Baby proofing the desktop (control of inputs)

Brainstorm
1

Hello,

I face a scenario that might sound familiar to people with toddlers.

If you have a toddler near your family laptop you might want to have the ability to temporarily disable the majority of inputs (mouse/keyboard) while keeping the desktop unlocked. We could name this option “Baby Proofing”.

That is useful in cases where you have a kids’ movie playing on Youtube. If the toddler (due to excitement/curiosity) starts pressing multiple keys (especially on a laptop) then it messes everything up. Confusion and crying ensues.

I propose creating an option to give users the ability to create a custom shortcut that disables the mouse and ignores all keystrokes (apart from the unlocking shortcut).

Once the user gives the correct key combination then all the inputs get restored.

Happy to hear your thoughts! :slight_smile:

Edit: Now that I thought more about it this option could be useful for cat proofing as well!

6 Likes
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It’s a great idea! Meta+Scroll Lock would be far enough apart and who uses that combo? Being KDE, it could always be changed.

I don’t personally have this problem, but I can vividly remember. :rofl:

2 Likes
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Indeed, I think this makes a lot of sense to expose in a user-friendly way somehow.

2 Likes
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A related feature is Kiosk Mode, which locks the user in one fullscreen app. (not KDE Kiosk framework, which seems only locks settings)

5

The initial few responses seem positive. Is there consensus that this would be a useful feature to add?

If so, please advise if I should create a feature request over at bugs.kde.org or what are the necessary steps forward for this to enter a work queue.

1 Like
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As I said above, I no longer have a need for it but many do. I find it hard to believe that none of us have thought it up before. :grinning:

Go for it.

1 Like
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There it goes.

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=480997

I am not sure if I have posted it under the correct Product/Component section though.

The KDE stack is just massive and I don’t have the full picture of what goes where. Please relocate it if it’s out of place.

1 Like
8

I don’t have children, but I take care of an older person who’s hands shake a lot, and because of this has inadvertently messed up settings leaving me to fix things. I would love something like this but just for say settings, icons, and panels and still be able to allow them fairly easy access to their email and browser.