Curbing Internet Addiction In A Threatening Manner

Those who have children of their own might argue that the youth of today are getting far too much internet time. [Nick] decided to put an emergency stop to it and made this ingenious internet kill switch to threaten teenagers with. Rather unassuming on the outside, the big red button instantly kills all network traffic as soon as you push it down, doing its label justice. Reset the toggle button, and the connection is restored, simple as that.

In order to achieve this, [Nick] fit inside the enclosure a Raspberry Pi Zero W, along with a battery and a wireless charging circuit for portability and completely wireless operation. The button is wired into the Pi’s GPIO and triggers a command to the router via SSH over WiFi, where a script listening to the signal tells it to drop the network interfaces talking to the outside world. It’s simple, it’s clean, and you can carry it around with you as a warning for those who dare disobey you. We love it.

Another use for big red buttons we’ve seen in the past is an AC power timer, but you can do just about anything with them if you turn one into an USB device. Check this one in action after the break.

Thanks [Julian] for the tip!

37 thoughts on “Curbing Internet Addiction In A Threatening Manner

  1. Too Simple.

    What it needs is:

    the button should be connected to an arduino. The arduino should be conntected to the Pi. When the arduino sends a signal to the pi, the pi should send a signal to MQQT, which sends a message to another pi, which sends another message to another arduino, which sends a message to the sonoff switch, telling the switch to turn off.

    Turning it back on is as simple as hitting the reset button on the sonoff switch!

    it’s pure simpliciity!

    1. My god, that’s nasty. Why not connect the button to an ESP8266 or ESP32 which then sends a signal direct to the router? Or if that’s not practical (due to requiring SSH) then button connected to ESP8266 which then sends a signal to a Pi that’s connected direct to the router and is powered by the mains. You want as little power consumption in the button itself, and what better than a single MCU which can be in deep sleep mode until woken by an interrupt from the button. You certainly don’t want anything involving bouncing through the internet when you’re cutting off the internet…

        1. You’re overthinking this. Either :

          1) Enforce some discipline
          2) Take away phones
          3) Turn off the internet

          3 is of course the last resort as it affects you too. duh.
          The hack is amusing.
          If in fact it got this far would show parenting skills are getting less attention than they deserve

          But in the interests of assumption, lets say it was done for the sake of it being done and that OP’s kids actually do follow some well meaning & simple rules of expected behaviour

          1. You’re all overthinking this…diagonal cutters.

            Seriously though, seperate your SSIDs, and don’t broadcast the ID of one of the faster ones that you reserve for yourself (unless you want them to see that you have a network of your own). Make sure your passwords are secure for the router and your SSID and you can shut down the other SSIDs whenever you like without cutting yourself off from the internet.

            Personally, I like the big button though. I have an 8 year old that would be very motivated by the physical nature of a kill switch.

          2. Wait, are you actually suggesting there can exist a problem in the real world you can’t just solve by throwing ludicrous amounts of technology at it while completely refusing to engage with it in any other way?!? BURN THE HERETIC!!!

      1. or if you have something like DD-WRT on your router you can actually run a python script to make a small web server, so the ESP8266 can just reach that web server and send the signal directly to the script running in the router…. simple

        1. In the other way, it could be compared to taking tank to office for daily commute :)

          The raspberry pi is used for such a simple application which could be achieved by many ways, I would prefer an MQTT or an IFTTT webhook linked with pubnub, local network Mqtt or what ever. This could be achieved by using an esp8266 and much less power hungry than raspberry pi.
          Doesn’t the pi zero deserves a minimum respect? :P

  2. One of my former DSL ISP offers “unlimited” download during the unearthly hours BUT requires a new session. I had wired in a DPDT relay to cut off the connection between the modem and router. The relay was powered from and controlled by one of the PC com port handshake lines. I wrote a timer program on that PC. That was the first of my win32 GUI code.

      1. hahahaha

        My neighbour’s son is 19, still lives at home and when the ice cream van comes round they still buy him one.
        A total mooch because they never taught him how to pay his own way

    1. Set up a Stingray base station that responds to all data requests with a web page that says “No Internet for you!”.

      Your neighbors might get a bit upset with this method, though.

  3. Back in the 90’s, when all we had was dail-up, I hooked a momentary disconnect to the phone line going to the computer that could be triggered by a key chain remote from up to a 1/4 mile away. I tormented my primary internet user for months before I let on. they thought they just had a crappy connection, and given the era of the internet at the time, this was completely understandable.

  4. My parents just unplugged the fuse downstairs. Warned a couple of times though. So you could only blame yourself for not saving that Civilization I game on the first request.

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