• General
  • Admin user and regular user for Kids GrapheneOS phone

I'd like to use my older Pixel 4a as a semi-dumb phone for my kids. Is there anyway to have an Admin user that can set permissions for NextDNS blocking, disable app installations and remove access to apps, e.g. browser and camera?

Ideally, the Admin can re-enable these features as the kids get older.

If not, would Graphene be interested in this? I would donate to support the work. I can't seem to find a privacy oriented phone for kids.

You can disable app installs for secondary user profiles.

You can disable Vanadium browser, the kids would need to dig into Settings to re-enable it.

The Camera can't be so easily disabled because it's a system app.

Android devices are not really a multi user system. Not in the sense that you or I would like it to be. With a laptop, running Mac, Windows, Linux... An administrator can lock it down and just hand it to a non-privileged user.

Phones are more personal and the various solutions that try to mimic a multi-user environment usually come up lacking in many ways. EMM or MDM solutions tend to isolate apps and data but still allow the user with physical access to have more or less complete control. There are phones built for parental controls and even dedicated hardware meant for kids.

Graphene OS was not designed for this use though. But with secondary user profiles, it's getting very close.
The main issue is that when the phone reboots the owner profile must be unlocked. So if you are okay with them coming back to you every so often to unlock the owner profile for reboots, sure it could work.

Thanks for the replies.

I guess a stock GrapheneOS phone for my kids is miles ahead giving them a Google phone. I just ordered a Pixel 4a (smallest GrapheneOS phone) for my 11 year old.

It helps that we've been discussing the perils of social media and smartphones in general.

How do you envision a GrapheneOS phone protecting an 11 year old from the “perils of social media and smartphones in general”?

    Blastoidea

    The GrapheneOs phone would be locked down to offer voice calls, text, calculator and possibly note app, email and camera.

    The browser and ability to install apps would be disabled. We need to be able to contact him if we're running late to pick him up from school.

      This may be the unpopular answer but iOS and iPhone would probably serve you better here with Screen Time permissions and parent controls.

        • [deleted]

        Blastoidea I am a father myself and I am afraid that current generation of kids aims a bit higher than that. What they look for right off the bat is a new gaming platform and flip phone can hardly provide it.

          [deleted]

          My kids are nature and outdoors oriented and we have no TV in the house or gaming platforms. I think a Pixel 4a with stock GrapheneOS will fit the bill for now.

            • [deleted]

            • Edited

            nyc_paramedic Okay, that might work for you. But let me say, no TV and gaming console in the household does not exactly make you an average family. And I don't mean that in a bad way.

            6 days later

            Update:

            I just purchased a renewed unlocked Pixel 4a from Amazon, as it was the smallest phone currently available to run GrapheneOS. The 4a is my current phone as well as I appreciate it smaller dimensions. The Web Installer was just a joy to use and warrants yet another donation to the GrapheneOS team. I'm also going to drop a note and ask them to consider a future device aimed at kids, i.e., GraphenOS loaded into a small device. The size of the Jelly phone from Unihertz seems ideal. Link: https://www.unihertz.com/products/jelly-2

            For an eleven year old, the phone is still a bit of a brick to carry around. He agreed that the phone would be off and kept in his backpack and to be utilized for contacting parents when needed.

            A big thank you to the team for coding up, what I think, is the best mobile phone OS for kids.

            Blastoidea

            "Have you considered a good old-fashioned flip phone?"

            We did. For $118 the unlocked 4a was the better choice. The current 4G VoiceLTE "dumb phones" phones mandated by AT&T are not as dumb as the past 3G phones like the old school Pantech 3G QWERTY phones.

            Also, the two Nokia 4G phones we purchased (and promptly returned) refused to work on the AT&T network even though they were on AT&T's approved $G VoiceLTE list. Plus, the new Nokia software (KaiOS?) was horrendous and had advertising you could not shut off.

            I guess the idea of the perfect kid phone is GrapheneOS in a small hardware package: large enough to be usable for meaningful communication; small enough to not beckon a child's attention constantly.

            Is the 4a still supported?

            The Pixel 5 is EOL in October of this year, hasn’t the 4a fallen off the edge?

              Blastoidea

              The 4a and 5 are still supported. And for a kids "Grapheneos dumbphone" I'm not too concerned about updates when it officially drops off the supported list. If he gets 2 years use out of it the $118 would be worth it.

              Blastoidea Yes, there is a company run by Mennonites called Sunbeam Wireless that make an AOSP flipphone called the Sunbeam F1 that is stripped from Google and has no web browser and no image sharing. Best phone for kids.

                BalooRJ

                Yup. Saw that during my research. But the phone is $195 and no guarantee for long term support.

                For now, it's going to be the Pixel 4a.

                P.S. My ideal phone for kids would be something like the Blackberry Q10 with a real physical keyboard. My wife and I were using these as our daily drivers for years until AT&T stopped supporting 3G phones. They were very front pocket friendly phones and handled text, voice and emails a lot better compared to iOS or Android. Their QNX based OS was miles ahead anything Apple or Google have.

                  nyc_paramedic Their QNX based OS was miles ahead

                  Wow, that's pretty laughable. Those things were horrendous. Everybody I knew with a qnx phone was perpetually pissed off with it.