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Microsoft

Microsoft Edge Adds a 'Kids Mode' Limiting Browsing to 70 Web Sites (gizmodo.com) 66

Posted by EditorDavid from the strands-of-web dept.
"In Microsoft's ongoing endeavor to convert people to its rebooted Edge web browser, it's launching a new Kids Mode that makes it easy for parents to control how their children surf the web," reports Gizmodo: Parents have the choice between two versions, one for ages five to eight years and one for ages nine to 12 years. Both enable the strictest level of tracking prevention in Edge and Bing SafeSearch by default to filter out adult text, images, and videos from search results. The only difference between the two age ranges is that the older one includes a newsfeed with curated articles from MSN for Kids. Don't worry though: It focuses on more kid-friendly topics like fun science and animal facts rather than breaking news and politics, Microsoft said.

Kids Mode also restricts what sites kids have access to, with roughly 70 popular kids sites allowed from the get-go (any additional allowable sites have to be added to the list individually). If a child tries to view a site that's not on that list, they're met with a cutesy block page, pictured below, that prompts them to ask an adult for permission.
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Microsoft Edge Adds a 'Kids Mode' Limiting Browsing to 70 Web Sites More

Microsoft Edge Adds a 'Kids Mode' Limiting Browsing to 70 Web Sites

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  • Did anyone hear about locked down chromebooks (Score:5, Informative)

    by bobstreo ( 1320787 ) on Sunday April 18, 2021 @10:48AM (#61286610)

    in a school? The school blocked all chat sites.

    Then kids used Google Docs for groupchat.

    If there's a block, there's usually some kid smart enough to figure out getting around it. Maybe more than one.

    • Ha! Using Google Docs for group chats. I would never have thought of doing that.

      Which only shows that no matter what you code, users will always find ways to abuse it in ways you would never imagine.

      • When I was in high school, back in 1996 we had a network of IBM PCs throughout the building. It was high tech at the time. Novell networking, 5 servers named Alpha Beta Delta, the works. Well, I never used the "Gamma" server, so I opened a Microsoft Works document on it, and gave my password to everyone. We treated it like a bulletin board and it was a ton of fun. Human block chain... " so and so deleted this "... it was truly a unique experience for us all. It was anonymous, or not depending on if you put

        • Five servers, named Alpha Beta Delta... Well, I never used the "Gamma" server

          And it's a good thing you didn't! Do you know what The Dominion would have done to you if you ever logged on it!?

        • But gammas are stupid. They all wear green.
    • The best argument for systems like this is that it encourages kids to think about workarounds and security issues. We need more lock down browsers for kids so they all grow up to be good programmers and security experts.
      • Ha! A real world lab for kids to learn how to analyze and think. How does it help after the first kid figures it out and gives out the secret? All the snapchat instagram flavour of the day socmedia kids will only learn enough how to use it. (Why it makes me laugh when millennials dis genx and even some younger boomers with, 'we grew up using the internet, we are better at it than you.' My reply, 'we invented the fucking thing, we actually know how it works; not just thumbs on apps.')

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by rtb61 ( 674572 )

        So you create an entirely separate for minors internet. Using the same hardware just a different encrypted protocol which could be tied to firmware added into the computer, a chip into one of the ports to force the operation of that protocol on network connections.

        I bet you dimes to dollars M$ did not block one single ad, targeted at minors, using peer pressure tactics to warp their minds and make the addicted little consumers.

        The should be a separate secured internet linking schools to minors to create a

        • Everything you suggest could be done with a VPN into a secured network at the school with firewall rules for outside access. Students and teachers could interact on this secured network without worrying about little Johnny playing Minecraft while listening to his teacher. It would also prevent any of the video conferencing programs from being hijacked by someone not on the VPN.

          Outside connections could be pre-approved through the firewall for needed external resources for the students, and teachers coul

    • Re: Did anyone hear about locked down chromebooks (Score:5, Insightful)

      by lucasnate1 ( 4682951 ) on Sunday April 18, 2021 @12:44PM (#61286882) Homepage

      in a school? The school blocked all chat sites.

      Then kids used Google Docs for groupchat.

      Usually the main reason to block kids from chat sites is to prevent them from contacting a predator. If the kids rolled their own chat, which nobody except for them uses, it means that the block achieved its purpose.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by NFN_NLN ( 633283 )

      > Then kids used Google Docs for groupchat.

