen-time limiting software?
#14That should be your responsibility mate. Use a timer if you need one, five min before it rings let your offspring know (no one likes to be interrupted in the middle), once the time is up that is it.
> That should be your responsibility mate. This type of commentary online is contradictory and lazy. - Parent puts in effort to manage their child's time (and or access). WHY AREN'T YOU PARENTING?! - Parent doesn't put in effort to manage their child's time (and or access). WHY AREN'T YOU PARENTING?! Plus when a parent really goes whole-hog on the whole protective thing they get criticized for being authoritarian and…
Well said.
I’m not sure when we crossed that threshold where actively trying to limit technology in a fair and automated way access became “lazy parenting” but I don’t like it.
Re: Ask HN: Parents: Best screen-time limiting software?
#15NextDNS can be a viable option with their “Recreation Time” feature. Overall it seems like DNS is the right place to implement this cross platform.
Re: Ask HN: Parents: Best screen-time limiting software?
#16I use pihole running on our household synology nas. Kids devices are in a group, there’s a rule that blocks all DNS lookups. Kids are trained to set timers, and I set one too, and when the timer goes off, I pull out my phone and click the single button that turns off their DNS. There are exceptions for Kahn Academy, Wikipedia, Prodigy Software; maybe will add more as kids age. Been very happy with this setup. And I’l…
This seems pretty interesting, do you have links that provide more details on this? Is it all functionality that's available by default on pihole or did you use some mods/custom blocklists/etc?
Re: Ask HN: Parents: Best screen-time limiting software?
#17My approach with my almost 4 year old is to not limit a particular technology but instead limit content. For example she's getting a tablet for Christmas but it's set up to only let her read books.
You might have let the cat out of the bag too early but I wouldn't have let her know that her old laptop can even do YouTube, or the Lego website, and instead gave her wikipedia and few other sources of content (PBS maybe?) that is educational and fun but not so fun that she gets lost in it forever. We can watch TV and videos on the TV like a family, I'd set up a laptop for other purposes and only after her other obligations have been met.
Re: Ask HN: Parents: Best screen-time limiting software?
#18I use pihole running on our household synology nas. Kids devices are in a group, there’s a rule that blocks all DNS lookups. Kids are trained to set timers, and I set one too, and when the timer goes off, I pull out my phone and click the single button that turns off their DNS. There are exceptions for Kahn Academy, Wikipedia, Prodigy Software; maybe will add more as kids age. Been very happy with this setup. And I’l…
This seems pretty interesting, do you have links that provide more details on this? Is it all functionality that's available by default on pihole or did you use some mods/custom blocklists/etc?
It's stock pihole functionality, just the basic groups management feature and default blocklist. Using the stock pihole docker container. There are some helpful blog posts [1, 2] in the top google search results for this setup but honestly very easy setup. I like simple setups.
[1] https://mariushosting.com/how-to-install-pi-hole-on-your-syn... [2] https://www.wundertech.net/how-to-setup-pi-hole-on-a-synolog...
Re: Ask HN: Parents: Best screen-time limiting software?
#19I use pihole running on our household synology nas. Kids devices are in a group, there’s a rule that blocks all DNS lookups. Kids are trained to set timers, and I set one too, and when the timer goes off, I pull out my phone and click the single button that turns off their DNS. There are exceptions for Kahn Academy, Wikipedia, Prodigy Software; maybe will add more as kids age. Been very happy with this setup. And I’l…
This seems pretty interesting, do you have links that provide more details on this? Is it all functionality that's available by default on pihole or did you use some mods/custom blocklists/etc?
I should add that what makes it work so nicely with pihole is you can use regular expressions for the DNS allow/block lists. So the kids group has a deny rule of `.*` and those few explicit allowed sites I mentioned.
Re: Ask HN: Parents: Best screen-time limiting software?
#20Suggestion based on our parenting results, YMMV:
1. Enforced limits are adversarial.
2. Conversations around how the internet/devices etc are fantastic while fraught with a million pitfalls may seem too much for a 9yo to handle, but you might be surprised if you try.
3. In general, having healthier alternatives and some timely reminders work great. For example: If he is spending hours browsing the lego website, perhaps he'd love to try out a large lego project.
4. Teens and pre-teens right now will inhabit a world that is over-reactive to online stimuli. Being hygienic / responsible about the online world and screen time is an important skill to cultivate.