"Kid-safe" Firefox addon implements whitelist "bubble"

[unixronin]

I think the developers behind this idea are well-intentioned, but haven't really thought the problem through.  The odds are any whitelist of allowed sites that any but the most narrow-minded and blinkered parents are going to be able to assemble is going to be so closed-in it'll be of little use to anyone — and frankly, people whose idea of the sum of acceptible content on the Web can be fit into a manageable whitelist probably aren't going to be letting their kids on the Internet anyway, lest they encounter (the horror!) a new concept or unapproved idea.

Afterthought:

There is always the possibility, of course, that it's been written to allow you to "subscribe" to someone else's published whitelist (rather in the fashion of AdBlock Plus and Filterset.G for spam control).  This could make the process manageable, by allowing you to simply pick a published whitelist (or group of whitelists) that more or less matches what you want your kids to have access to.

Of course, there's still the potential for the Little Metal Box scenario (for instance, I can quite see someone publishing a whitelist that contains only Conservapedia and sites linked from Conservapedia), but when has that ever not been so?  As long as there are people who are afraid of unapproved ideas, there will be people who want to control what other people are allowed to read, hear, see, and think.

Comments

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

Am I the only one who thinks these things are pointless? I do OK with the computer smarts, but if I put a block on the computer, I expect any one of my kids to find a way around it (not a bad way to develop computer skills in kids, but still...) If I can't trust my kids, why am I letting them use one of my computers? The whole point fails for me on several levels.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Exactly. As I think the article mentioned, any smart 10-year-old should be able to find a way around it.

[laurarey.livejournal.com]

The idea of subscribing to other's white lists is a good one. Since I don't have kids, and Angus-puppy and Lucy-dawg don't abuse their internet privileges, I don't typically think about such things.

The closest they came was when I put up multiple web cams at my house in Denver and Lucy got hold of one of them and chewed it to pieces while it was still connected. We watched on two cams: one from about ten feet away and the other took lovely shots of the inside of her mouth.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Pictures! Pictures! :)