Yesterday I set up an old laptop for my daughter (8 yo), installing Ubuntu 14.04 LTS with some nice educational software. She will be the only user of this PC, meaning that there is no risk about editing/deleting etc. important files, my only concern is what is going to happen when she surfs the Internet. What I did so far, I set up the wireless connection to use just OpenDNS's familyshield DNS's. This seems a good solution, but still (she likes going on youtube) not 100% safe, maybe. For the moment I do not focus on privacy too much, the main goal here is to achieve a kinda safe surfing. Any suggestion from you guys? By the way: What I like very much is that she is going to learn Linux very quickly, as all children do. In school they still use XP...but Linux is so much more fun!
Maybe you're not focusing on privacy very much. But I do recommend teaching her to be careful about what she says and does online. It's really no different from warning her against playing in the street, getting in strangers' cars, and so on. I also believe that children should be taught to use pseudonyms.
Well, I do care about privacy. But some privacy tools (VPN, etc.) can be complicated to use for her. I want her to start and work in autonomy. But you are right, better to start building some privacy/security awareness from the very beginning. mmhm..I need to think how to do it. Thanks mirimir.
You mean parental control, or just blocking dangerous sites? Anyway for both purpose you can use Squid + Dansguardian + URLBlacklist (paid), and if you want even can add ClamAV's http scan. I did it on Ubuntu12.04LTS but removed all Linux after that, so don't know if something has changed.
