Assist with other Parental Controls
There are a handful of decent Parental Controls apps out there, MMGuardian and Screen Time for Android among them. Trouble is, as Android evolves, new holes are opened that allow children to bypass all, or almost all of these apps' attempts to prevent abuse of the device. When split/multiple screens became available (with no Settings option to prevent them), MMGardian became obsolete. Kids just start a split screen and the newer instance can run whatever they want. Screen Time suffers a similar problem with Safe Boot.
What I'd like to be able to do is:
1. Intercept start up and shutdown/reset events.
2. Save restore TYPE of screen unlock security used (face, fingerprint, pattern, PIN, etc).
3. Save and restore the actual VALUE(s) of the screen unlock security.
4. Intercept requests for split screen and for it to "do nothing," i.e., a split screen is not started. It is canceled, closed, redirected to a non-existent app or anything else to prevent it from working.
5. Intercept widget taps and replace them with "do nothing." Widgets seem to be a problem for many Parental Control apps. My phones are rooted so if Tasker can recognize a widget tap then I want to make the device ignore such taps.
My idea has 3 functional areas. The easier 2 to understand are numbers 4 and 5 above. I'll establish a day/time in which these 2 will be enabled and those 2 problems are solved.
The 3rd is numbers 1 to 3 above and more complicated, but I can make it happen in Tasker if I can get to the events and the settings:
- At shutdown/restart time, Save the current unlock value(s) and unlock type(s).
- Force the unlock type to be a password. force the password to be something of my choosing. If the child boots into safe mode, they won't know the password.
- At normal startup, restore the type(s) of unlock security and the actual value(s). That is, put the device security back the way it has always been so the child can use the phone.
In the future, Android will probably invent new holes in Parental Control apps so I would prefer to write the code myself, if I can get the event intercepts and settings mentioned above.