Comments on: Is Ubuntu Family Friendly?

By: Verity Johnson

Verity Johnson — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 14:39:44 +0000

Hello. Just wondering if you could allow me to use your picture of thhe family around the computer for my IT GCSE. We have to ask permission for legal reasons. Please could you get make to me on vejoh119@ryedale.n-yorks.sch.uk.
Many Thanks

Verity Johnson

By: david_steinlage

david_steinlage — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 20:05:19 +0000

@amitch:

I would suggest you send an IM to the person who started the original thread and ask them why they’ve decided to continue using Ubuntu with their 10 year old son and what has changed for them since this incident came up. Obviously they were concerned about profanity being found within the package manager (which, as I stated in my blog, requires the user to enter an administrator password to gain access to…. something a child should probably not be given with ANY operating system). So what changed their mind? Because at first he felt that he might have to “pay the devil” and go back to Microsoft as a last minute resort, short of finding another version of Linux to try. You really should ask them. They may change your mind.

I personally don’t care what operating system you use. And I think that same sentiment holds true for everyone else in the open-source community; it’s entirely up to you. The way you raise your kids is also ENTIRELY up to you (not me or anyone else). I’m not a parent, but I would see nothing wrong with limiting access to the computer to times when you’re available to supervise them yourself. If you’re not available, you might as well not allow them to use it in the first place… that is, if you feel they’re not mature enough to handle it without guidance. Operating systems aside, you can only shelter your child from the bad things in the real world for so long. If you do it too much, they may find themselves unprepared to face it alone when they’re older. I don’t know about you, but I’ve known people in their 40’s and 50’s who still live with their parents for this very reason. That is not to say that Ubuntu is a bad thing. I think it’s a wonderful thing on the order of cosmic proportions. That’s just my opinion; someone else might consider it the work of the devil because someone found a naughty word (there are naughty words in the bible; see Ezekiel 23:19-20).

If I were you, I wouldn’t let a fluke appearance of the f-word in an applet that requires administrator access (YOUR password, not the child’s password) ruin your day, or go off on some quest to find some other OS that is potentially less functional or less user friendly or less secure or less free. If you’re a Windows user and you’re happy with it, then stick with it. But considering the fact that you took Ubuntu into consideration says to me that whatever you’re using, you are not happy with it. So it sounds like you have some pros and cons to weigh, just like the father of the 10 year old boy did, and he decided to stick with Ubuntu in the end. You may find yourself feeling the same way later on (Windows viruses are getting a lot worse, I’ve seen first hand in the last 3 weeks).

By: amitch

amitch — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 16:16:47 +0000

Well, after reading the posts. I am shocked to the at what some of the members of the ubuntu community had to say. I do,like the watchful parent, would like ubuntu to be family friendly actually what I typed in “is ubuntu child friendly” to get to this website. Something that is used to educate should have a personal obligation to not misguide anyone. We expose our children to so much corruption and then when they make errs, we don’t understand why. A child is like a little program itself, eventhough you may explain these things to them and tell them that they are not right, sometimes it’s too late. The difference between a child and a computer is that you can delete programs from a computer but with a child depending on what area of life this new concept was introduced, it’s wired in. The child doesn’t erase the event, they function with it and you don’t know what turn it will take. I feel a system that I am entrusting my kids to use bare some responsibility to the users’ expectations of the content. Freedom of speech was not introduced for those who wanted to say foul and corrupt things-it was introduced so those who were treated unfairly and unjust could stand up and have a voice. Please don’t belittle that right.

By: Brandon

Brandon — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 14:47:53 +0000

I suppose one way to ensure that you do not encounter anything offensive in terms of package names, at least without a Parental Advisory sticker, is to stick with proprietary software. Something about corporate image and appealing to the masses adds a layer of protection. Oh, the price of freedom!

By: LinuxCanuck

LinuxCanuck — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 15:49:03 +0000

There is a segment of the Linux community that is alternative to the core. You will find names like PornView for a program that views pictures and movies. Somebody thought it funny once. You can’t legislate good taste or filter out the world and that goes with Linux, Windows or anything else.
The lesson to be learned here was Dad’s not the son’s. He has to recognize that you can’t keep out the bad no matter how hard you try. What you can do is educate your child so that he recognizes that we don’t all share the same values or sense of humour. The biggest mistake that he can make is to censor or make it into a big issue. This will only garner more attention than it deserves and make the child want to taste the forbidden fruit.
Dad cannot change the Linux community any more than he can change the world. Each is headed in its own direction. He can change the way his child learns to view the world and Linux by how the father reacts to it. The world should not be shunned in its entirety because we don’t like elements of it, nor should Linux. Dad must grow up first before the son can follow his lead.

By: eMBee

eMBee — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 09:28:09 +0000

brandon, i fully agree.

as for it being unavoidable that kids will learn cusswords, well, that’s just
plain false. in my family noone uses such words, so i have grown up without
them an don’t use them either. and the only way to keep it that way is to not
listen to people who keep using them.

greetings, eMBee.

By: jinglyjerk

jinglyjerk — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 07:49:42 +0000

I called my dad a fucking bitch when I was 6 years old. He washed my mouth out with soap.

I fear for the next kid that stumbles across this package and decides it would be amusing to call his father a brainfuck…. rename the package now please.

By: Ato

Ato — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 02:43:32 +0000

Someone had to try to make this a freedom of speech question! I can understand teen agers testing their boundaries by using cusswords everywhere, but that normally drops when they grow up.

By: chemicalscum

chemicalscum — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 00:48:41 +0000

Is Ubuntu Family Friendly? I fucking hope not.

By: Brandon

Brandon — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 20:51:06 +0000

I’m all for free speech and I’ve never advocated censorship; however, I don’t see that as the issue in this case. The blatant disregard for other peoples’ feelings in modern society is shameful. Society used to have much higher standards than this and in some cases (becoming more rare) it still does. I had college professors and even high school teachers who wouldn’t think twice about injecting a vulgar term into a lecture, but a kindergarden teacher who habitually swears in class is likely to have problems finding employment sooner than later. There is a time and place for all types of language, and perhaps this was a poor choice.

By: Bill Golberg

Bill Golberg — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 09:23:25 +0000

For crying out loud, there is always one of those.

“Will someone please think about the childeren!”

No, we don’t care.

My baby brother is 10 years old, and I can tell you, I don’t have to explain what a certain cuss word means. He already knows it, and uses it.

Stop over protecting your children, idiot.

By: bob dobbs

bob dobbs — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 01:42:23 +0000

For fuck’s sake!

By: david_steinlage

david_steinlage — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:04:20 +0000

I used to have that screensaver!

By: S. Christian Collins

S. Christian Collins — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 19:49:32 +0000

This is not nearly as bad as some Linux distributions shipping with the “webcollage” screensaver, which is part of the xscreensaver package. Webcollage pulls random pictures from the Internet and displays them in a collage, but it often ends up pulling in some very inappropriate images. Fortunately, Ubuntu doesn’t install this by default, and there is a warning in the package info when trying to install the xscreensaver-data-extra package, which includes WebCollage.