The reason why we haven't mentioned features like parental control, is because we haven't talked too much about the software so far.
We will have some form of parental control on the Almond+ when it ships, but I'm afraid it's a bit too early to go into details as yet, since our software team is still busy working on a lot of the features of the Almond+.
Keep in mind that with the hardware changes to the Almond+, third party solutions will be possible as well and we are talking to several interested parties that want to develop solutions for the Almond+, but I'm afraid that I'm not at liberty to share any more details at this point in time.
Disclaimer: I have not played with an Almond+ yet.
That said, parental controls are already possible on OpenWRT, so I don't think this will be a problem. The underlying DNS/DHCP Server on OpenWRT is already using DNSmasq, which is a very powerful DNS/DHCP Server typically used on most embedded Linux devices. Similarly most embedded Linux devices, use Netfilter for packet management.
If the Almond+ uses these, (which it is likely to do, as it will be based on OpenWRT), all kinds of advanced configurations are possible. For example when my children were a lot younger (they are presently teenagers), I used to configure my DHCP server on my Router, to point my children's PC's to a different DNS server than the rest of my network.
Most of the devices on my network used the main DNS server on my router, which resolves local devices itself, and passes queries it doesn't understand off you my ISP's DNS servers for further resolution. I setup my childrens PC's to use a different DNS server on my router, which resolved local devices itself, but passed any queries it didn't understand off to OpenDNS for resolving.
OpenDNS provides a "
censored" DNS Server that "
filters" out known
Porn/Gambling sites, to protect my children from this type of content. (Free Speach types, please keep your comments to yourselves, as I believe I have a right to censor my children's DNS server in order to protect them from inappropriate content. I believe Safety trumps Censorship in this context).
Kids could still use "
Google" to find URL's for Porn/Gambling sites, but because of the "filtered" DNS available to them, they can not connect to them. As a parent, this gave me piece of mind. I no longer use this, as my children are older, but I will be happy to help Securifi Community members with such a setup once I actually have Almond+ hardware to play with.
Yes there are software tools like Netnanny etc that can be installed on your childrens PC's, but I preferred to simply protect my kids at the Router, as this ensures that their PC's were always protected. Lets revisit this issue once we all actually have Almond+ hardware to play with.