My Vision for Parental Controls

The internet is a wonderful, beautiful thing. It is, quite possibly, the greatest force multiplier the world has ever seen. More can be done with it than any number of wheels, pack animals, or motor engines. Unfortunately, with the ability to multiply many positives in life, there also comes the ability to multiply many negatives. One of these negatives has been the usurpation of parents’ rights to protect their children online. Technology is often overwhelming for parents, who have a limited amount of time. They should not have to obtain a master’s degree in computer science just to protect their children. Technology should default to helping the family rather than hindering it. To help remedy this issue, a two-part solution can be implemented.

Part 1: Working with what we got

The first part consists of using immediately available tools to address immediate problems. The average adult is not equipped enough to handle the technological systems society has forced upon them. They need professional assistance in navigating the ever-changing landscape. To help remedy this, I have started a side business called Alto Solutions. Alto Solutions aims to help parents develop a more private, secure, and virtuous relationship with technology. By using my substantial knowledge of technology and parental control/accountability systems, I try to empower parents to cultivate a digital environment they feel has their children’s best interest in mind. This is still a work in progress and is, ultimately, a temporary fix.

Part 2: Lightwall

Ultimately, parents need simpler and more effective tools. Most parental controls are severely limited with what they can monitor and how. These companies have dumped millions of dollars into creating the best solutions they can, but they are still drastically behind. To remedy this, a flexible, modular, and holistic approach solution is needed.

I have christened this entrepreneurial idea Lightwall. The name comes from its contrast with a firewall. A firewall only stops unwanted things from getting in or out; the Lightwall, however, encourages the light and goodness of the online world shine in. internet

The Lightwall system would consist of three main parts: a home, satellites, and a protocol.

1. The Home would be a server backend and dashboard. Each member of the family would have a profile on this server. Certain profiles could be granted privileges over other profiles. For example, parents could grant temporary admin rights to a babysitter, grandparent, or older sibling. Each person would have their activity and settings connected to their profile. It would be possible to monitor, block, and limit websites, apps, accounts, and other content accessible on the profile’s devices. All these controls would be granular. This principle will be applied so that the user may choose appropriate monitoring and filtering levels for each user. For example, it would be appropriate to have a record of every message a 10-year-old sends. However, it is more suitable to only receive warnings and a general summary for a 15-year-old.

AI and ML are all the rage of 2023 and 2024. While much of it is sensationalism and useless productivity tools, it is important to recognize the power advanced LLMs can give parental tools. An on-device collection of AI models could help analyze website URL’s, webpage content, voice message content, text message slang, and unhealthy habits faster than the human mind can. These models are becoming increasingly lighter on resources and will soon be good enough to supercharge parental controls

2. The satellites would be the second part of the system. They would act as the endpoints or clients for the server to interact with. They would consist of three main types: clients, imbeds, and watchers. (1) Clients would act as one would usually expect. They could be installed as an app to monitor and control devices. (2) Imbeds would be built into the device it is servicing. These could be things like operating systems, gaming consols, watches, and even baby monitors. (3) Watchers would be focused on managing a specific service or app that cannot be watched through a client or imbed. For example, a social media account could have screenshot resistance. This would prevent the client or imbed from monitoring it. The watcher would then pick up where the other two failed. It could be anything from a specific instant messenger to a E-ink tablet to a smartpen.
3. The last part is the protocol. It would be best to build it similar to the Activity Pub, AT, or Nostr protocols. It would provide a standard way that the Lightwall home, clients, and watchers would communicate. It would have the ability to send information like profile trends, images, messages, active apps, websites visited, text displayed on screen, and screen-time.

The entire system would have a variety of over-arching themes. It would be an open-source system, private, customizable, and modular. Being an open system, it would allow for the creation of plug-ins, satellites, watchers, and even forking the project. It would respect privacy by having a self-host option, implementing E2EE and on-device AI, and allow the user to easily export, import, and delete data. Lastly, its customizability would allow families to change it to what they need it to be. No family is the same and every family has a specific use case. By being customizable, it allows parents to raise their family in an environment that they feel is safest.

It is a very ambitious project and is still only in the concept stage. God willing, it may eventually be brought to completion. Additionally, to abstract what Mr. Talley stated on Ideamensch (Junge), I will need a lot of perseverance and focused work to bring the project to life. It was also relieving to see that I don‘t have to build a massive company that changes the world. It is perfect to be a small, neighborhood service. If I help one family in the process, it will all be worth it.

Works Cited

Junge, Stefan. “Bret Talley - Founder of Talley Digital Media.” Ideamensch.com, 18 July 2022, ideamensch.com/bret-talley/.

Talley, Bret. “About Bret Talley | Talley Digital Media.” Talleydigitalmedia.com, 19 July 2022, talleydigitalmedia.com/about-bret-talley/.