[Users] password protection

[Steve Litt]

On Thu, 28 Jan 2016 21:16:13 +0100
Michael <codejodler at gmx.ch> wrote:

> No, folks, look.
> 
> They will not do log in and out. 
> 
> And the account i'm talking about already IS a private account on a
> private computer. In technical terms, the security already is 100%
> comopromised, as standard situation. It's just they don't do any
> tedious stuff. They leave the desktop to each other all the time.
> They leave the desktop online, and walk away. Or the kids ask, can we
> watch youtube or play games on your computer and yes, of course. Then
> they occupy it maybe for hours. Please note that it's not their
> concern, to begin with, it's rather only me acting out as their tech
> department. So there has to be the most minimal requirement to the
> owner, and that's only typing in a password, one time.
> 
> Don't tell me how this is wong or should be taken at the roots.
> Believe me: It's useless. That's just a family reality where both
> parents have jobs, and lots of other things up, and kids in difficult
> age, and they simply can't enforce any additional rules beyond the
> most essential basics (and not even these ...) It's probably an
> average chaos, with more than 2 kids.
> 
> They still are nice people, all of them, and so its simply my
> challenge to make it as easy as possible.

I have kids. They used to be little. Old desktop computers are dirt
cheap these days. Why not give your kids their own Linux computer and
completely lock them out of yours. It worked well for me. And because I
could ssh into their computers, I could disable them whenever the kids
were "bad", and to an extent I could see what they were up to
(important as they hit their teens).

The other thing is, never let the kids have a computer in their own
room. By having them work in a well-travelled place, it's harder for
them to do really problematic stuff and get away with it.

SteveT

Steve Litt 
January 2016 featured book: Twenty Eight Tales of Troubleshooting
http://www.troubleshooters.com/28