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

[Joe Stanganelli]

FWIW, aggressive settings on a combination of tools like Privacy Badger, NoScript, and HTTPS Everywhere combined with a complete disabling of Flash, HTML5, and other ActiveX controls would at the very least block pretty much all video.

It’s not a solution unto itself because it’s all *very* easily undone, but it’s at least an additional layer to whatever solution(s) you/your friend adopt – particularly if he really only needs it for email and other simple functions.

Beyond that, I have to imagine that /r/nofap would have some ideas. (Not for him to peruse himself, of course… If you’re trying to stay away from pornographic imagery, stay the heck off reddit.)

Joe

________________________________
From: Ipg-smz <ipg-smz-bounces at netpress.org> on behalf of Mac McCarthy <mac.mccarthy at gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2019 3:29:30 PM
To: ipg-smz at netpress.org
Subject: Re: [Ipg-smz] Any ideas for helping a friend with a computer-related addiction?

Is there anyone who offers a whitelist? Or a blacklist?

On Thu, Feb 21, 2019 at 12:25 PM David Needle <davidneedle at gmail.com<mailto:davidneedle at gmail.com>> wrote:
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<mailto: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<mailto: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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