Children and open source

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Let's go back to talking about a delicate topic, therefore trying to do it with the appropriate sensitivity. In fact, we will talk about children and Open source always reminding you that we are not a pedagogical site. Italian pediatricians ¹ they advise against it the use of video games and mobile phones by children under 2 years of age. From 3 to 5 years old they should use them no more than one hour a day and from 5 to 8 years old no more than two hours a day.

So, having made this small introduction, we will talk about some products Open source that we have found for children and teenagers. Games, but not only. We will only talk about products Open source because there are thousands of closed source commercial applications, you could for example take a look at this article by Wired to teach kids programming. What we will give you are therefore just ideas for involving children or grandchildren with applications FOSS!

Very last premise before starting: it is clear that games and applications Open source which we are going to suggest do not have the same appeal and the same involvement that a paid application or, worse, advertising can have. The reason is clear: children's games, as well as a certain type of cartoon, are specifically designed to be engaging. Because the more you stay glued to the application, the more money they will make thanks to advertising and profiling which unfortunately is often also done on minors ².

Children and Open source: games

Let's see some suggestions to help children and young people of all ages play. Did you know that there is also a project for give Open source the best games in history (as Prince of Persia or Monkey Island) so as not to lose track of them forever? Let's talk about Video Game History Foundation and we hope they succeed in this ambitious project!

• GCompris, is an educational suite to which we also have dedicated an article. It really is a great educational alternative Open source ³!

• Childsplay, less glamorous and also with less activity than GCompris. However, it is fun and offers interesting ideas such as learning the alphabet, some puzzles or a sort of PacMan. It's a project Open source ⁴.

• Tux, of Math Command, it's more fun than it sounds! Also thanks to its developers because the game is really well made. The goal is to destroy comets that are about to fall to Earth. To do this you will need to solve simple arithmetic calculations! Unfortunately the official site is defunct but you can download it safely on SourceForge and its source code it's on GitHub ⁵.

• eduActiv8, another excellent educational suite very similar to GCompris. Dozens of activities related to mathematics and the alphabet. At the beginning you can choose the age to eliminate or activate certain categories of games. It's a project Open source ⁶.

• Tux Paint, our friend Tux (remember that it is the name of the Linux mascot penguin) accompanies us to the use of a very particular paint. In addition to being Open source ⁷ Tux Paint in fact it hides an interesting tool called Magic with which you can create bricks, snowflakes, grass and much more!

Other interesting ideas

We also wanted to talk about something else and not just video games or dedicated educational suites. We also give you some ideas not expressly designed for children but which may be right for you!

• Stellarium, a virtual planetarium (also on Browsers)! Open source ⁸ and free, unmissable and fascinating.

• Celestia, let's stay on the topic of astronomy. TO Celestia we have an entire article dedicated to it because we were very fascinated by it. If it impressed you Stellarium, know that thanks to Celestia you can travel between stars and planets! It's an incredible project Open source ⁹.

• Streetcomplete, if put in the right perspective and placed in the right context this project to complete the streets of OpenStreetMap It can also be made a fun treasure hunt for children. Let's combine business with pleasure!

• Games FOSS, we too, in our own small way, occasionally review games Open source. Some may also be suitable for children and teenagers. As Minetest, Mindustry, SuperTuxKart, Red Runner, Pixel Wheels, Neverball And NeverPutt, Breakouts And Flappy Bird.

Children and Open source: the security

Another much debated issue is that of security. From what we know there are no real alternatives to Google Family Link.

Alternatively you can try to see applications that monitor and block the use of your mobile phone such asOpen source ¹⁰ Open TimeLimit (also available on Play Store) and also theOpen source ¹¹ TimesApp.

Inside the distribution Linux Elementary OS However, a parental control is included with which you can limit computer use to certain hours of the day ¹².

Site blocking

One of the major concerns parents have when their children use the internet, rightly or wrongly, is: but not all sites are suitable for a child!
In fact, you can really find everything on the internet and a minor may not have the antibodies necessary to understand everything. In this case, DNS can come to our rescue! In our long article on alternatives to Google DNS we talk, among other things, about DNS for the family.

• NextDNS, if you use these DNS and if you decide to register you will be able to control all the traffic on your network. You can use standard blocks (no to all porn sites, for example) or you can decide which sites are acceptable and which are not. All without any technical knowledge, it's all really simple. All you need to do is change the DNS of your computer or mobile phone (you can also use Blokada to do it).

• AdGuard, if you don't want to waste time on settings and you trust standard filters you can use AdGuard in its “Family Protection” version. All sites considered harmful or dangerous will be blocked!
• dns0 Kids, a free and European alternative from the creators of NextDNS. Unlike NextDNS, customization is not possible but the version is possible dns0 Kids eliminate advertising, porn, adult videos and more.

• Cloudflare, they also offer DNS in a family protection version. We prefer AdGuard but if you are not comfortable you can try them.

Safe Surfer

We haven't had a chance to try it yet but Safe Surfer promises to be some sort of real alternative to Google Family Link with an ad hoc application to manage the smartphone. It is paid and there are several options including the plan Pro Surfer which costs around €50 a year.

Children and Open source: last suggestions

We have almost reached the end of this long article. We remind you that in the past we have dedicated an entire article to applications and sites created for learn to program by playing, some examples:

• CodeCombat, a real game to learn to program!

• CodeMonkey, an intelligent method for teaching children and teenagers to program.

• Code Monster, a monster will teach you the basics of programming!

• codeSpark, designed for children aged 5 to 9 years!

Children and programming

We have seen so far several online programs and games for children. But there are also real games to teach the secrets of programming from an early age, let's see them together:

• Cube, is an interesting cube for teaching the basics of programming. It is a very curious project and is designed for children over 3 years old. However, we hope that sooner or later a second, more ecological edition will be made: now they are needed 6 AA batteries to work 5 hours! Madness in terms of pollution.

• LoCoMoGo, a programmable locomotive! Suitable for children aged 4 to 12 years. It is a project that has found funding on Indiegogo. Pre-purchase no longer seems possible but you could follow its developments to understand if it will ever be put on the market.

Let's add some applications created to teach kids how TestApp. Then there are a series of games real, that is, in a box, to teach children the basics of programming while having fun. For obvious reasons we couldn't try them but we recommend this interesting article: 15 STEM Toys that Teach Coding.

Let's also remember that we talked about Linux distributions dedicated to children and teenagers in our article: how to start using Linux.

That's all for now, any reports will be included as always! 🧡

1. Cell phones and iPads, pediatricians' rules «Do not give them to children under 2 years old»[↩]
2. Behavioral advertising, minors at risk: "it must be blocked"[↩]
3. GCompris on GitHub[↩]
4. source code by Childsplay[↩]
5. Tux, of Math Command on GitHub[↩]
6. eduActiv8 on GitHub[↩]
7. source code by Tux Paint[↩]
8. Stellarium on GitHub[↩]
9. Celestia on GitHub[↩]
10. source code of Open TimeLimit[↩]
11. TimesApp[↩]
12. filippodb on Mastodon[↩]

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