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« on: January 30, 2014, 03:11:07 PM »
OK, I've done a lot of Googling around the best approach to what I want to achieve, but found nothing that answers all the criteria in a way that I'm clear is the best answer. So I figured I was best off laying out the detail in a relevant forum and see what came back, since I'm sure the requirement is actually quite common.
I bought my daughter a 2012 Nexus 7 for her 10th birthday, just after it was released. (And liked it so much, I ditched my iPad and bought myself a 2013 when it came out - but I digress...). I've worked in IT for almost 20 years, have a coding background: I'm not scared of it, won't be phased by complexity, but don't want to know about any solutions that rely on rooting the device.
At the age of 10, I wasn't letting her near the device without ensuring she couldn't wander somewhere I didn't want her to: After researching the topic for a while, I installed Funamo on it, which seems to work OK, although I have reservations about the inability to properly lock down Safe Search in Chrome - search results can be pretty eye-opening in their own right. The device is set up with her as the owner, with a pseudo mail address at a domain I own. Mail to this address goes to me, as it stands (easily flipped to her own mail account when the time's right). I use MS' Family Protection on home PCs, which works very well. Play Store is set up with my Google ID and locked down, a bit. All good. She also has a Gmail address, unbeknown to her, since I figured that in time I would want to expose her to aspects of Google's provision as she was ready for the facility - but does not currently use mail at all
She is now well past 11. I would like to give her access to email. The Nexus is up to 4.3 Android, with additional profiles / restricted profiles a possible route - but there are some clear musts in the way I want it set up:
- She must have access to her own GMail account. This rules out any route that involves a restricted profile AFAICS as they have no mail. I don't want a solution that involves a different mail service as I can much more easily monitor her usage in GMail - and all of the rest of the family is in Google services anyway, so far better for shared calendars etc)
- Parental controls needed on web access, social media, apps etc (Funamo the only route I'm confident in, but not sure how it works with multiple profiles, although sure it can). I need to protect her - at least for a year or three - from stumbling on the unsavoury.
- Access via my Google account to Play Music (which she currently has - all of her music is also in my account)
- Sharing of apps in my Google account, primarily because I don't want to have to pay twice. I could give this one up if I had to, but I still want to control her access to the Play Store for the time being.
In September she'll start High School, and beginning to relax some of this becomes inevitable - but, for the moment, I want control and visibility. She isn't untrustworthy - but she is 11, curious and will do dumb things :-)
I'm amazed there isn't better guidance around this out there - but, if there is, I can't find it. For a younger child, it's straightforward - restricted profile and watchful eye / Funamo. A wizened teenager, easy - it's your device, here are the rules, relaxation of Funamo filtering until remove it and you're on your own in mid/late-teens. But for a child moving from former state to the later - really hard to know the best approach. I'd really appreciate any thoughts - or advice on where I might turn for answers if this forum draws a blank.
Thank-you!