v32itas

If I may add my few cents here.

Generally about 95% of texting is useless. Now even Email that was supposed to be electronic version of written mail became texting for many people especially in business. And Email became texting, because people got used to texting.

Email for example should be used for proper amounts of text exchange, without expecting to be replied in a minute. That’s how proper technical internet people still use it. I can hing OpenBSD(Canadian Open Source Computer Operating System) mailing lists, those lists are even public and you can read serious technical discussion with lengthy texts there, it’s like reading book drafts..

Now texting in something like IRC(Internet Relay Chat), oldest internet texting protocol. If you get into proper server and proper channel, like for example Open Source bastion of Libera Chat server and lets say again you get on #OpenBSD channel
*You will be demanded to stay on topic.
*You won;t even be guaranteed that any of few hundred connected users will respond to you at all, it only happens if you ask interesting enough on-topic questions.

I mention OpenBSD community since they are most orthodox internet-wise, they won’t accept or read HTML infested email letters, they wont accept images unless it’s absolutely technically necessary.

So for example for someone who would like to learn, mathematics, cryptography, C-programming, and secure operating systems engineering, texting with #OpenBSD people is pretty kosher and beneficial.

However on the same server there are channels that are less orthodox internet-wise, where conversations can turn to anything else but the topic and nobody will stop it, that can sometimes become waste of time or be damaging, while sometimes it’s just branched technical discussions that simply not on the channel topic, but such channels exposes you to greater risk of junk or non-kosher material.

But communities like OpenBSD is just a part of 1% of the internet. 99% of the internet is crap, including texting.

So texting in general I avoid as most people a degenerated in this and just communicate in silly tasteless memes, too many smiley faces and too little meaningful intact sentences.

So you can evaluate for example OpenBSD community by reading some mirror of their mailling lists and se how heavy text that is, to me as heavy and worthy as studying Tanya lessons. So when you evaluate that, you can be sure that texting with such people is not a waste of time, but as I said it is 1% of the 1% of the internet has such quality.

Most of it are empty talks worthy of no more then entertainment for wasting time.

@Chaim87, sorry for quite delayed response. But if as you say. Then there’s as I already mentioned Hosts Based blocking, you should search fror Unified hosts on GH. I would provide links, but they are forbidden here as I’ve learned. Problem with this method that is not for children to do on their own as those lists basically contain every non kosher website there is, but they are there in order to be used in blocking yourself accidental access to them.

I’ve also quite recently discovered another project that is in early stages of development, but at a first glance, could be good for home based blocking.
Instead of link I’m gonna paste here, the projet’s sarcastic description:
_———————————————————————————————–__
OpenGFW is your very own DIY Great Firewall of China, available as a flexible, easy-to-use open source program on Linux. Why let the powers that be have all the fun? It’s time to give power to the people and democratize censorship. Bring the thrill of cyber-sovereignty right into your home router and start filtering like a pro – you too can play Big Brother.
—————————————————————————————————

There’s also another method of using browser addon for firefox called ‘Block Site’, that I have tried, and it allows whitelist mode, where only domains that are whitelisted and blocks all else.

Also when having Israeli antivirus software suite called Zone Alarm Extreme, it has a filter in itself to block content by some categories, worst things are included there. Costs about 30 dollars for 5 devices last time I checked, so while it is paid option it’s kinda slightly cheaper than fine tuned VPN filter assuming it’s 12.99 per device, while providing more than just filter.

There are many ways, one could chose frome.

It is one thing if you need to protect a child, from curiousity a bit(probably better not give them any internet access up to certain age, but have some offline media preselected like books, or offline wikipedia, stack overflow, or whatever, many things should be stored at home, just in case.

And another thing when you’re bohur as (original poster) on a tight budget. When you’re adult you do not need Big brother kind of magical figure to do it for you, you can do it on your own. So hosts based adware, malware, p*rn, gambling, social media blocking is probably simplest thing and especially good combined with ‘Block Site’ addon on Firefox, where you only allow specific websites to work and not load anything on accident at all, while keeping another browser without it, that is protected via unified hosts file blocking. I think this way is least technical, and easiest to implement for yourself free of charge, and learninge curve on how to do it is pretty low.

Well there’s hosts based blocking and there are multiple combinations of unified known files that can be used to block most of non-kosher videos, gambling, fake news, malware, socialmedia domains. Depending on the operating system.

This solution kinda blocks most of well known problems, but it would still not be as efficient as those fine tuned filtering VPNs, just that it is possible to get there to some degree without paying, but unless one is willing to learn about it and experiment on his own and stumbling on inapropriate website, manually improving their host based blocking file… It’s likely cheaper to pay for this service if as someone said it costs 12.99 per month.

However in a way this is contributing to a non-paid solution for the Original Poster problem. Thing with OpenSource projets is that they are mainly built by volunteers, and you cannot blame it for being not perfect.

this is one link on this hosts based blocking to get an idea.

No links

Edited

If I may add:
Mindustry
Factorio
Shapez
TIS-100
These are engineering/programming games with potential to improve programming/computing thinking, some people play them at age 5 some at later age. I might edit this post to add something more later.