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Not my sole reason, but since you asked, here I am. I give my children iPhones. I like having certain family controls over what they use, and further controls o

Not my sole reason, but since you asked, here I am. I give my children iPhones. I like having certain family controls over what they use, and further controls over what appears in the app store to begin with. I like having a single vendor for all my software purchases, that I can trust to issue refunds and discontinue subscriptions promptly. I spend all day thinking about computers, I don't want to also be my own IT professional and security team, especially for a slab of glass I hold in my hand. I accept that I have to do some IT and security thinking about my iOS devices, but the more the walled garden provides, the less is on me. I understand that with this "safety" comes a loss of "liberty," but I find that an acceptable tradeoff for consumer hardware in my personal life. I don't automatically assume that the right tradeoffs for me are also the right tradeoffs for everyone else. If someone wants to sideload apps and/or develop their own custom apps without some kind of special developer status, I have no problem suggesting they buy something else. I accept that I am not the typical HN reader.

baby 6y ago
Should a parent really get their children iPhones?
- braythwayt 6y ago
  If you are a parent, you decide for yourself. I question the validity of presuming this question has a correct answer for all parents under all circumstances.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- reaperducer 6y ago
  Should a parent really get their children iPhones? Not your kids. Not your business.
- spanhandler 6y ago
  Maybe, maybe not, but by like 5th grade most of them seem to have one regardless. Many younger kids have one. By 7th it's practically all of them (a smartphone, that is, though yeah, often an iPhone) Our school assigns every kid an iPad. In Kindergarten. Good idea? I kinda don't think so, though it's been useful this year, of course. But it happens. Increasingly parents have trouble letting kids wander the neighborhood on their own without a tracker/communication-device on them, and a smartphone's really good at serving that role. There are other options but kids want to have their smartphone on them, and as soon as you want them to be able to do one other smartphone-thing any other option starts to look kinda pointless. (just relating observations of parenting in the wild, not my own parenting approach)
tuscen 6y ago
Why this can’t be a part of parental control function where you can restrict certain function on devices you control?
bradlys 6y ago
I will add to this: I wish my parents had stuck with iPhones. The amount of IT support that I had to do after they switched went up quite a bit. It's been a few years so they've adjusted (and I've just ignored their complaints and told them to fix it themselves) but who knows what garbage they've installed on their phones! They're not tech savvy. It would be quite nice if they had stuck with iPhones. I remember they got Samsung tablets and when I had looked at them to see if I would like to buy one... I saw they were completely full of - essentially - spyware and malware.
Nullabillity 6y ago
> I give my children iPhones. I like having certain family controls over what they use, and further controls over what appears in the app store to begin with. Okay.. then their opinion is what's relevant here, not yours. > I like having a single vendor for all my software purchases, that I can trust to issue refunds and discontinue subscriptions promptly. Weren't they in hot water recently for forcing developers to use their deceptive subscription trial system?
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
philwelch 6y ago
To your point, and more to the dispute with Epic: I’m sure you also want to make sure your kids aren’t spending all your money on dumb in-app purchases. Having a controlled mechanism for that provides an actual value to you, and letting companies circumvent it would make things harder for you. Are the fees for that mechanism fair? That’s a business negotiation.
kitsunesoba 6y ago
> …that I can trust to issue refunds and discontinue subscriptions promptly. This is a big one. I'm significantly more likely to subscribe to a service/app if I'm able to do so through iTunes, because it means the app developer can't directly reach into my wallet. If I hit "Cancel Subscription" in the iTunes subscription panel, it's canceled, no ifs, ands, or buts, and no hidden unsubscribe links or intentionally obtuse unsubscription processes to have to contend with. This is a huge thing for consumers to give up for the sake of developer freedom. If Apple begins to allow third party payment systems, developers should be required to connect said payment systems to Apple-provided standardized subscription control APIs so strong user control is maintained.

baby 6y ago

Should a parent really get their children iPhones?

braythwayt 6y ago
If you are a parent, you decide for yourself. I question the validity of presuming this question has a correct answer for all parents under all circumstances.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
reaperducer 6y ago
Should a parent really get their children iPhones? Not your kids. Not your business.
spanhandler 6y ago
Maybe, maybe not, but by like 5th grade most of them seem to have one regardless. Many younger kids have one. By 7th it's practically all of them (a smartphone, that is, though yeah, often an iPhone) Our school assigns every kid an iPad. In Kindergarten. Good idea? I kinda don't think so, though it's been useful this year, of course. But it happens. Increasingly parents have trouble letting kids wander the neighborhood on their own without a tracker/communication-device on them, and a smartphone's really good at serving that role. There are other options but kids want to have their smartphone on them, and as soon as you want them to be able to do one other smartphone-thing any other option starts to look kinda pointless. (just relating observations of parenting in the wild, not my own parenting approach)

tuscen 6y ago

Why this can’t be a part of parental control function where you can restrict certain function on devices you control?

bradlys 6y ago

I will add to this: I wish my parents had stuck with iPhones. The amount of IT support that I had to do after they switched went up quite a bit. It's been a few years so they've adjusted (and I've just ignored their complaints and told them to fix it themselves) but who knows what garbage they've installed on their phones! They're not tech savvy. It would be quite nice if they had stuck with iPhones. I remember they got Samsung tablets and when I had looked at them to see if I would like to buy one... I saw they were completely full of - essentially - spyware and malware.

Nullabillity 6y ago

> I give my children iPhones. I like having certain family controls over what they use, and further controls over what appears in the app store to begin with. Okay.. then their opinion is what's relevant here, not yours. > I like having a single vendor for all my software purchases, that I can trust to issue refunds and discontinue subscriptions promptly. Weren't they in hot water recently for forcing developers to use their deceptive subscription trial system?

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

philwelch 6y ago

To your point, and more to the dispute with Epic: I’m sure you also want to make sure your kids aren’t spending all your money on dumb in-app purchases. Having a controlled mechanism for that provides an actual value to you, and letting companies circumvent it would make things harder for you. Are the fees for that mechanism fair? That’s a business negotiation.

kitsunesoba 6y ago

> …that I can trust to issue refunds and discontinue subscriptions promptly. This is a big one. I'm significantly more likely to subscribe to a service/app if I'm able to do so through iTunes, because it means the app developer can't directly reach into my wallet. If I hit "Cancel Subscription" in the iTunes subscription panel, it's canceled, no ifs, ands, or buts, and no hidden unsubscribe links or intentionally obtuse unsubscription processes to have to contend with. This is a huge thing for consumers to give up for the sake of developer freedom. If Apple begins to allow third party payment systems, developers should be required to connect said payment systems to Apple-provided standardized subscription control APIs so strong user control is maintained.