Trying parental controls

[TheJ]

After being inspired by a story, I decided to try setting up parental controls on my smartphone. I had been using Android's Digital Wellbeing already to limit my screen time in the apps that you're designed to get lost into. It was helping a bit, but I took it a step further with Google's Family Link.

It was bit of a pain to set up at first, but after getting through the few bugs in the setup process, it seems to be working fine. I made a new Google account for the purpose of controlling the one signed in on my phone. You can set up time limits per app, always available apps, downtime and content restrictions. I set up limits per app at first to lock the apps that were problematic to me before I've lost hours to them in a day. Sadly those didn't work. For some reason the timers didn't reset overnight and they stayed locked the next day. I changed to use just the overall screen time which means all the apps that aren't set to always available will lock when the screen time runs out. Because I of course need to adult with my phone, I set the messaging apps, e-banking and such to always available. I didn't set up all that many content restrictions, because adulting. If I had someone in charge of them, I would want to try them during a play day. The downtime locks the phone entirely for a set time, but you should be able to make calls or receive them. I scheduled that for sleeping.

There's also many possibilities for enforcing a power dynamic. The content restrictions I mentioned. You could set them so the user has to request their caregiver to approve any app installation. You can set age limits for the apps the user can install. The user can request more screen time when they run out. The caregiver can block the use of an installed app entirely or manually lock the phone. They can force the user to request permission every time they try to sing into a device with their Google account. If the user only has Chrome browser installed, it's possible to filter which websites they can access and enforce SafeSearch on Google. However, you can't see the websites the user has visited or their search history, which is a positive thing in my opinion. The caregiver can turn on restricted mode on YouTube, which turns off the comments and stops the user from watching age restricted videos. There's location sharing as well, although many people already have another method to check where their loved ones are in case of an emergency. The caregiver can have the app send them notifications when the phone leaves an assigned location.

I'll detail my settings below for the more curious ones, but I have to say the parental controls on my phone and scheduling offline time to my other devices from my router have helped me stick to a bedtime a whole lot better. I know I can turn them off at any time. I have an old tablet that I use just to adjust the settings in the Family Link app, although it's also possible in a browser on PC. However, it's just enough more effort to go add more screen time or change the downtime schedule that I don't do it. Doing it would also give a greater feeling of failure than browsing Instagram without limits late into the night would. I also love the slight feeling it gives me, the feeling of not being trusted to use a phone without limits, even when I'm enforcing it myself. I should mention that I'm a student, so I often have weeks without or with very few lectures and I'm supposed to schedule my work myself. Hence the issues with sticking to bedtimes.

There are some risks as always with technology. I haven't memorized the password of the account in charge of the parental controls. It's a generated password in a password manager. When my phone locks for downtime I can't access the password manager app, so if I'm out and about at night without a secondary device, I'll be locked out of my phone. It means I need to remember to change the downtime schedule or turn it off for nights like that. The app has also had some bugs, but nothing serious yet. There's the small chance of a bug locking me out. The risk of someone hijacking the Google account is quite low. I have a strong password and two-factor authentication on it and I don't use the account for anything else. There are the privacy concerns with Google, but I want to think they're somewhat worried about getting fined for not following the general data protection regulation (GDPR). Feel free to educate me on how naïve I am.

Has anyone else set up parental controls for their devices or does someone even have a caregiver in charge of them?

 

My settings

Screen time: 1 h 30 min on weekdays, 3 h on weekends
Downtime: 23:00-6:00 on nights before weekdays, 23:59-07:00 Friday-Saturday and Saturday-Sunday.*

Content restrictions: 
Play Store: PEGI 12 limit

*I will probably move the downtime to start sooner on weekdays as I get used to it.

[Little_Mouse]

Very interesting and also a fun idea to create a "parental control" to control and limit your own mobile usage. Not only as selfcare for your adult self.

But also when you are in your little 8-year-old headspace. And remember that an 8-year-old need at least 9 hours good uninterrupted sleep. So as a parent I would set downtime from 8:00 pm to 8:00 am. And don’t forget no screentime during breakfast, lunch, dinner and diaper changes (I expect that your 8-year-old persona needs diapers day and night ☺️)

Personally, I have far too much screen time. However, I have set my "do not disturb" function to active from 22:00-09:00 for all days of the week. This means that I can only receive calls from a very few selected people and no SMS, email etc. notifications from other services during that downtime.

