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Ask HN: How do I protect my parents from the internet?

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Re: Ask HN: How do I protect my parents from the internet?

#31

Post by akerro »

reacweb wrote: post #27
akerro wrote: post #2

Install them Ubuntu, KDE Neon or Mint. Works for my parents since... I dropped Windows XP.

Idem for me. I have installed Ubuntu-gnome. sshd, wine and powerpoint viewer are the main customization. When the computer is started, I receive a SMS so that I can perform updates or backups.

I did similar. PC has static IP in LAN, there is raspberry pi with duckdns and ssh waiting for me. I just login on rpi, then ssh to parents PC and do what I need. I can do updates, remove files, monitor activity and all other things, easily, for free. It's Ubuntu, they don't have sudo/root password so can't break anything, ever.

Re: Ask HN: How do I protect my parents from the internet?

#32

Post by theandrewbailey »

tldr: Linux.

I had more or less the same issue (except things still booted) with my parents about 5 or 6 years ago. In a move I thought was insane, I put them on Xubuntu. I moved them to Mint for a while, but they are back to Xubuntu. It's my preferred distro, and the Ubuntu base (for good support) and XFCE (Windows familiarity) made me comfortable it was Mom and Dad proof. Aside from showing them where things are, there have been zero problems. Turns out that Linux is just as good for email, web browsing, Youtube, and solitare.

I haven't used Lightroom, but how does (say) RawTherapee compare?

Re: Ask HN: How do I protect my parents from the internet?

#33

Post by clentaminator »

It makes me smile that while proponents of censorship and blocking of parts of the Internet use the "Think of the children!" argument, I never hear anyone shouting "Think of the adults!"

Of course, in this case we're trying to protect people from themselves rather than the outside world, but still...

Re: Ask HN: How do I protect my parents from the internet?

#34

Post by falcolas »

Raphmedia wrote: post #26

I am the opposite of most comments here. Don't stupid her away to a mobile device. We got our mom a computer, a cheap one, and told her to play with it. Break it. Click everywhere. Soon enough she was playing with windows settings. Soon enough nothing worked. She now knew you can brick computer, she is more careful. We fixed the computer and she explored the internet. She asked how she could download wallpapers, we i…

This assumes an interest, willingness, and time to learn. For better or worse, not everyone can/wants to become an expert in managing these buggy and vulnerable messes we call general purpose computers.

It's a big investment, an investment many of us don't remember making since it was effectively part of our childhood. That same investment, in a world with special purpose computing devices, has a very low ROI for people who would rather be doing something else.

Re: Ask HN: How do I protect my parents from the internet?

#35

Post by Raphmedia »

JTon wrote: post #30
Raphmedia wrote: post #26

I am the opposite of most comments here. Don't stupid her away to a mobile device. We got our mom a computer, a cheap one, and told her to play with it. Break it. Click everywhere. Soon enough she was playing with windows settings. Soon enough nothing worked. She now knew you can brick computer, she is more careful. We fixed the computer and she explored the internet. She asked how she could download wallpapers, we i…

I like this approach. But how did you mitigate the risk of a more serious data compromise like identity theft? Did you wait until she understood the dangers before allowing her to use sensitive logins like banking and email?

Online transactions weren't as safe and ubiquitous back then. She already had a paranoia of entering those informations online and we told her that her instinct was right.

She does some Amazon orders every now and then but that's it.

Re: Ask HN: How do I protect my parents from the internet?

#36

Post by soneca »

JTon wrote: post #30
Raphmedia wrote: post #26

I am the opposite of most comments here. Don't stupid her away to a mobile device. We got our mom a computer, a cheap one, and told her to play with it. Break it. Click everywhere. Soon enough she was playing with windows settings. Soon enough nothing worked. She now knew you can brick computer, she is more careful. We fixed the computer and she explored the internet. She asked how she could download wallpapers, we i…

I like this approach. But how did you mitigate the risk of a more serious data compromise like identity theft? Did you wait until she understood the dangers before allowing her to use sensitive logins like banking and email?

Good question and good answer through your rhetorical question too. GP approach with your addendum is the way to do this in my opinion.

Re: Ask HN: How do I protect my parents from the internet?

#37

Post by GeneticGenesis »

nickcw wrote: post #20

How about a Chromebook? Cheap, keeps itself up to date, fully cloud based. It wouldn't tick the Lightroom box but it does the internet based stuff extremely well with low maintenance.

I do this for my family these days, virtually zero maintainance.

Biggest word of warning though is that Google are totally happy to change things with no warning or how or why, which can be very confusing.

For example, they stopped a direct route to import photos from an SD card or alike to google photos. No automated replacement workflow.

Re: Ask HN: How do I protect my parents from the internet?

#39

Post by baby »

Story time:

My father complained of virus and malwares on his computer.

I came home, formatted his hard drive and re-installed windows.

I go to eat lunch with my mother in the kitchen, a few minutes later I hear "[baby], I have a virus on my computer!". WHAT?

The first thing he did was to google for "chrome" on internet explorer and use the first result. The first result is a google ads for a malware containing chrome. Had to reformat his computer one more time. I think that's the moment where he got it.

Re: Ask HN: How do I protect my parents from the internet?

#40

Post by ShaneOG »

Raphmedia wrote: post #26

I am the opposite of most comments here. Don't stupid her away to a mobile device. We got our mom a computer, a cheap one, and told her to play with it. Break it. Click everywhere. Soon enough she was playing with windows settings. Soon enough nothing worked. She now knew you can brick computer, she is more careful. We fixed the computer and she explored the internet. She asked how she could download wallpapers, we i…

> She asked how she could download wallpapers, we introduced her to torrents and file sharing

But... why?

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