Hello there, I’m a enthusiastic of linux OS in general, first time trying Haiku and using a old laptop with the intend of putting retroarch and some old computer games, so my nephew can enjoy a little of what my childhood was.
However my nephew occasionally has access to his mother smartphone, and is already consuming a lot of dopamine from social media stuff (he’s only 8!), I don’t want him to do the same with the laptop I’m setting up for his use.
As a newbie using Haiku for first time, what would you recommend me to do? Should I disable the browser or there’s some way to limit it only for research and study purposes?
I’m exciting to introduce him to a open source environment, I honestly thinks it may be very good for his future if pointed in the right direction.
You cannot restrict a user on haiku since there is (for now) only one usable account with full privileges.
You could use a filter on your router / internet access to filter your web traffic.
Did you already try to talk with him about the social media stuff and the negative effects of it?
Besides parental controls not available on Haiku,I’m also personally not a big fan of those technical restrictions as they clearly signal to children that you don’t trust them,and when they get older they’ll learn to circumvent them anyways.
Instead,why not tell him about the evil/shady stuff Facebook and the likes do and see if he understands it and avoids using such sites voluntarily?
Additionally you can setup a DNS-based adblocker like https://pi-hole.net and use it for that machine,or even better,your whole network.
Nobody should be forced to see ads,and you can extend the filter lists of Pi-hole to also block some specific sites that you don’t want your nephew to visit - also works for the smartphone if it’s in the same network and configured properly.
If you would like to limit the reach and access of the internet on the device you can use a hosts blockist based on the /etc/hosts file
One example would be steven blacks host file GitHub - StevenBlack/hosts: 🔒 Consolidating and extending hosts files from several well-curated sources. Optionally pick extensions for porn, social media, and other categories.
The Unified hosts + fakenews + gambling + porn + social option should provide roughly what you are looking for.
Keep in mind that this is not a proper parental control and can easily be circumvented with the know how, but perhaps that is also the goal with open source ; )