I'd love to find a Mastodon instance that is purely rated G. Anyone? I want a safe place for my son to type out his fun facts. He can give fun facts for hours on end about history and science. It gives me headaches for a couple hours of that so I figured this would be a good place for him to release his knowledge.
@tessamero kid friendly instances would be awesome. Toot out if you find one! I'd happily engage and would love to hear what he has to say. I'm a big advocate for science enthusiasm, especially with youngsters
@tessamero I can't imagine that anyone would invest in the insane amount of moderation it would take to ensure that unless they were well paid to do so. The combination of effort needed and potential legal liability would be crazy.
@KatamariChaos sounds about right. If I wasn't running 4 events a year, i would do it. Obviously would require a lawyer who's on top of technology too
@tessamero Yeah, It's one of those "nice idea, but where does one get the resources?" things.
@tessamero FWIW, my son has had unfiltered internet access (including wandering IRC) since he was tiny, and root on his own box since he was 6. This way, he asked me things at an age when mom's advice counted, and learned good habits.
Biggest win: I taught him about /ignore on IRC and now his first reaction to idiots is to block them, not engage.
It's only one possible solution, but it worked for us.
@tessamero This sounds like a fantastic idea! I don't know if one already exists, but it should. Perhaps running such an instance would be a good project for a school (e.g., a science class, or a computer club).
@tessamero This sounds like a fantastic idea! I don't know if one already exists, but it should. Perhaps running such an instance would be a good project for a school (e.g., a science class, or a computer club).
@tessamero there should totally be a child-friendly instance, although it'd be hard to keep it separate . (But I think it's possible.) but if your kid had a blog of fun facts I'd totally read it :)
@tessamero oh man I would totally join an all ages science instance
@tessamero as a parent this sounds neat, but 1) i don't think this product is developed and known enough to really consider it a safe space for anyone 2) this sounds like a legal nightmare depending on country and age of child
now, you could run your own instance and only federate with other select instances, but that's a bit beyond my knowledge.
@tessamero this is actually a great idea.
@tessamero This is a great idea! A Mastodon for kids that (maybe) turns off federation entirely or implements their own filtering algorithms. Even better if you can choose for them what to filter and what not to filter, since each parent’s rules are different.
@tessamero Interesting question. I just don't know how you'd handle the Federated timeline though...
Cool that people are thinking about how to solve these problems.
This place is unlocking all kinds of creativity.
@gideonro @tessamero You’d either turn off the federation (which is possible in the settings for each instance), block certain instances (also possible for each instance), or implement your own custom filtering options—or all of the above. If you implement your own filtering, since the project is AGPL, you’re required so release your modifications under the same terms, so all other instances can benefit.
In the US you need to address COPPA, the federal law that requires parental consent for much of anything.
And, TBH, you'll probably need to have a paid 24/7 crew of moderators.
But IMO a paid service could be doable.
@pnathan @gideonro @tessamero I agree. There are legal and management issues to solve, but it could be done.
@tessamero You'd have a concern with federated instances.
Bluntly, most social networks are rated PG-13 minimum.
I'd set up your own instance and ensure it doesn't federate anywhere. It's probably the only way.
@tessamero Then again there's always... Club Penguin...
Oh God I felt HORRIBLE typing that.
@Elizafox club penguin?
@tessamero A social network of sorts for kids ran by Disney.
@Elizafox of course. I would not allow federation.
@tessamero Wow that is a great question, I haven't heard that one yet! There is a manually curated list of Mastodon instances here (http://instances.mastodon.xyz/) but you would need to click each one and check their "about this instance" page.
There's also this finder tool, which seems useful: http://tooter.today/