FamilyPC
Parental Controls is something elementary OS has been doing a lot of great work in, I don't think anybody would argue otherwise. Parental Controls and other graphical software (like a music player) is something they are able to focus more heavily on as a result of them not supporting multiple desktop environments or even the underlying operating system, since they base themselves conservatively on Ubuntu and have no control over the majority of the software stack. Essentially this frees up a lot of time for them to work higher up in the stack and that work shows, just as our work on profile-guided optimization and software like linux-steam-integration shows.
Parental Controls is something I do want us to tackle in the future (not have it require the use of our control center for Budgie 11 even) and this functionality should really expand to:
- Application restriction, whether for specific users, at certain times, or for a certain amount of time.
- Filesystem prevention that doesn't require the use of SELinux or their policies.
- Network access restriction, blocking access to specific sites.
I do agree with @kyrios that the tooling should only be one part to the overall picture of providing a safer browsing experience, with education being another part, but realistically you're going to have a difficult time teaching a child the intricacies of online context-driven marketing and advertising, online tracking, privacy, and so forth. These are difficult subjects for even adults. So having the tooling there to act as an initial line of defense is helpful. So such tooling is something I want to provide.
When would such tooling be developed? I don't know. I just know it's a weak point in the majority of operating systems (not even just "Linux-based operating systems"), including ours, and it is something we have the technical capability to solve.
P.S. It's generally a poor argument to put forward that we should provide something just because somebody else does.