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

I do not think it is smart to use such things with your adult gear like smartphones since you may make them unable to meet adult requirements, which could have consequencess. Now I specialize in "extrusion"; bringing AK things from the digital to the fexternal realm, such as stationery and stickers, personal care items and the like but you would not use RUFFLES & RIBBONS GIRLS' HOME stationery to send a note to your boss unless you worked at Bearz, ABU, Babykins or the like. Nor would you share the Playroom at LITTLE CHRISTINE'S DOLLHOUSE with  co-workers, or, if such existed, LB equivalents.. Besides, what would happen to any links to DD with parental controls?

If you are going to extrude, do so wisely

[TheJ]

14 hours ago, Little_Mouse said:

Personally, I have far too much screen time. However, I have set my "do not disturb" function to active from 22:00-09:00 for all days of the week. This means that I can only receive calls from a very few selected people and no SMS, email etc. notifications from other services during that downtime.

I do use DND as well. In addition to receiving calls from favourite contacts I've enabled repeat callers, so same caller trying to get through twice within 15 minutes can reach me.

 

12 hours ago, Little BabyDoll Christine said:

I do not think it is smart to use such things with your adult gear like smartphones since you may make them unable to meet adult requirements, which could have consequencess.

I understand the concern. I would say I've made it rather minimally obtrusive. I only really use the screen time limits and downtime. If I just changed the Google account password to something I can memorise, I would be fully in control of it with just the illusion of not being, even when I only have my phone on me.

I shortly considered using the content restrictions too, but decided it would just be a nuisance in everyday life.

[BabyCharley]

I have a parental control app on mine too. I use FamilyTime I think is was $20 or so a year. Kinda glitchy sometimes but I use it in a similar way as the original user. 1h 30m limit on social/game apps per day and completely locked out during bedtime, dinner time, and when I'm supposed to ve getting dressed. I can bank any unused time to add to my weekend allotment. When working properly mine also dings mommy's phone when I arrive/leave certain places. My screen time and bedtime are dependent on my potty habits. Screen time ranges feom 90 min- 3 hrs and bedtimes range from 830-930. 

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

Do they still have Net Nanny and Cyber Patrol? That was recommended by RUFFLES & RIBBONS GIRLS' HOME to any perents who found their underage kids there to keep it from happening any more

[Pampertimmy]

In my playroom my cable box is set to preschool or younger. I like it because a baby wouldn’t be allowed to watch big kid or adult shows I watch a lot of Peppa Pig, Blues Clues, and many other shows for toddlers.

[tommyneedsdiapers90]

i do have screen timers on my IG and facebook on my phone moreso for my general mindfulness, not just a little thing. on my cable box i have a list of favorite channels that are all disney/nick jr etc. i love watching tubi or pluto tv in little space and i have parent/kid accounts there that dont let me see anything over G even if i want. 

[AuroraRose]

Feels similar here, Mommy has been using qustodio on my pc for quite a while to help make sure I'm going to bed on time and being good.

 

[TheJ]

On 7/25/2023 at 11:24 PM, Little BabyDoll Christine said:

Do they still have Net Nanny and Cyber Patrol? That was recommended by RUFFLES & RIBBONS GIRLS' HOME to any perents who found their underage kids there to keep it from happening any more

Net Nanny is still around. Whether it has anything to do with the original in addition to the name is another thing. I don't know about Cyber Patrol. Net Nanny was sort of synonymous to parental controls back in time, but I don't think they are the market leader nowadays.

 

On 8/10/2023 at 12:13 PM, AuroraRose said:

Feels similar here, Mommy has been using qustodio on my pc for quite a while to help make sure I'm going to bed on time and being good.

I also installed Qustodio to my desktop PC when I found out about the free version. Because you can only install the free version on one device, here I am typing away on my laptop in the middle of the night... Having typed that I feel as guilty as I should and will go to sleep.

[Cmp]

The only devices that are adult compatible are my iPhone and iPad all over devices are set to the lowest level of perennial control. 
my cable box I can really only watch toddler channels and my Netflix and Amazon prime is set to children’s. 
I only have games that are for children under 10 . 
and the thing is I don’t have any passwords for them or codes