Could www.freedom.to stop kids from using any social media platform? freedom.to 能阻止孩子們使用任何社交媒體平台嗎？

I am no fan of any social media. Because I value my privacy more than any virtual experience, good or bad. To say the least, I do not want to waste my time on any social media, believing that I have better things to do.

Neither did I want my kids to waste their precious time on any social media. It is not just their time. They are young and innocent, do not have much of social experience, and they can be vulnerable to bad influence or brain washing by bad people/organizations.

So I have practiced my due diligence to search for some software that can be used to block all social media platforms like facebook.com, instagram, twitter snapchat etc. Unluckily I found no software that can do the job. Some software can block any small websites, but they dare not block any websites as big as those mentioned above.

Recently, I found www.freedom.to. It is really cheap and costs only a couple of U.S. dollars per month to subscribe to. The online app seems very easy to use. It offers some simple yet practical features. With this app, you can manage multiple devices simultaneously regardless of their operation systems. That is, it works for PC, Mac, smart phones, mobile devices and the like. All you need to do is set it up in one user account. You can decide which website to block for which time period on which day.

So I paid $20 for a year to get started. I set it up to block all social media platforms, and shopping websites, and some websites not intended for kids. Then I tested it and found I was blocked from visiting those websites on the blacklist. This made me so happy that I immediately challenged my kids to try to browse a few social media to see how effective it is.

In response, my younger kid came and tried a few sites, and he found them inaccessible now. But this did not concern my older kid. She clicked a few times, and blocked the app from working. Then she browsed all social media sites as usual.

This left me puzzled. Because I did not know what she did as she clicked so fast. It took me quite some time to figure out how she could actually disable the app. Eventually, I learned that this app needs to be running in your device to do its tricks. The problem is, the app is so designed that it virtually invites those who are not supposed to know to block it.

To block the app, all you need to do is click a few times. After you install the app, an icon stays on the desktop which everyone sees. This icon leads you to a tiny icon sitting on the task bar where you can disable the running of the app. Unfortunately, you are NOT the only person who is allowed to manage the app on the task bar. Any person who spots the icon could click on “log out” or “quit” to stop the app. Once logged out, it no longer works. It does not matter how secure your password to your account is.

The design allows my kid to break through the blockage in a few seconds. This defective design renders all its beautiful functions like multiple device managements, scheduling, freedom to block any website etc. virtually useless.

To sum up, this app does not work for those who want to shield their kids from using certain websites. You can set all things up, but your kids may figure it out. Before the app blocks any website, your kids could stop the app. Buying the app could be simply wasting money.

我不喜歡任何社交媒體。因為我珍惜我的隱私勝過任何虛擬體驗 – 無論好壞。至少可以說，我不想在任何社交媒體上浪費時間，認為自己有更好的事情可做。

我也不希望我的孩子在任何社交媒體上浪費他們的寶貴時間。這不只是他們的時間。他們年輕無辜，沒有社交經驗，而且容易受到不良影響或受到壞人/組織洗腦的影響。

因此，我已經盡職進行了調查，以尋找可以用來阻止所有社交媒體平台（例如facebook.com，instagram，twitter, snapchat等）的軟件。不幸的是，我發現沒有軟件可以勝任。某些軟件可以阻止任何小型網站，但它們不敢阻止任何與上述網站一樣大的網站。

最近，我找到了www.freedom.to。它確實很便宜，而且每月只需花費幾美元即可。在線應用程序似乎非常易於使用。它提供了一些簡單而實用的功能。使用此應用程序，您可以同時管理多個設備，而不管它們的操作系統如何。也就是說，它適用於PC，Mac，智能電話，移動設備等。您需要做的就是在一個用戶帳戶中進行設置。您可以決定在哪一天的哪個時段屏蔽哪個網站。

所以我花了20美元一年開始使用。我將其設置為阻止所有社交媒體平台和購物網站，以及某些不適合兒童使用的網站。然後，我對其進行了測試，發現我被阻止訪問黑名單上的那些網站。這讓我感到非常高興，以至於我立即向我的孩子發起挑戰， 讓他們嘗試瀏覽一些社交媒體看看效果如何。

作為回應，我的小孩子來了並嘗試了一些站點，他發現它們現在無法訪問了。但這並沒有嚇倒我的大孩子。她點擊了幾次，並阻止了該應用程序的運行。然後，她像往常一樣瀏覽了所有社交媒體網站。

這讓我感到困惑。因為我不知道她是怎麼做的，因為她如此快速地點擊。我花了一些時間弄清楚她實際上是如何禁用該應用程序的。最終，我了解到此應用程序需要在您的設備中運行才能發揮作用。問題是，該應用程序是如此設計的 ，以至於實際上邀請了不該知道的人阻止它。

要阻止該應用程序，只需單擊幾次即可。安裝該應用程序後，每個人都會看到一個圖標停留在桌面上。此圖標將您帶到坐在任務欄上的小圖標，您可以在其中禁用應用程序的運行。不幸的是，您不是唯一一個被允許在任務欄上管理應用程序的人。發現該圖標的任何人都可以單擊“註銷”或“退出”以停止該應用程序。註銷後，它將不再起作用。密碼是否安全無所謂。

該設計使我的孩子可以在幾秒鐘內突破阻塞。這種有缺陷的設計使其所有漂亮的功能（如多個設備管理，調度，自由阻止任何網站等）幾乎無用。

綜上所述，該應用程序不適用於那些希望保護孩子避免使用某些網站的人。您可以設置所有功能 ，但您的孩子可能會知道。在該應用程序阻止任何網站之前，您的孩子可以停止該應用程序 。購買該應用程序可能只是浪費錢。