Parental control

Tofi

I am in the middle of gathering stuff to build RetroPie table and I am curious is there a way to restrict access for kids? I am not talking about age restrictions but access to a arcade console at all i.e. turning on only by parent (secret combo or puzzle) and/or setting daily play time limit.

herb_fargus

@Tofi closest you'll get: https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/Child-friendly-EmulationStation

Tofi

I google it out before I asked the question, but my question was about daily time restrictions and turning on/restrict access to retropie not only selected games. Options that prevents kids from become game zombies or give to parent prize/punishment tool without taking off power cord. About 2 moths ago my two kids, 3 and 5 yo, in 40 seconds jammed door lock, broke drain pipe, make a drawings on the wall and still have planty of time to ride a bicycle at home. I do not want to let them realise that favourite toy has connection with mains socket. With Tv is simple - person with remote has power. Does exist any simple solution to restrict access to the retropie because it is a bit difficult to lock the whole table in a closet.

bense2k

Remove the SD Card. It should give you a few years before they realize they can create their own one.

Tofi

I wish it would be so simple. Because it is made for kids only movable part will be power cord that will disconnect from the retropie table. All other parts will be splash proof locked inside. For sure I will leave no access to small parts like sdcard. At first Arcade table will land at living room but in the end probably it will be placed in their room an that's why I want to make sure they do not try to tamper with it. I was looking for some parental lock on power source but with no results. ... Ok problem solved I just realise that exist something like ignition lock :D it will take few years before they will understand youtube tutorial how to steal a car :D

Zigurana

I ordered one of these at some point:
undefined
That would put you firmly in control.

A time limit functionality was already on my someday-maybe list for the Kid-friendly ES, but it might be a while before I get to that.

backstander

@Tofi you might be able to get something similar to this Power Outlet Smart Switch.

I believe you can program timers and control it with your smart phone. My brother-in-law using something like this in the living room to control his lamps so they will turn on at dark and turn off around midnight and he can override it with his smart phone as needed. It also supports near-field proximity controls so you can have it turn on when you're home and turn off when you're gone.

Just hope they're not smart enough to just unplug this device and plug directly into the wall. I guess you might be able to place it inside the box somehow so they can't get access to it.

Update:
After further investigation I think that this device only has 1 power jack but it would probably be best if it only turned off the monitor & speakers but you could keep the RPi on. I forgot that the RPi needs to be shut down gracefully.

Tofi

They are like rainman i.e. they remember o guess enough to unlock phone and turn on netflix or other kids apps - without ability to read - even the younger one. battery cut off switch should be fine for this moment, I just have to figure out way to soft power off with it.

backstander

@Tofi I'm not that versatile at writing Python scripts but someone might be able to write a script that will sent the sudo shutdown command when the RPi noticed that the TV/monitor was off?
https://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/comments/40tdv6/question_shutdown_raspberry_pi_when_tv_turns_off/

thiagofm

I was looking for the same solution: to restrict the gaming time for children.
Since there was no ready solution for the pi, I did develop a small python script that will do just that: block the usage if they are gaming for too much time.

You can check this out it in the repo: https://github.com/thiagof/app-timer

neophytte

@thiagofm thanks - I think this should be included in RetroPie!!