[gr8r]

One of the best tools is to be a role model for the kids: let them see what you use the internet for, how you use it, what you avoid and what else you use the phone/computer for. Both parents and if possible the bigger circle around the kids.

Beyond that, I will look for the good replies on this post - I am leaning towards "big hammer" blocking and allowing/curating sites/videos. The Internet is a big place.

[Brajeshwar]

This is something I realized long back when I tried to move away from Physical Books to the Amazon Kindle. My daughter, “But you are not reading a book, you are playing or watching on your new Gadget.” I decided against that and my physical to kindle ratio is about 1:5. Same goes for phone, device, usage, etc. It is hard but I try.

I'm also trying to teach my kids the idea of files and how everything on the computer are pretty much all files.

[gr8r]

> I'm also trying to teach my kids the idea of files and how everything on the computer are pretty much all files.

Interesting. As a generation that grew up on Windows, that's probably my mental model as well. Keeping specific files like music, videos, photos organized and sharing them on pen-drives was a big thing even 10 years ago - and to an extent, this is completely gone. Can you expand why you want to teach that?

[Nifty3929]

For me, it's the concept of how computers actually work under the hood that I want my kids to have a grasp on. It's all files in a file system, and they all do different things. And that's different than what might be going on when you load a website, though it's all (sorta) files on the other end of that as well.

Files have metadata that describes to the operating system what they are for, and how they are to be used.

Etc, etc.

This is information that I think will be very enlightening for them, even though not strictly required to operate a computer these days.

[Brajeshwar]

Steph, CEO of Obsidian, does it better at https://stephango.com/file-over-app

[CharlesW]

> One of the best tools is to be a role model for the kids

It's more generous to assume that the OP is asking what tools they should consider to support, rather than replace, their parental duties.

[orsenthil]

> One of the best tools is to be a role model for the kids.

It is a good model, but it depends on the age of the kid too. More mature kids will follow through, but all of them, including adults, will need help when the attack is strong from online companies.