Internet blocking

[bethben]

I have a high schooler that needs internet blocking where she can only access certain sites.  She is highly distracted and while we have the computer in the kitchen where I can always see what she’s doing, she still flips to other sites she knows she’s not supposed to look at while she’s supposed to be doing school.  Then an argument ensues.  I can’t do this anymore.  I went to best buy to ask advice and their solution was windows 365 which is $100 a year and gives me all sorts of things I don’t need.  I just need to focus her.  I can do screen time on the iPad, but it’s a little annoying to use due to screen size.  The Mac she’s using has a feature like this, but constantly has pop up windows asking for permission to load phantom websites running in the back ground.  
 

Thanks!

Beth who hates hates homeschooling but couldn’t find a smaller public school or private school that would work with a child with lower than average math comprehension (I tried really hard).

[Rosie_0801]

Is this inconveniencing you or just irritating?

I'm pretty sure everyone does this when they're bored or need to make a bit of room in their head. Before hand held tech was invented, we stared out the window or fidgeted around dropping our pencils.

[ScoutTN]

Parental control software is not free. We have used Norton Family and Qustodio and Bark for various situations over the years. They have done what we needed to do - limit access much like you have described. 

[bethben]

On 9/18/2023 at 6:09 PM, Rosie_0801 said:

Is this inconveniencing you or just irritating?

I'm pretty sure everyone does this when they're bored or need to make a bit of room in their head. Before hand held tech was invented, we stared out the window or fidgeted around dropping our pencils.

She's not focused at all.  It's like a small child having a comic book next to the book they're supposed to be reading for school and reading a paragraph in the book, then 10 minutes in the comic book.  Then mom comes in and tells them to read their book for school and the cycle starts all over again.  For my sanity, she needs to work in her room, but won't be able to until I can content manage her computer without "me" having to be the content manager.  Homeschooling is something I REALLY don't want to do but feel like I have no good options available. 

[bethben]

On 9/18/2023 at 7:00 PM, ScoutTN said:

Parental control software is not free. We have used Norton Family and Qustodio and Bark for various situations over the years. They have done what we needed to do - limit access much like you have described. 

Do any of these allow the child to disable the app without the parent knowing it?

 

[saw]

Some random thoughts: Spyrix is expensive but allows you to get screenshots and recordings of the monitored laptop so you can just check later. You might also want to look into employee monitoring software rather than looking for kid software.

IME kids can find a way around pretty much anything; if you do a Google search, you'll find some reviews of monitoring software that focus on that aspect.

I found Qustodio didn't really work well.

Also disable incognito mode. Doesn't help that much but make it harder to mess around. I

f it's a Mac, I find the screentime pretty useless tbh.

What has worked here is lots of monitoring, lots of discussion about work time and play time, and a complete ban on certain distractions like Minecraft because my kid cannot just play for 30 minutes. 

[cintinative]

Sometimes this is a sort of avoidance behavior.  Even I find that when a book is a really difficult read, I am tempted to go surf the web.  Is this only happening during certain subjects, or all subjects?

[ScoutTN]

3 hours ago, bethben said:

Do any of these allow the child to disable the app without the parent knowing it?

 

So far, that has not happened here. We also use the app for our router to turn off internet access to a particular laptop. 
 

Kid logs in on his acct. He is not the admin and has limited abilities to change settings, download etc. 

Edited September 20, 2023 by ScoutTN

[ieta_cassiopeia]

At some point, any software internet blocking, however fancy, relies on the consent or at least compliance of the person being blocked. A sufficiently determined person, with sufficient motive and given sufficient time, will be able to break any home internet blocking solution done in software.

The first thing to establish is whether your high schooler is, at least in theory, willing to consent to deliberate restriction of their internet. I would recommend discussing it as a calm and pragmatic measure that can be turned off if the high schooler no longer benefits from it. It is also worth explaining that what I propose below is a simplified version of the proctoring system that online exams use in order to allow students to take exams from home instead of always having to go to an exam room to do them, so it is good preparation for the future.

If that consent can be obtained, I would recommend the following course of action:
 

1) Pick a browser together, that allows the school work you want to have done to be done and both of you like. If you have a Windows computer, you could even consider having a portable app version of the browser (this allows you to have a single-tabbed version specifically for schoolwork, with a separate shortcut and separate settings to "fun" time. All the major browsers have a method of doing this, in some cases multiple methods.

2) Install that browser.

3) Add an extension or addon that restricts the browser to one tab. Firefox has options like One Tab and Single Tab. Chrome has a Single Tab Mode as well as One Tab (which may be a different extension to the Firefox one). Edge likely has something suitable as well, but I don't know the extensions environment for it as well.

4) Use some sort of tool for checking internet history, which can be as simple as having a randomised backup of the folder which contains the internet history file for that browser, and checking it at your leisure. Discuss anything more complicated than this with your student.

It's possible to also do fancier things like dual-booting, but that's not a measure I'd recommend in the first instance, even to someone with infinite technical skill and confidence. Consent, understanding plus a simple system that the student can easily understand and apply to themselves once living away from home is better.