this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2025
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Allow listing sounds like the better solution. Ie the device had a list of remotes approved by the parents.
That way there's no need to police every website in the world in perpetuity.
Listing already exists, but in practice it's quite impractical, mainly because it's either not granular enough or too granular.
If the listing feature allows me to allow/deny on a domain basis, then allowing Wikipedia for example would mean that I'd also allow all the non-child-friendly content on there too. Like the literal full-length porn videos or the photographies of genital torture that are on there. And if I block all of Wikipedia, I also block all of the hundreds of thousands of informative and totally child-acceptable pages on there.
If, on the other hand, I allow/deny on a per-page basis, then using the internet becomes nigh unmanageable, because each click of my kid requires me to allow/deny the next page. It's not that often when using the internet that you access the same exact url every day without clicking to sub-pages.
A header would solve that issue. That way I could e.g. allow all Wikipedia articles that are rated for ages 6 and that's ok. The rating should of course be like for movies, so that it doesn't mean that a child would understand the articles, but that there's nothing child-endangering in there like the videos and images (and accompanying texts) mentioned above.
Or just block wikipedia and use one of the many encyclopedia websites designed for kids instead (1), (2). This has the benefit of having your goals met, without making the world a worse place for everyone else.
It still requires arbitration of every digitally communicated thought, whether it's age appropriate and to what degree. It's mass thought policing, as well as trying to enforce a cookiecutter morality on every person.
I get the desire to enforce thoughts on someone else. But fight it, please. At least let people be free in their own mind.
Especially since the tools to achieve your stated goal, protection of your child(ren), are already available. So you can perform your censorship desire in the confinement of your family bubble. No need for collateral damage.
Waauw, you really are unsympathetic.
Good example: they are already used for example to censor the idea of non-heterosexual relationships (1). Don't let them expand it, or give them even more tools, please.
Your stated goals already are achievable with existing tools.