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Linux for Kids?

I’m thinking about building a desktop with one of my kids and I would really prefer to put Linux on it. My wife is not a fan of the idea, however.

I’m wondering are there any good Linux distros/utilities for children that include parental control features and things like that? And that are easy to use for a child who has only used basic Chromebooks in the past?

For reference the child is under 12.

RootBeerGuy ,
@RootBeerGuy@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

Wouldn’t this be a usecase for a immutable distro? Cannot really break it? But haven’t used one myself yet so not sure how that holds up.

BaalInvoker ,

I bet that a kid with no root access or sudo permission couldn’t break any Linux system, immutable or not…

MajorHavoc ,

I can confirm. My little ones have been running Linux for years.

Jumuta ,

but then they won’t be able to install apps

skullgiver , (edited )
@skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    Jumuta ,

    oh wow, didn’t know that

    BaalInvoker ,

    Flatpak is user wide, so yeah, they can…

    MentalEdge ,
    @MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz avatar

    Yes. And using restricting application access doesn’t really work with normal package managers, but is easy with flatpak.

    boredsquirrel ,

    If you dont have an admin account you cannot break the core system anyways.

    I agree that rpm-ostree based distros are awesome here, but Linux Desktops are not made to be locked down.

    Railison ,

    Let the break it, and like other things in life, make (teach) them fix it if they want to keep using it.

    breadsmasher , (edited )
    @breadsmasher@lemmy.world avatar

    definitely hannahmontana.sourceforge.net

    or www.gentoo.org

    Pat_Riot ,
    @Pat_Riot@lemmy.today avatar

    Puppy?

    BaalInvoker ,

    Gnome itself is embedded with parental control and you can enable it while adding a new user

    I don’t know how other DEs deal with it, but I think all of them has something similar, tho

    Edit: also may be a good idea set a AdGuard to set a DNS block for some origins… AdGuard gives you the capability to block several apps and you can customize blocks as well

    atzanteol ,

    I abhor the idea of things made “for kids”. I learned to program when I was 10 on a Commodore 64. And we would wear an onion on our belt which was the style at the time… Sorry, where was I?

    I’d just install a normal distro. Let the kiddo break shit and learn to fix it. Keep backups for recovery and probably isolate the system on your network for if/when kiddo does something stupid. Talk about security, being responsible, etc. We learn through mistakes not by playing in safe walled-gardens.

    wesley OP ,

    I appreciate your input, I was also teaching myself to code by the time I was in middle school, but this is a different situation and some guard rails are needed to manage screen time and app usage, etc.

    I’m not so much worried about her wrecking the computer and more about her wrecking her brain with unfettered access to the Internet

    tonyn ,

    As a father of three, the best parent filter is oversight, communication, and guidance. People want plug and play automatic parenting on the devices their kids use, but the honest truth is nothing beats actually talking to the kids about what’s out there, the dangers, the consequences, and guiding them as they explore. Keep an eye on what they do, and intervene if they start down the wrong rabbit hole. Good luck my friend.

    Stillhart ,

    Personally, I’d use the router to limit access to locations and times. It’s more reliable, easier to do, and lets you be less picky with your distro.

    Using a DNS level content blocker like Adblock DNS is a great option, IMHO, and is super easy to setup.

    (For the record, parent of 8 and 11 yr olds)

    Serinus ,

    Which isn’t a bad idea, but I’d still want some kind of parental controls like Android has to limit screen time. I don’t need Netflix.com to be all or nothing, but I certainly don’t want it to be four hours a day either.

    Stillhart ,

    Having your router limit internet connectivity time is effectively the same thing these days. There are some things they can do offline but not much anymore.

    jjlinux ,

    That’s exactly right. My kids’ VLAN goes down at 8pm every night, and they are aware of it. So much so that they usually just shut down at around 7:30pm and start asking for dinner.

    Evidently, I audit their network usage regularly and if I find anything concerning, I sit down with them and my wife and talk about it (have found 1 instance in which my boy was looking for pirated games for Linux, and my daughter was looking for “pranks for school and how not to get caught” 🤣).

    All in all, I think we nerds have an easier shot at parenting than most people.

    teawrecks ,

    Does it need to be connected to the internet? At that age, I think you could get away with installing stuff locally that they could play with.

    IMO you should create guard rails that you intend her to eventually understand and circumvent. Nothing is more empowering for a kid interested in tech than thinking they figured out how to get around the guard rails. Just make sure you can detect when it has happened.

    Do something locally on the machine to block internet access. Maybe something as simple as turning off the network adapter. One day she’ll either learn enough about the system to remove the guard rails, or she’ll find other interests.

    520 ,

    I learned to program when I was 10 on a Commodore 64. And we would wear an onion on our belt which was the style at the time… Sorry, where was I?

