Ask HN: What kind of setup do you run for your children?

[mattwdelong]

I have a 6 year old daughter I want to get setup with a custom desktop. I am thinking about running a custom Linux distribution on an old iMac (form factor) and lock it down via custom DNS/keep it offline. Curious what you are running for your kids?

[krschacht]

I don’t lock down my kids computer use. I know risks exist, but I think their unrestricted access to computers and the internet is far more beneficial than harmful.

I know I’m highly unusual amongst my friends. I’ve also found it odd that the more knowledgeable someone is about tech, the more scared they are of their kids using the internet.

But just like riding a bike and swimming in a pool are extremely dangerous, yet I encourage my kids to do both of these things and instead just educate them about risks. Similarly, I think the benefit-vs-risk of the internet is FAR better than a bike & pool, so I just educate them.

[tstrimple]

I've had a lot of luck with this approach as well. So much so that I struggle to relate at all with the paranoid posts I see constantly on HN. My children aren't tiktok zombies despite them being allowed to use tiktok as long as they want during the day. It turns out they have lots of other things they would rather be doing including reading and playing instruments and hanging out with their friends online and in person.

[fogzen]

My 5 year old has his own iPad. We choose which games he can install, and he uses YouTube kids to watch videos (which we curate).

He plays all sorts of games: Monument Valley, Hello Kitty Adventure Island, What the Car, and more.

He also uses a few “learn to read” apps like Teach Your Monster and Khan Academy Kids.

We generally don’t restrict his hours on it, but also ensure he goes outside daily for walks, playground trips, or to ride his bike. He seems to regulate his usage on his own, he’ll get bored after a while and do something else. When he gets into a game he’ll spend a lot of hours on it, then beat it or lose interest. Some of the games require reading so he will ask me to play with him so I can read things or tell him what to do.

There seems to be a lot of moral or health concern from other parents regarding devices, and many at his preschool did not allow any device usage. But I haven’t found those concerns to be based on anything tangible.

[briangray]

I have a good amount of experience with this and wrote up a very long recommendation. Many of the parents I've worked with have different reasons for introducing their kids to tech. Without knowing your 'why', I thought I'd just post the bullet points.

- Set up a mini PC/Raspberry Pi. Use a simple Linux distro or older version of Windows and install GCompri on it. No need for internet. Show them how to open notepad, paint, and just let them play.

- At a later age, build a PC with them. Linux Mint gives all the basic software needed. Let them continue to explore.

- Set up some tools for access control and monitoring. Then talk to them about the internet and slowly introduce them to it.

Overall, this has been a fantastic way to introduce technology, its benefits and downsides, without giving in to the firehose of the modern internet or strictly blocking it out entirely.

[ferguess_k]

I'm going to do the same thing when my son is older. 6-yr old is a bit stretch as he is easily addicted to TV so I think computer is definitely another level up. Maybe 7-yr old is better. But I need to do it before his friends introduce pads and phones to him so definitely before 8.

I'm thinking about getting a Rpi box slapped with an old monitor, a keyboard and a mouse. It should go straight into MS-DOS after booting -- from an emulator of course. Then I'll introduce my childhood to him. Not sure if it's the best idea, but at least he can play old MS-DOS games starting from the self-bootable ones like Alley cat.

I'll introduce game programming to him using QBASIC. I probably have to learn it with him as I never learned it when I was young.

[grugdev42]

I assume you are concerned with keeping your children safe? If so, whether the computer has an internet connection is much more important than the OS.

I would rather have my children use Windows offline, rather than Linux online. There is simply too much bad stuff out there regardless of the OS.

Another thing to consider is what their school uses. If you want to give them an advantage at school, use the same OS. They will already be more familiar with it!

[g8oz]

NextDNS.io gives you fine grained controls - you can set up a custom profile to apply to her device.

If you're going to run Linux she will enjoy using TuxPaint and playing Tux Racer.

[Desafinado]

I converted my Windows PC to Linux Mint and let my kids play GCompris on there, which is an educational, non-addictive game suite. As of now neither of them know that the internet exists, and my wife and I keep them away from screens as much as possible.

Once the flood breaks and they discover the internet we'll be using NextDNS.

[eevmanu]

Six years old might be too early to incentivize screen use, though I'd encourage you to research this yourself rather than taking internet comments at face value.

That said, I think there's a distinction between screens and computing itself. You could introduce her to computing power through voice interfaces: a smart speaker connected to an LLM could let her search, learn, and interact with information hands-free. You'd have control over the system prompts for safety, and could whitelist reliable sources for her queries.

Yes, visual information density is higher than audio, but the downsides of early screen exposure might outweigh that efficiency gain. Voice-first computing could be a middle ground, she gets to explore what computers can do without the attention/addiction patterns that screens introduce.

Just one perspective, obviously. Worth doing your own research on the developmental tradeoffs.

[nelop]

I just let them use my ubuntu machine, they 50% of what they do is through a browser, so have setup their own profile, and the other 50% is gaming.

[raw_anon_1111]

You’re really over complicating things - get them an iPad and a ruggedized case and turn on parental controls.

Later get them a Mac with parental controls.

[marconey]

The screentime controls as part of an Apple family are great - downtime - time limits per app - approval needed to install apps - communications controls

Highly recommended

[syndacks]

Crayons, paper, some magnatiles.

[JohnFen]

At 6? Honestly, I wouldn't (and didn't) provide a setup at all at that age.