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

[Tom Henderson]

There are lots of selections at https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts to 
choose from. Pretty easy to install your favorite choice of baddie blockers.

Tom

On 2/21/19 3:24 PM, David Needle 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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-- 
Tom Henderson
ExtremeLabs, Inc.
+1 317 250 4646
Twitter: @extremelabs
Skype: extremelabsinc

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