    Totally get that, but we live in a much more dangerous and predatory computer landscape these days. It would be foolish not to take some precautions.

    RootBeerGuy ,
    @RootBeerGuy@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

    Thanks for bringing up that aspect that is often overlooked in these discussions.

    bobs_monkey ,

    True, but nothing beats out active parenting and communication. Like has been said, you can set up filters all day long (and you should), but the second the kid learns how to install a distro from scratch, they’ll soon have unfettered access the the entire Internet. The only sensible approach is to talk with them about what’s out there, the dangers of it, and how to navigate the internet safely. Also too, browse with them. Spend time with them guiding them on the wonderful parts of the internet, and help them develope good habits on being a good netzien. Eventually they’ll find the seedy parts of the internet, but hopefully by then they’ll be less interested in it because it isn’t taboo, it’s just wrong.

    skullgiver , (edited )
    @skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl avatar

    deleted_by_author

    •
    bigmclargehuge ,
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    This was my fathers approach when I was growing up. I was basically allowed to do whatever I wanted offline. But, outside of a small handful of websites (a couple gaming websites maybe), everything online needed his permission. This gave me a really solid understanding of how things worked, troubleshooting, etc, while also not letting me see anything too heinous.

    FigMcLargeHuge ,

    Son, is that you? I had a linux machine setup for my kids with a reverse proxy. I let them have a handful of websites that were whitelisted and they could go directly to. Everything else was off limits unless I ok’ed it and added it to the list. It still boggles my mind at the scoffs I would receive from other parents, and even my spouse at the time.

    bigmclargehuge ,
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    Hehe well my dirty secret is that I was a Windows XP and MacOS X kid😅 I still have a real soft spot for those systems, especially XP. If I were ever to have kids though, I’d take this approach and introduce them to Linux young.

    umbrella ,
    @umbrella@lemmy.ml avatar

    thats how you get hackers

    entropicdrift ,
    @entropicdrift@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

    You probably want EndlessOS

    anarchy_artichokey ,

    ElementaryOS comes with parental controls iirc

    Blizzard ,

    They live up to their name!

    GammaGames ,

    It does! You can limit screen time, filter websites, and block apps from running. I’m not sure how well they work because I’ve never used them though

    wesley OP ,

    That sounds like exactly the kind of thing I’m looking for. She’s not great at managing her electronic time yet and she needs some guardrails to make sure she’s not staying up all night watching YouTube videos and things like that.

    But I also want to give her the opportunity to learn and explore

    GammaGames ,

    If you search for “Screen Time & Limits” on their site you can get a preview.

    I’ve been running elementary as my daily driver for years with few issues, so I definitely recommend! Make sure to try out the safety settings on a live cd first though, I can’t verify how the limits work for sites and apps

    MentalEdge ,
    @MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz avatar

    Fedora apparently has some functionality.

    There is also an arch wiki page on the subject.

    Linux systems are used all over for enterprise use cases, which means there is a robust user permission system. Usage won’t be Googleable with stuff like “parental control” but more likely keywords like “user restriction”.

    Not sure if you mention your wife because she knows Linux and thinks it’s a bad idea, or because doesn’t know Linux, and still thinks it’s a bad idea.

    Of course, when your kid one day learns to flash an iso onto a usb, and install an OS, any and all parental control will be symbolic. Hopefully you’ve successfully taught your kid how to use tech safely by then.

    You’ll want to look into browser extensions and blocking websites on your router, as well.

    boredsquirrel , (edited )

    Fedora Kinoite or Silverblue as base. They are so stable, very nice to know they will not break. You may want universal blue.

    GNOME has some form of parental control too but no idea. I would trust it way more than ElementaryOS, as it is one of the 2 main Linux Desktops.

    GNOME is also stupid simple to use.

    It may break KDE apps themes, and KDE has tons of nice learning apps. But this also goes for all other desktops I think?

    Education:

    Educational Games:

    Random harmless games

    Easy tools for learning stuff

    nirogu ,
    @nirogu@vivaldi.net avatar

    If the child is really young, check out the sugar desktop environment. There is an official distro from sugarlabs and there is also a fedora spin (fedora soas)
    If the computer should be a little more functional, the GNOME desktop or the Deepin desktop are good options imo

    downhomechunk ,
    @downhomechunk@midwest.social avatar

    I’m doing trisquel on a sugar toast for my 5 year old and she loves it!

    MajorHavoc , (edited )

    Basically any mainstream Linux distro is easy enough for a child, today.

    For kids who can read tell them to press that ‘Windows’ key, and start typing what they’re looking for.

    For younger kids, place appropriate icons on their desktop.

