Child friendly Zorin

Chat about Zorin
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Can Zorin be made child friendly to stop certain stuff from being done, prevent mistakes etc?

Will the Zorin grid be useful in that respect?

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Hi @smithy, welcome to the forum!

It’s possible to make Zorin OS more child-friendly with these options:

Timekpr-next

Timekpr-next is a Parental Control app that allows you to control the hours when a child can use the computer, and locks access to its use when you set it to do so. You can install it by opening the Terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and entering this command:
sudo apt install timekpr-next

Web filtering

For web filtering we would recommend using a DNS Parental Control service such as OpenDNS FamilyGuard which allows you to block individual websites as well as entire categories of websites. You can find out more about these DNS Parental Control services on this page: https://www.geckoandfly.com/11638/free-parental-control-software/

Veyon

If you want to visually monitor what’s happening on one or many computers in real time, you can install an app called Veyon by entering this command in the Terminal:
sudo apt install veyon
This app is more targeted towards use in schools and classrooms, and is included in Zorin OS Education out of the box.

Standard user account

We would also recommend you to give children “Standard” user accounts instead of “Administrator” accounts, in order to avoid them from being able to override these settings or make changes to the system.

Zorin Grid

We’ll be releasing a version of Zorin Grid tailored for use in schools and classrooms at a more accessible price-point. It will have easy access to these kinds of child-friendly features.

However, Zorin Grid won’t be targeted at home users, at least from initial launch.

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You may also want to consider a firewall hardware box such as Firewalla:

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I understand that Zorin Grid will not be initially available to home users, but I can sure see the use case. It would allow me to support and manage installations among several family members.

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I understood SMITHY to be also asking “Is there a way to prevent a kid from ‘breaking’ Zorin
 so that the adult need not routinely tech support the unit too much.” A kind of Chromebook question maybe.

I’m guessing Standard User account might achieve that?

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Could I put in a plug for what SafeCast Global, the non-commercial division of my company, SafeCast is doing regarding child safety.

On the subject of protecting children from being harmed by content on television and the internet, earlier this week my company SafeCast was asked to outline its proposals to the World Wide Web consortium (W3C) as part of a drive towards open standards on the internet. This will be part of the W3C’s Technical Plenary meeting (“TPAC”) at the end of October 2020. Via an associate, who is a member of the W3C TPAC group, SafeCast has submitted a proposal for what is termed a “Breakout Session” on Online Harms during TPAC Breakout week (26-30 October 2020)

This is what SafeCast has proposed to W3C TPAC:

Online Harms – a European and UK perspective

  • Proposer: James Rosewell (talk) 16:29, 12 October 2020 (UTC)
  • Email address of proposer: james@51degrees.com
  • Summary (one-sentence or so): Presentation to cover a) the current state of online harm legislation in the UK and Europe including the Audio-Visual Media Services Directive (AVMS-D) on 1st November 2020; * b) child safety and the impact DNS over HTTPs is having; and c) the role of standards, laws and industry adoption in solutions.
  • Type of session: presentation (20 mins) followed by Q&A
  • Goals: Inform attendees about a full range of online harms, the risk of unintended consequences when addressing a narrow set in isolation, and the role that a technical standards body can play in improving the web for all.
  • Additional speakers/panelists: Alistair Kelman (ali.kelman@safecast.co.uk)
  • Apply to be a #Public_Breakout: yes
  • Timeslot: Any of 12pm–5pm UTC.

I should learn of the date and time of this virtual event early next week.

Additionally there is a page on my SafeCast Global site which asks people to sign a Change.Org Petition to go to national telecommunications regulators and governments.

Sign the Petition

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I’ve signed (anonymously) - my inbox is continually full of different worthy petitions - I get drained! I actually committed some funds to one worthy petition - Britains’ wealthiest millionaire was wanting to evict Tenants of the wealthiest part of London to build residences for the ‘super rich’, destroying communities that have lived there for many years.

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@JohnnyHart - yes, you just have them made a Standard User - that way they have no root privileges - if they try to install something they shouldn’t or remove something they shouldn’t, the user with administrator priveleges logon will come up asking for their password - so they shouldn’t be able to break it. :wink:

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Dears,
I Kindly ask if you know an App for parental control, that can limited the access to websites not for kids, with also notifications to the master client.

thanks in advance
Leo

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I believe Zorin Grid will be the tool that changes the game for Linux. I suspect that if promoted correctly new users will want it. Old users might switch, I would certainly love it for my family and children. Get it out to use for all as soon as possible even if we have to pay a small fee to use it, let’s have it, yes, yes, yes!

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