Does anyone know of a good privacy respecting (preferably FOSS) parental control app for Android? I’m trying to convince a friend to get a Pixel with GrapheneOS as their kids next phone but they won’t do it unless it let’s them control certain things.
They’re used to iOS where apparently their kid can request to download an app and they can remotely allow the installation. They can also add screen time beyond the original set limit if the kids requests it.
Unfortunately, I don’t think they’d be open to switching if it means losing their parental controls.
Sorry, this won’t answer your question, but I would just let them use what they want. Unless they were interested in it originally, they will just resent you if anything goes wrong or if they have any trouble.
The thing is, the kid has started realizing the data collection that’s going on and it’s interested in switching. That’s the only reason I’m genuinely pursuing this.
Okay, that makes much more sense if it’s the kid’s initiative.
Yeah they were talking about a game and then started getting ads for that game. Classic start to the story lol
How old is the kid?
- Yes I know that’s way too old to be putting parental controls on their phone.
I disagree. A human Brain is fully grown by the age of 22.
Until then it is the parents duty to make sure they don’t get addicted to anything, including phones.
So you think that parental controls should be in place until the age of 22?
HAH! You don’t have kids do you? A 15yo needs more locks than an 8yo any day! Little kids stay in their bubbles and never even realize they’re being filtered, teens go out and actively look for shit they shouldn’t.
Same reason I try to get my GF to ditch her iPhone.
Huh. Your kids are smart.
Not my kid but yeah.
Privacy is incompatible with parental control. I can’t help without going against my values, sorry.
Graphene would allow them to create a non-owner profile with no APP store. That way, their kids wouldn’t be able to install anything and the parent could install apps in the owner profile and then permit the kid to use it.
Screen time and such would not be configurable though I think.
Opentimelimit is best
I’ve found it to have severe impact on battery life; always eating CPU cycles.
That may be! Hm, but it works 💁♂️
iOS is better for them, GrapheneOS isn’t going to / can’t do what they want, it’s not what it’s designed for, it’s literally designed to do the total opposite of that.
The closest they’d get is using DNS to filter out inappropriate web content, using the sandboxed play services on a child acct so certain apps are restricted, and having Family Link on their phones for the approvals of things. But it’s not going to be as integrated as what iOS and Google does. Goes way beyond generic content filtering, screen time, customizable shutdowns around homework time and over night hours where kids wake up and hop on devices etc.
Gotta use the right tool for the job.
Família link (which does all that and more) won’t work unless it has privileged access. Life360 is even worse than google, so no talking about that. I don’t know what to say, if he’s just into location stalking; then you can just use google maps to share the location, but elsewhere, you’ll need to find some trustworthy MDM service.
