There needs to be a way to disable the thumbnail previews and block certain channels for all of the media apps. We need to be able to block entirely and/or selectively. of the thumbnails feature click bait AI horror images meant for older audiences that my younger children can see without even entering the media apps or clicking on anything.

There should be a way to manually disable the thumbnails other than to delete these apps entirely.

We are a family of gamers and we don’t play any violent or horror games around the kids and no “child-friendly games” that, from what I’ve heard, allow people to easily access children through chat rooms.

However the thumbnail previews seem to be completely out of our control. I’ve tried a couple ways to disable them in privacy and user settings but we simply can’t control the thumbnail previews for the media apps. I like to be able to stream my gameplay when the kids are asleep. We don’t allow our children to consume much media content, but they do enjoy playing some of the cozy rated E games when we are around to monitor them and play together.

If someone knows of how to disable the thumbnail previews for media apps without deleting these media apps entirely please let me know in the comments.

Thank you for your help and consideration, PlayStation Family

WhatsApp

• Too Cluttered: Family chats sit right next to work and spam; very easy to mess up and send text to the wrong group.
• Privacy Issues: Tracks metadata (who, when, and how long you talk) to build ad profiles.
• Needs SIM Card: Requires a phone number, locking out young kids using Wi-Fi tablets.

Discord

• Too Complex: Built for gamers; multiple channels and roles confuse grandparents.
• Stranger Danger: Open social platform where kids can easily wander into public servers.
• Too Distracting: Bloated with gaming streams and bots instead of pure family chat.

Telegram

• Not Encrypted by Default: Group chats are stored on cloud servers, meaning Telegram can read them.
• Spam Minefield: Filled with crypto, bots, and public channels; feels like a crowded market.
• No Family Tools: Lacks functional features like shared calendars or safety location tracking.

Signal

• Cold and Sterile: Built for whistleblowers; looks like a workplace terminal, lacking a warm family vibe.
• Easy Data Loss: No cloud backups. If a kid/grandparent forgets their PIN, all family photos are gone forever.
• No Safety Tracking: Refuses to add real-time location tracking or school-arrival alerts.

Hey need everyone's opinion! I have been working on a side-project. It allows kids to make their own storybooks with their preferences and allows kids to upload their homework and have it create a story for them. Let me know what I can work on!

Thanks, let me know what y'all think! WizNook.com

Most of what I know about my own childhood came secondhand — a story my mom retold, a caption under an old photo. I wanted a way to capture what a parent is actually thinking/feeling about their kid right now, in their own words, sealed until the kid is old enough to really read it.

***Dear Little Me***: You write the letter (AI helps if you're staring at a blank page), it gets sealed as a digital time capsule, delivered by email on their 18th birthday.

Built with Expo/React Native Web + Supabase + a Vercel backend, solo so far.

What I'd love feedback on: does the "sealed until 18" mechanic feel too far off to be compelling, or would you want shorter delivery options too (1 year, 5 years)?

***Also roasting the landing page copy is welcome***: [https://dearlittleme-tau.vercel.app/\](https://dearlittleme-tau.vercel.app/)

we're expecting our first in eight weeks and nanit keeps coming up everywhere i look. the sleep tracking and app features genuinely sound like exactly what i'd want, having real data on how the baby is sleeping overnight instead of just guessing seems like it would take a lot of the anxiety out of those early weeks.

i'm pretty much sold on the concept but the price is making me hesitate a little when there's so much else to budget for. just wondering if people who actually own one feel like it lived up to what they expected. did it make those first few months feel more manageable?

I have a 5-year-old and an 8-year-old, and I'm curious what apps other kids their ages are using every day.

What are your kids' favorite apps? Are there any you've found to be genuinely educational, creative, or just good quality? And are there any you've ended up deleting or avoiding?

For mine, it's always YouTube... ugh.

Hi everyone!
I’m creating children’s content and I’d love to learn from parents instead of guessing.
If you could add ONE thing to children’s YouTube, what would it be?
More educational?
Less overstimulating?
More kindness?
More imagination?
More cultural diversity?
I’d genuinely love to hear your thoughts.

Wanting to get my almost 8yo son a smart watch to track him/call or text him as he roams the neighborhood to and from friends houses. Also will be nice to text him to let him know what time I picking him up from camp.

I’m torn between the Bark Watch & Cosmo JrTrack 5. Would love to know people’s experiences with both of these. We live in Knox Co. TN so we have good service pretty much everywhere. I know Cosmo uses ATT towers and (we personally have ATT) but I’ve heard it has delay gps updating and battery dies quick. That’s my biggest concern.

Give me all your negatives and praises for both please!

Parent here, long-time lurker. Every summer there are police warnings about kids left in parked cars as temperatures climb, and a couple of recent cases really stuck with me.

One stat surprised me: studies suggest roughly 1 in 4 parents in this region admit to having left a child in a car at some point. Not negligence — it’s a known memory-lapse failure, the same mechanism that makes you walk into a room and forget why.

Idea I’ve been sketching: a sticker on the child’s car seat + an app. Park and walk away, your phone alarms — the only way to stop it is physically tapping the sticker or confirming “I checked, my child is safe.” No response, and it alerts your partner and emergency contacts with your location.

Ran a small number of questions with people I know — most were surprised by the stat, but most also said “not for me.” A good chunk said they’d consider it for a nanny, driver, or grandparent though.

Genuinely asking, no agenda:

\*\*•\*\* Parents — useful or overkill?
\*\*•\*\* More for yourself, or for someone else who drives your kids?
\*\*•\*\* Non-parents — would that stat surprise you too?

Not selling anything, this is pre-product. Brutal honesty welcome — “this is dumb” is more useful than polite agreement

I don't live in my hometown while most of my family is there. I love that my children are connected by playing and chatting with their cousins through Roblox. But all the ethical and safety concerns of Roblox make me want to ban it for life.

IT inclined parents, any suggestions on what worked for your kids that they love to play just as much? Google gives a dizzying answer. Thank you!

I bought two JrTrack 5s for my kids and we're trying to get the hang of them. They were working well enough, until suddenly my daughter's watch wouldn't make or receive calls. My son's still would still do calls for a while, but then it stopped to. Call connecting is already set to optimized (there's no option to turn it off). Both watches can still text. Can anyone help me here? If these things are this unreliable, I'm going to return them and try Bark, I guess.

My teen got a FitBit versa. It won't connect to her phone without removing parental supervision on her phone through Family Link (if ypu have any work arounds pls share). She's 14 years old, responsible, and gets good grades etc but I don't like the idea of not being able to limit the time of day, installing apps, and setting limits to help her be safe a limit screen time.

Thoughts?

the whole parental control option - is it good or useless? i mean, if i have to confirm every contact on my kids class, it sounds a bit tiring. whats your take?

My brother is 11 with zero prior experience with AI and I decided to run a little experiment on him. Disclosure: I'm an AI specialist at a tech company in SF so I'd genuinely love perspectives from people outside the AI bubble.

For context, he asked me for a new phone for his birthday coming up in July. I had been wanting to teach him AI for a while so I decided to give him a Claude pro subscription and a challenge to build something new of his interest every day for 30 days. If he completes the challenge, he gets the phone. Simple like that.

He's one week in and I'm impressed with how he uses AI to help with things like understanding math (without simply asking for answers) and helping build a daily routine.

The reason I wanted to open this thread was to hear from parents/family/educators who have taught their kids AI and what incentives they put in place to make it a meaningful experience.

Are you teaching your kids AI? What's your approach? And for those who have set up challenges like this, what measures and tools did you build around it to make it actually work?