[Ipg-smz] Any ideas for helping a friend with a computer-related addiction?

[David Needle]

Thanks for chiming in!

That Chromebook idea might be worth pursuing. though establishing that
white list sounds like a hassle. For example with the filter he could go to
YouTube and see most everything, but some content was considered too
"adult." Not sure about the Lee's idea, again, it sounds like we would have
to either identify and limit him to a core group of sites (less than ideal)
or try to identify all the ones that are undesirable impossible :-)



On Thu, Feb 21, 2019 at 12:11 PM Lee Schlesinger <sayhitolee at gmail.com>
wrote:

> If your friend is not technical you could install a custom /etc/hosts file
> (https://www.hostsfile.org/hosts.html for instance) to block undesirable
> sites. It's not a total solution, but it could help.
>
> On Thu, Feb 21, 2019 at 3:02 PM David Needle <davidneedle at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>>
>> Friend of mine has been dealing with a porn addiction issue for many
>> years. He lives on the East Cost (I’m in California) so it’s hard to help
>> directly. But I have over the years with mixed results. He’s had computers
>> that he’s ended up smashing in frustration and gone years without using one
>> at all because of the issue. He also uses a bare bones cellphone because of
>> the issue.
>>
>> His last computer was three years ago and we used a family protection
>> service by Symantec a filter that worked really well (I had the password),
>> until it didn’t. This doesn’t quite make sense to me, but as he explains
>> it, he was getting pop up ads from Comcast offering free wifi on an hourly
>> basis. He said these would pop up even when he was offline. I’m not sure
>> how that could be so, but I guess if it was embedded in the computer it’s
>> possible.
>>
>> Anyway, what happened was he would buy hourly time and that connection
>> for some reason subverted or was immune to the filter so he could do
>> whatever he wanted and that was not a good thing. He ended up shutting down
>> the computer and stopped using it. I suspect he’s not giving an accurate
>> description of what happened. It may be he ended his Internet provider (and
>> Symantec) and then got the Comcast offers, etc.
>>
>> In any case, he wants to try getting a computer again which he needs for
>> email etc. and starting with the filter again, but is worried about this
>> Comcast issue happening again. It’s a weird situation to be using this
>> “family filter” because he’s in his 50s, but seems to be the only solution.
>>
>> Anyone have any ideas or thoughts? I’m thinking just go ahead with
>> Symantec again and see what happens. I don’t think he’ll get those ads with
>> a new laptop. I think they were some vestige of the last computer that a
>> friend gave to him.
>>
>> Thanks in advance,
>>
>>
>> David
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