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There's a lot of social pressure for high tech parents to appear as if they limit their children's technology use. Parents are not particularly forthcoming ab

by tarr11 9y ago

There's a lot of social pressure for high tech parents to appear as if they limit their children's technology use. Parents are not particularly forthcoming about their children's technology use. I suspect that many parents don't actually know how many hours a day their children are interacting with technology. Perhaps this story about Bill Gates is being spun a bit to serve a particular goal? For example, here's a picture of Bill Gates' son with a mobile phone.[1] He says his child didn't "receive" a phone until he was 13. That doesn't mean he didn't "use" one. "Asked if he keeps passwords to his son and daughters' email and Facebook accounts, Mr Gates said that he doesn’t for Jennifer, 16, who he describes as 'independent'. He admitted that monitoring online activity is 'a very tricky issue for parents now.' Also, Can anyone link to the original study referenced here? I can't seem to find it. "Research has found that an eighth-grader's risk for depression jumps 27% when he or she frequently uses social media. " Googling leads me back to a bunch of other pages, with no references. Here is an alternative take on Jean Twenge's thesis with some criticism of her conclusions [2] [1] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2270869/Bill-Gates-Billionaire-opens-strict-parenting-rules.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2270869/Bill-Gates... [2] https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/once-more-feeling/201708/no-smartphones-are-not-destroying-generation https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/once-more-feeling/20170...

vanderZwan 9y ago
> "Asked if he keeps passwords to his son and daughters' email and Facebook accounts, Mr Gates said that he doesn’t for Jennifer, 16, who he describes as 'independent'. I mean, honestly, I am very much about giving children their privacy, but when I have children I don't know how I feel about letting them on the internet unsupervised until they're twelve or so. Not to snoop on what they are doing, but because I don't trust what the internet is trying to do to them. There is so much active exploitation and manipulation going on. Not just from malicious individuals trying to get your credit card data, I mean that the most popular platforms themselves are Skinner boxes algorithmically optimised to make you click and consume more. James Bridle had an excellent article about that a few weeks ago, in which he called this "infrastructural violence", and I don't think that is an exaggeration[0]. and children are still innocent in the sense that they are not aware or capable of understanding these tactics. I want to be able to intervene until they are independent enough to judge those things on their own. For off-line usage it's a very different story. [0] https://medium.com/@jamesbridle/something-is-wrong-on-the-internet-c39c471271d2 https://medium.com/@jamesbridle/something-is-wrong-on-the-in...
- creaghpatr 9y ago
  His daughter has a de facto net worth of billions so I have imagine the ‘16 and independent’ vibe is a little different than your average 16 yr old.
  - mtmail 9y ago
    "Bill and Melinda Gates have said that they intend to leave their three children $10 million each as their inheritance." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gates https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gates
- snuxoll 9y ago
  This is why I pre-emptively set up WPA2-Enterprise on my wireless network and replaced my EdgeRouter X with a VM running Sophos XG. I just ordered parts to build myself a new PC, my 5 year old will inherit my old rig as her first real computer. Any device connected to the network with her profile automatically triggers the Sophos VM to enable filtering (including HTTPS) for that client, so I can give her access to basic educational sites and games without worrying too much about the big bad internet and what a child with unfettered access could run across. Even when she hits her teenage years she isn’t going to get totally unsupervised access, adolescents deserve some privacy but not at the cost of their safety - I made plenty of mistakes online when I was younger and want to ensure I can help her avoid them (especially given how social media loves to deanonymize you).
  - junkscience2017 9y ago
    Your daughter soon won't care about your PC, PCs are for old people. She will be on her phone using LTE. If she can't get that, you will have arguments so loud the neighbors will look out their windows. I was once in your shoes, prepare for defeat.
    - snuxoll 9y ago
      She loves using my Wacom tablet, so I’m going to install my Corel Draw license on her machine - not to mention she loves playing Minecraft and wants to play all the mods and custom maps she’s seen on DanTDM’s YouTube channel. She may not use it as heavily as I did with my PC when I was younger, but even I make frequent use of my iPhone and iPad for some casual tasks these days.

by tarr11 9y ago

vanderZwan 9y ago

> "Asked if he keeps passwords to his son and daughters' email and Facebook accounts, Mr Gates said that he doesn’t for Jennifer, 16, who he describes as 'independent'. I mean, honestly, I am very much about giving children their privacy, but when I have children I don't know how I feel about letting them on the internet unsupervised until they're twelve or so. Not to snoop on what they are doing, but because I don't trust what the internet is trying to do to them. There is so much active exploitation and manipulation going on. Not just from malicious individuals trying to get your credit card data, I mean that the most popular platforms themselves are Skinner boxes algorithmically optimised to make you click and consume more. James Bridle had an excellent article about that a few weeks ago, in which he called this "infrastructural violence", and I don't think that is an exaggeration[0]. and children are still innocent in the sense that they are not aware or capable of understanding these tactics. I want to be able to intervene until they are independent enough to judge those things on their own. For off-line usage it's a very different story. [0] https://medium.com/@jamesbridle/something-is-wrong-on-the-internet-c39c471271d2 https://medium.com/@jamesbridle/something-is-wrong-on-the-in...

creaghpatr 9y ago
His daughter has a de facto net worth of billions so I have imagine the ‘16 and independent’ vibe is a little different than your average 16 yr old.
- mtmail 9y ago
  "Bill and Melinda Gates have said that they intend to leave their three children $10 million each as their inheritance." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gates https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gates
snuxoll 9y ago
This is why I pre-emptively set up WPA2-Enterprise on my wireless network and replaced my EdgeRouter X with a VM running Sophos XG. I just ordered parts to build myself a new PC, my 5 year old will inherit my old rig as her first real computer. Any device connected to the network with her profile automatically triggers the Sophos VM to enable filtering (including HTTPS) for that client, so I can give her access to basic educational sites and games without worrying too much about the big bad internet and what a child with unfettered access could run across. Even when she hits her teenage years she isn’t going to get totally unsupervised access, adolescents deserve some privacy but not at the cost of their safety - I made plenty of mistakes online when I was younger and want to ensure I can help her avoid them (especially given how social media loves to deanonymize you).
- junkscience2017 9y ago
  Your daughter soon won't care about your PC, PCs are for old people. She will be on her phone using LTE. If she can't get that, you will have arguments so loud the neighbors will look out their windows. I was once in your shoes, prepare for defeat.
  - snuxoll 9y ago
    She loves using my Wacom tablet, so I’m going to install my Corel Draw license on her machine - not to mention she loves playing Minecraft and wants to play all the mods and custom maps she’s seen on DanTDM’s YouTube channel. She may not use it as heavily as I did with my PC when I was younger, but even I make frequent use of my iPhone and iPad for some casual tasks these days.