Parental controls are a great thing but what about users using it for motivational purposes or to restrict their time wasting on social media, porn and so on. Here are some ideas.
custom schedules for black/white list
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We have the option of creating custom blacklists and custom Whitelists but how about being able to create schedules for custom black/white lists. Here is what i mean with an example.
Say i wanted to limit social media with a custom schedule so as an example
Monday - All social media outright blocked
Tuesday to Friday - All social media blocked but accessable between 9am to 10am & 7pm to 8pm so that's 2 hour time slot a day split into two 1 hour slots social media is accessable.
Saturday/Sunday - No restrictions
Porn restrictions
Monday to Saturday - Outright blocked
Sunday - 7pm to 8pm pornhub is accessable but the rest of the day the block still stands so they get 1 hour time slot a week for porn
Work related
Monday to Friday - Only the whitelist of work related websites are accessable between the hours of 8am to 12am & 1pm to 5pm so 1 hour time slot on their break and after work hours everything is accessable.
Saturday/Sunday - All work related websites are blacklisted everything else accessable.
This could also be done on a per user/device basis so certain people or devices get a tailored custom schedule
Landing page, custom website/redirect
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When websites are blocked effectivly it just shows "this site can't be reached", how about being able to add a custom webpage that shows instead. As an example
1 - A custom image that could be added that shows when a person tries to connect to a restricted website
2 - Custom text that could show when a person tries to connect to a restricted website
3 - Re direct to a custom website or a url of a persons choosing IE they try to go on pornhub but it just redirects to google.com or even closes their web browser.
Maybe this could be done per user/device so each person gets a custom photo or text IE
Child - This website is blocked and you can access it after you have done homework
Parent - This website is blocked because your wasting time on social media, get back to work
Make it difficult to remove blocks
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Mostly this is for adults who are using this for motivational purposes IE stop wasting time on social media or watching too much porn. Could there be a way a user could set it so it makes it difficult for them to stop the blocking IE
Parental control times accessable - When set they can only access parental controls to change anything on a schedule IE between the hours of 7pm to 8pm and any other time it's blocked
Challenge to get access - Some web browser access website plug ins have challenges a user has to complete to get access to the settings to change anything IE type a paragraph, answer a few questions, do a few maths equations.
Basically anyway that can stop you from just jumping on and changing access so you can waste time on social media or porn. Having access to Eblocker in general would be fine for changing any settings but just a way for you to limit black/white list access to stop you if you struggle with motivation.
Excuse me if some of these are already features as i am new to it and just getting to grips with setting it up but don't see the features requested.
@electricwildflower I like your feature request. This opens up "Parental Contols" to "Adult Controls" as well👍
So your feature request does not drown (it was a comment in the voting section) I took the freedom to move it to the Feature Request section.
Next improvement on the list for Parental Controls is the "Online Time". This will give kids (and adults) more transparency how much time they spend with different services (say, social media, games, etc). (see also section DEVK feature sponsoring section in the April 2023 newsletter). From there it's maybe not that much of a way to your feature request... 🤔👍
THX!
Awesome cheers, i love this product so far and getting it set up is a breeze and welcome new things.
A few more added ideas or thoughts for this
1 - To give access/Block or limit parts of specific websites IE I can access a specific YouTube channel or video (one i created or one i follow) but the rest of YouTube is outright blocked.
I could then give access to my self help, personal motivation YouTube channel for watching self help content at a set time IE 7am to 9am Monday to Friday and then from then on Youtube is blocked till 4pm - 6pm which is a time frame i can watch stuff i follow after cooking and then it's blocked again so forces me to wind down for the night and actually read my books instead of having to hide the phone.
I have an Emby server which could benefit from this as it stops me binge watching TV series for hours at a time and only gives me a time frame for content.
2 - Custom landing pages, images, url redirects for specific websites & the whole web or even warning messages IE just a generic image shows when trying to access any web page at set times or maybe a custom image pops up when a person tries to access say porn or social media or a warning message of some kind.
Porn - Sorry but you are not allowed to access porn as you waste too much time playing with yourself and it's not good for your health
Social Media - All social media has been blocked because it's negative, toxic and you just mindless scroll wasting time
I could create a motivational poster for myself that reminds me of my goals and what i need to do to self improve and have it show for the whole web access or just for a specific website
Url redirect - You try to go on Facebook and it just redirects you back to the website your doing an online course on
Url redirect - You try to go on YouTube but it says sorry your allotted video time is at so and so time and any other time it's blocked. Come back between the hours of 4pm - 6pm
Maybe even a landing page with some custom text and url links IE it gives you a short speech about motivation, watching too much porn, too much gambling and you could drop in some urls to alcoholics awareness, gambling awareness, porn addiction awareness etc. I know some people who may even make certain websites redirect to their online churches website or even a religious poster to kick them back onto the right path.
Maybe even having custom text show up at specific intervals IE every hour a pop up text, image shows telling you to take a 5 minute break or drink some water or could even lock your web access for say 10 minutes at a time. I think a warning message/pop up would be useful just in case a person is in the middle of doing something important and gives them chance to save their work IE
It's near enough time for your 10 minutes break, in 2 minutes the whole internet will go down for 10 minutes, go drink water or take a walk.
3 - Completely custom black/white lists & allotted times for different devices
As a few examples
Firestick - everything is blocked bar from a self help YouTube video channel between 7am to 9am and Emby/Youtube gets full access between 4pm to 6pm but any other times it's outright blocked.
Laptop - All of the above for the firstick is blocked outright so no access, Every half hour the whole internet gets a 10 minutes block or a notification, image pops up telling someone to go for a break
Phone - Other than text/calls/voicemail the rest of the phone IE apps, web browser etc is blocked for specific intervals.
I know this is possibly a lot to ask for but all these ideas would be welcomed i am sure by people like myself who need to gain control of their life and struggle to do so because we get porn, social media, adverts, app notifications and countless other things screaming for attention.