Kidsafe Android?

[Mercutio]

Here's a funny issue. Not my deal but somebody asked me and I have no goddamned idea.
Android has had multi-user mode on devices since KitKat. Not every Android device vendor supports mutli-user, even on Lollipop. Somehow, it's optional and apparently less common on devices with Intel CPUs, which at this point seems to include a lot of inexpensive tablets.

Many Android devices do have a Kid Mode, but Kid Mode usually means using a restricted launcher, but after playing with a couple devices that have one, I see the problem since they don't give access to Youtube or the Web. If the goal is to keep the kid out of messaging apps and the camera, but trust them on the web, how does one handle that? And if they're using Chrome and Chrome inherits the credential of the Google account on the device as seems to be the case by Android default, how does that stop them from getting in to a parents' account? I also notice that the Kid Mode implementations tend to either completely remove the notification bar (no indication of charge remaining, sound volume or network connection) or else allow the kid full access to it (kid can see whatever notifications, even if they can't open the apps).

So make the kid their own Google account and just put the stuff on that they want? Then what do you do about purchased games and such? Google doesn't allow app gifting or transfers between accounts. Tell mom to buy Minecraft and Five Nights at Freddy's again, but using gift cards so it's assigned to their own account?

I've been telling parents that Android can create multiple user accounts for child safety, but now that I'm looking in to it, it seems to be poorly and/or sparsely implemented, at least on Acer and Asus tablets like the ones I was looking at last night.

Anybody been through this? The kids under discussion were boys ages 11 and 13, respectively.

 

[ddrueding]

Not at that age yet, but I am interested in any solution you come to. I've given the kid their own tablet that doesn't know the password to the WiFi. Any videos she likes watching I download and copy to local storage. No kid mode used at all.

 

[Mercutio]

I can get App Lock-type deals where you can cut off access to specific software and allow other things, but nothing so granular as to allow access to portions but not all of the Settings menu. Youtube is particularly troubling because it's all over the place. Allowing access probably means a kid is going to watch hours of Minecraft videos ("what mom thinks they're doing") but then maybe they're also watching NLP Pickup Artist Gamergate Assholes or getting their lady advice from Donald Trump or something. And at 12 or 13, it's entirely possible that they're doing both.

 

[Will Rickards]

youtube has a kids mode. But there are certain restrictions on using it.
To enforce it you need custom dns capability.
It is literally just a setting on your youtube account.
So logging off removes the restriction.
I think there is a way to do it via redirects.
Similarly locking down google search results is problematic as well.

The nabi tablet had restrictions and a parent mode where you can give them specific apps.
But that thing was pretty terrible as far as battery life and crashing.
I wouldn't recommend it.

The amazon tablets have parental controls. But youtube I believe is all or nothing.
And there are even apps that are designed to get around youtube restrictions.

 

[Mercutio]

I know about Amazon Freetime, but I suppose I'm looking for something like Windows Group Policies, but that stuff requires G Suite and Apps for Business or Education-type accounts. I'm surprised there isn't a set of interfaces for parents, because these are things that would make sense for it to have. Seems like Windows is much, much better in this area, if only because of its maturity as a platform.