      I think I heard about that. Didn't they save all their messages in gmail drafts for some plan they were trying to carry out?

  • Instead of trying to police the whole planet and censor everyone and everything, use whitelisting* [wikipedia.org]. It's a simple idea that works by default and allows parents to manually add sites to the list of allowed domains.

    Now the real question is: does it still check if the site is allowed if the kid knows how to enter I.P. addresses in the URL bar?

    * I'm sorry, I meant to say "allow-listing" since whitelisting clearly means something about races. /sarcasm

    • Re: Good idea! (Score:2, Insightful)

      by IdanceNmyCar ( 7335658 )

      If you self censor because the woke movement, is that like an "awakening", self-woke, or like a satori?

      Also, it's funny to realize the irony of you commenting about the censorship of this browser mode, with an alternative method of censoring, and then self-censoring the common word for this practice because of the woke movement.

      "My god, it's full of woke"

      • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

        by DontBeAMoran ( 4843879 )

        I self-sensor in an ironic way. Those who are offended by the use of the words whitelisting/blacklisting and master/slave on inanimate objects can go fuck themselves.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by narcc ( 412956 )

          The only people offended by the term "whitelisting" are the imaginary people in your head that you hate.

      • The only people talking about the woke movement is boomers.

        • What's a "woke movement"?

          Is it like this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

        • ah yes, "boomers"

          Boomer is a dog whistle for "I am a racist in many ways but the way that is most important is that I am a secret racist, so I denigrate people by attacking their age instead of their race, and I dont care that the people I am calling boomers arent even from the boomer generation... they are old!"

          • Sounds like you are in need of a safe space.

            • More like you are an idiot and a bigot. They are right that I am not a boomer and also, I am not even old. ai just think this political correct shit is a bunch of bullocks. I have worked with African Americans in CS and tech and I have never seen them offended by these phrases but now a new generation which has no serious conflicts, crystal about suicide from lockdown and about the usage of words that have no historical reference rooted in racial bias. There will be no end to this because people like yo

      • Most parents are not blocking sites because of woke anything. The internet is filled with good things and despicable things. Young children are not mentally/emotionally equipped to see the worst the internet has to offer. Your immediate mental leap to it's all about being woke is really odd.

        • You missed my point. I live in China and understand that censorship to protect people even extends into adulthood, and appreciate that there is a country that actually prosecutes fake news. I respect parents choice on censoring parts of the internet. My point was he didn't want to call it a "whitelist" which is because of the woke movement.

    • While whitelisting and blacklisting have nothing to do with race, they do ascribe "good" and "bad" to "white" and "black" respectively. The phrases "whitehat" and "blackhat" do the same - heck the cowboy westerns those are pulled from do too. Does that transfer over to how we treat people? I have no idea, but the idea does at least make sense and seems worth exploring. Especially since "allow-list" is a more self-descriptive term.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Falos ( 2905315 )

      If the kid is jumping to destinations by IP they've earned it.

  • 70 websites should be enough for anybody! (Score:3)

    by ZiggyZiggyZig ( 5490070 ) on Sunday April 18, 2021 @10:52AM (#61286620)

    I wonder if /. is on the list?

    • I'm having a hard time coming up with a list of 70 sites with original useful, accurate, interesting, or entertaining content. It seems that a lot of sites are rehashing other content or providing snarky commentary.

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by DontBeAMoran ( 4843879 )

        I'm also having a hard time coming up with a list of 70 sites myself with original useful, accurate, interesting, or entertaining content. It seems that a lot of sites are rehashing other content or providing near-duplicate comments.

      • It will still work with less than 70 sites. :)

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by JoeRobe ( 207552 )

        I agree with you about sites intended for adults (like news, tech, commerce, games). But there are hundreds (probably more) kid-oriented sites that are already used by teachers trying to do remote teaching. Some are actually pretty good and educational, including pbs' kids site, razzkids, several disney kids sites, national geographic kids, sesame street, and many more. Almost all I can think of are education-related, so they're not what a normal adult would consider "useful", unless you're a parent.

    • Do criminally insane children count?

      If yes, /. is definitely on the list. :-)

    • Does that answer your question?

      I'm kind of wondering what kind of hoops you have to agree to in order to get on MS's list; but given the wide range of issues and rather liberal (but not totally free) language policy here, I doubt /. would meet the criteria.