    I do my parental controls at the network level (PiHole, etc), so I haven’t looked much into parental controls on the Linux host, itself.

    I have started to favor PopOS, because it is familiar, because it looks a lot like SteamOs, what their SteamDeck runs, when they reboot into desktop mode, in order to mod their Minecraft.

    phrogpilot73 ,
    @phrogpilot73@lemmy.world avatar

    Ummm, their SteamDeck runs Pop? Have you modded it? Because last I checked it ran SteamOS (an immutable Arch variant) and used KDE in desktop mode, whereas Pop uses Gnome…

    MajorHavoc ,

    I’m wrong. Good catch.

    Moxvallix ,
    @Moxvallix@sopuli.xyz avatar

    My dad got me a Linux laptop as a kid (I was 10 I think?), and I am so grateful that he did.

    To be fair, I already had a huge passion for computing, and it meant that I would constantly toy around with Linux, breaking things and learning how to fix them.

    I have been a Linux user ever since, and I feel have learnt so much about computing because of it.

    (I started on Ubuntu 12.04, with the glorious Unity desktop)

    tkk13909 ,

    If I may ask, why is your wife not a fan of the idea?

    wesley OP ,

    I think it was mostly the parental controls we aren’t familiar with on Linux and I think she thinks it would be too “hard” for her.

    I don’t agree obviously

    520 ,

    Is this for a family PC?

    tkk13909 ,

    I see. Yeah there’s definitely a lot of options especially if you’re willing to block stuff at the network level.

    520 ,

    Standard Ubuntu should have you covered.

    One word of warning though, don't be too egregious with the parental controls. If your kids are motivated enough, they will find a way around it.

    Education really is your best weapon here. Tell them about the dangers of the modern web and computing.

    TimeSquirrel ,
    @TimeSquirrel@kbin.social avatar

    If your kids are motivated enough, they will find a way around it.

    Reminds me of my local public library in 1997. They had these public computers for people that didn't yet have Internet access, and the browsers were locked down and stripped with just "back", "forward", "refresh" buttons and a URL address bar.

    However, there was a tiny question mark icon in the corner that when clicked, brought up the Windows help system (that browser thing that can navigate help topics). There was a link in there to open IE and go to a support page, and when clicked would launch the full Internet Explorer with a complete menu over top of the kiosk interface, and this browser instance was not restricted in what it could access like the kiosk browser was (I believe it may have been a custom version of Mosaic).

    520 ,

    Yep! Such container breakouts exist even today in Citrix !

    Shit like this was what got me into cybersecurity

    krolden ,
    @krolden@lemmy.ml avatar

    Parents shouldn’t teach kids to use snaps

    jjlinux ,

    Someone had to say it 🤣🤣

    joewilliams007 ,
    @joewilliams007@kbin.melroy.org avatar

    dont use parental controls. Its fake, doesnt make sense, and limits learn oportunities. Any Linux works out. Linux Mint works great

    TimeSquirrel ,
    @TimeSquirrel@kbin.social avatar

    dont use parental controls

    That's how you get your kid to encounter MLP porn. Or worse, discover Gab and 4chan.

    vzq , (edited )

    And then you’d have to talk to them about it. Can you imagine the horror!

    TimeSquirrel ,
    @TimeSquirrel@kbin.social avatar

    Who said I'd never talk to them about it? I'd just like to do it in a controlled manner at an appropriate age and prepare them without them seeing the most depraved shit right off the bat. Is that unreasonable?

    Don't assume the intentions of other people.

    Jennykichu ,
    @Jennykichu@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

    I know your intentions are good but if my kid stumbled across gore or animal abuse they’re going to require a level of “talking to” that is waaay beyond my skill level, and a content blocker is a lot cheaper than a child psychologist.

    ceasarlegsvin ,

    Early access in a controlled environment is a really good way to make sure people don't fall down rabbit holes.

    Obviously it depends how old, but if you block a specific website it's only a matter of time before they work out a way around the block

    Fizz ,
    @Fizz@lemmy.nz avatar

    Thats when you show them the picture of 4chan meetups and ask them if they want to end up like that.

    GolfNovemberUniform ,
    @GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml avatar

    Custom DNS settings?

    TimeSquirrel , (edited )
    @TimeSquirrel@kbin.social avatar

    I use a combo of Pihole + OpenDNS with filters. And my kid's user account does not have privileges to change network settings. Yet. Things will be enabled one by one in due time until he's in 100% control of his own computer.

    And if he actually knows what a DNS server is and is digging around for the setting, and trying to hack my shit, then I'd say he's ready for the "adult" computing world.

    fl42v ,

    Bypassing parental control is a great learning opportunity, tho :D

    cybersandwich ,

    Probably have a porn and PC game filter to thank for my career in IT

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