[hackerknew]

Years ago, I set up https://mitmproxy.org on a Raspberry Pi and used it to get logs of every site that my kids would visit. I should be clear that monitoring/spying != parenting, but it definitely made me feel a little better to have some idea of what the kids are using the internet for.

From a technical perspective, it did exactly what you want. I had logs of full urls (not just domains). So, for example, I could view what they googled and when, if I wanted to anyway.

It did involve installing a certificate on the computer that they use, but there are how-to guides so setting everything up was simply a matter of following instructions.

The biggest drawback is that it noticeably slowed their internet. I imagine if I had run this on a more powerful computer it may have been better.

---

Note, for those suggesting PiHole, it is very good for getting logs of domains accessed, but not very informative. For example, you can tell that a computer accessed "youtube.com" at a certain time, but not what was actually viewed. That may be obvious to many of us, but just clarifying in case it is not obvious to the OP.

[AStonesThrow]

I am thankful that you take an interest in your children's activities.

From a very early age, we invited virtual strangers and machines into our home. Before my First Communion, my best friends were the Little Engine That Could, Dr. Seuss, Atari 2600, Mr. Rogers, and cassettes from K-TEL.

Typically parents may discuss with children what they saw on TV or read in a book, or how their school day went. Have introductions to friends and peers, get to know who we're hanging out with. Our parents seemed actively disinterested in our interior lives, and intent on doing their adult duties while we were unneeded.

It became readily apparent that, more than anyone else, strangers and machines were more interested in my activities and interests. There were no supportive or encouraging friendships for me in class or in the neighborhood.

And with human connection and relationships that broken, it was inevitable that we escaped into cyberspace and fantasies. In fact, I attribute my paranoia and fear/hatred of other humans to this. "Beat Me, Bore Me, But Never Ignore Me" was my motto.

We'd been adopted, and our parents were just in the lineup of caretakers for pets. We grew up to be excellent pets.

[brianstrimp]

> So, for example, I could view what they googled and when, if I wanted to anyway.

How old are your kids and do they know you are doing this? There surely is a difference between a 5- and a 15-year old. But if they are not at all aware they are constantly being watched like that, man that's some serious breach of trust. This full-on surveillance could damage your kids for life.

I'm so glad this kind of tech hardly existed when I was a kid 30 years ago.

[therein]

This tech existed 30 years ago, just wasn't packaged up for easy deployment. As late as 2012 you could MITM people in your network, even without being the person managing the router. ARP poisoning and mitmproxy or just some intelligent reverse proxy, you could pick up the cookies, URLs, and POST data for all the requests in the network.

[brianstrimp]

Sure, a computer nerd dad could have somehow surveilled me dialling into some BBS with my 28.8 kbps modem, but the number of people in the world that actually did this to their kids can probably be counted on one hand, and they were all psychos.

MITM-ing https google searches with a custom root cert today, man, you don't want to leave your kids any privacy? Do you also have hidden cameras in their bedroom? That's roughly on the same level.

[chgs]

Yet people are fine about their employers doing it

[groby_b]

Because that's with awareness and consent? That's a significant difference.

[hackeraccount]

This is 100% the difference.

That said I think the bar for telling people how to raise their kids is super super high.

[chgs]

The internet of 1995 is very different from the internet of today.

[hackeraccount]

I know where you're coming from but there's something that's a bit off for me.

The way I think about it is if I take my daughter to the park and let her run around. I have my eye on her of course and she knows that I have my eye on her.

I'd be less comfortable if I told her to go the park and have fun but then without her knowing went over to the park and watched over her.

If she was annoyed by this I couldn't blame her. I wouldn't really want to get in a situation where I'm worried she'll find out I'm surreptitiously spying on her.

If on the other hand it's the first scenario where everything is in the open and she's not happy with that - she's running away where I can't keep an eye her - then we can talk about it and as the parent if worse comes worse I can just say, OK no more going to the park because we can't come to a place where we're both happy.

At the end of the day though I don't want to be going to the park with my daughter. I want her to go by herself and not get up into shenanigans. The whole thing I'm doing is to raise her in a way that when she's on her own she's aware of what's bad/dangerous/stupid and doesn't do that.

Monitoring her (especially without her knowledge ) is only tangentially related to the goal. And if I'm doing it on the sly how do I let her know? Say, daughter, if you were in a park and if some guy offered you candy, you'd say no, right? Further wouldn't that give away the game that I'd been spying on her?

[StimDeck]

For MITM like this you need to install certificates into the devices and it won’t work for apps with pinned certificates.