Kids Player

For months, my home server ran nine apps on 2 GB of RAM. I kept expecting something to break. It didn’t. Load average sat around 0.2. Apps loaded. Nobody complained. I started to think 2 GB was just enough, and left it at that. Then one afternoon my three-year-old pressed the play button on Kids Player. Nothing happened. She pressed it again. Still nothing. About twelve seconds later, the audio started. ...

Every parent knows this feeling. You hand your child a tablet to show them one video you picked. One tap later, the app has carried them off somewhere else — loud videos, ads, and “recommended” clips chosen by an algorithm that doesn’t know or care about your child. I didn’t want that for my daughter. I also didn’t want to pay a monthly fee, make another account, or hand my child’s attention to another company. ...