      • I'm kind of wondering what kind of hoops you have to agree to in order to get on MS's list

        That'd be the "money" hoop.

  • eww (Score:1)

    by lxnt ( 98232 )

    Haha lol. What a hypocritical self-aggrandizing piece of nothing.

    Being 11 I, with my friends, we hitched rides on cargo trains jumping on them when they slowed down, and no, there was nothing at all parents could do to prevent that. Or we rode 15 miles on our measly bikes to visit relatives just because we could.

    What is this idiotic notion that some easily circuimvented setting can fare any better? Just teach your children the world, then let them live.

    • A lot of adults are afraid of the world themselves, so they must protect their children from it at all costs.

      As long as they're the minority and we don't give them amplifiers* for their movements, the rest of us will simply continue to live as we do today.

      * which is reason enough to ban Facebook and other "social networking" websites.

  • Microsoft's underlying purpose of "Kid's Mode" is to track customers?

    Previous comment: Microsoft makes money by fixing sloppy software. [slashdot.org]

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by SeaFox ( 739806 )

      Microsoft's underlying purpose of "Kid's Mode" is to track customers?

      All your lunch monies belongs to us!

    • It could be to protect MS from COPPA concerns if they track other peoples. I'm not sure if the really track users that considerably.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Ksevio ( 865461 )

      Probably not, there are some dicey regulations about tracking kids.

      Getting them hooked on MS Edge at a young age so they can track them later however...

  • Great idea (Score:5, Interesting)

    by JoeRobe ( 207552 ) on Sunday April 18, 2021 @11:27AM (#61286696) Homepage

    I like this in principle, with one caveat/barrier. My kid (elementary school) has a laptop that they bring to school every day now, thanks to using it so much during COVID shutdown that its become a necessity. There are hundreds of education-oriented webpages that are actually really good, and sometimes the teacher has the students go to a new page that might have, say, a fun game addressing some math concept.

    With this white listing approach, it's hard for me to easily approve the new website in real time, even though I absolutely would since I trust the teacher. I'd want some sort of teacher's pass that would let the teachers approve it without knowing my Microsoft info (and without the teacher needing to know every student's login details to approve).

    I'm sure there are lots of ways to skin this, but an alternative to a teachers pass would be to have a gateway page that is whitelisted. So the teachers would have to post a link on a specific, secure gateway page, and as long as that gateway page is white listed, then any link within it is also whitelisted (maybe for as long as it's posted on the gateway).

    That may have s own security nightmares, but I'm sure there are other ways to approach it.

  • For being a good parent who puts their work tools away when they're not using them, so that the risk of exposure to unsuitable content isn't there in the first place. The designers of this feature tried to justify it with a shared device use case but someone has already failed at parenting by that point if they have a need for this feature in the first place. Potentially dangerous work tools for adults should be physically kept away from children at all times. It's that simple. No technical know-how requir
    • Or perhaps parents should (shocking!!!) pay attention to what their kids are doing on the Internet, like they should be paying attention to everything else they're doing, and teach them the value of mutual trust and mutual respect.

    • When their child is ready, it's not hard to consult with their school IT to obtain an appropriate PC configuration which matches the locked down school computers

      Funny, a co-worker of mine has a son in a school whose IT department has trouble keeping their PC configurations as secure as she keeps her son's home PC.

      (At her son's school, the teachers create assignments that include links to YouTube videos to watch, then ask questions about the content. At home, her son tends to get distracted by other YT videos. To stop that, she (1) configured the home network not allow the school issued laptop to connect. Instead, she uses Privoxy to allow-list only the teacher prov

  • I'm sure all of these sites are thoroughly monetized...

  • Bah! Censorship is bad and doesn't work!

    Also, I think the tech companies should censor everything.

    And I believe both things ... vigorously!!!!

  • That's a terrible idea!
    This is just another version of 'Net Nanny' software, or 'Net Nanny' legislation that's been tried over and over and over again -- and it never works.
    Why would you allow Microsoft to decide what your kid does and does not see on the Internet? That should be YOUR job!
  • Nothing bad can come from this.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Lets see if they still can reach that or iCloud.com for that matter :D
  • Kinda useless. IE is still getting installed. Or at least still is on my computer. And you can install quite a few different web browsers without admin rights as well.

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