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> It's such a shame to me that the article ends with a note about how the parent will try to convince themselves that creating tiktok videos is creative. What?!

> It's such a shame to me that the article ends with a note about how the parent will try to convince themselves that creating tiktok videos is creative. What?!? Creating videos isn't creative?? Of course it is! You should be encouraging and reveling in this sort of behavior! My seven year old runs around with my old iPhone 5. We've locked it down to essentially be nothing more than a camera, but she'll still make videos for her whole screen time allotment for the day. I used to wonder if this was a "good" use of her time. Then she discovered iMovie and now edits videos, adds transitions and music, makes her little sister an actor in movies... and I remembered when my parents worried about me spending hours in QBasic making little sine-wave art with music playing in the background.

retube 6y ago
Hi - how did you lock down your kids iPhone? Am more of an android man but will be getting a refurbed iPhone 7 for my daughter (apparently they are "better" than Samsung)
- mixedCase 6y ago
  You sure you don't want to give them a fallible sandbox they could reason their way out of?
  - RandallBrown 6y ago
    One of my coworkers did that with his son. He had his carrier's tracking app installed on his son's phone so he could see where he was. The son figured out how to disable it. So he wrote an android service that'll send him the location whenever he needs it and installed it on the phone. His son doesn't know about it... yet. He fully understands this is an "arms race" of sorts and I think he feels like if his son is smart enough to outsmart his dad, he's probably smart enough to handle himself with a little less supervision. (I think the kid was in about 8th grade at the time.)
- marceldegraaf 6y ago
  Not OP, but I do this too. You can configure Screen Time on an iPhone. There you can limit the total time the device can be used each day. It's also possible to limit usage to certain apps, or block access to certain categories of apps, and allowing only certain people (e.g. family members) to be contacted or messaged. If your child has their own Apple ID, Screen Time works across any other Apple devices linked to that Apple ID.
  - 35fbe7d3d5b9 6y ago
    Exactly this. It's extremely effective, as Apple gives you a ton of constraints you can set: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201304 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201304 In my case, we've turned off all web access, have certain educational games available for a limited amount of time, and only allow outbound texts to grandma. It's extremely robust – most of the hacks I've read about (or heard from parents with older children!) involve trying to record the screen while you type in the unlock code to change a restriction. Physical attacks are also popular: shoulder surfing is a given, but one coworker said their kid put a tiny layer of hand lotion over the screen to capture where they touched and then attack the code. Clever.
    - smabie 6y ago
      Really got to applaud the lotion attack.
drdaeman 6y ago
> Of course it is! No, definitely not “of course”. Creativity is not defined by the technology or even the result, but is a... well, property of a process. I - personally - can snap a video without being creative at all, and the video may happen to be good. Like how a talking parrot can drop a joke at an appropriate moment, without understanding it at all ;) It all really depends on what goes in one’s head as they do something. That is - to recognize if the kid (or whoever, age does not matter here) is creative just talk to them and learn what the heck are they thinking. Like asking to share what’s their passion for that hobby, or teach how they do it - even the most basic replies would quite probably involve some descriptions of the logical processes running in one’s head. (I do not mean to argue if your kid having a passion for recording videos is creative or not. Just saying that it’s not universally applicable “of course”.)
- johnfn 6y ago
  "Of course" in the sense that it is literally creative - an act of creation. I'd argue that whether the exact pattern of neurons firing in her head measures up the standards you have is less important than the fact that she's actively using her phone to create content rather than passively ingesting it.

retube 6y ago

Hi - how did you lock down your kids iPhone? Am more of an android man but will be getting a refurbed iPhone 7 for my daughter (apparently they are "better" than Samsung)

mixedCase 6y ago
You sure you don't want to give them a fallible sandbox they could reason their way out of?
- RandallBrown 6y ago
  One of my coworkers did that with his son. He had his carrier's tracking app installed on his son's phone so he could see where he was. The son figured out how to disable it. So he wrote an android service that'll send him the location whenever he needs it and installed it on the phone. His son doesn't know about it... yet. He fully understands this is an "arms race" of sorts and I think he feels like if his son is smart enough to outsmart his dad, he's probably smart enough to handle himself with a little less supervision. (I think the kid was in about 8th grade at the time.)
marceldegraaf 6y ago
Not OP, but I do this too. You can configure Screen Time on an iPhone. There you can limit the total time the device can be used each day. It's also possible to limit usage to certain apps, or block access to certain categories of apps, and allowing only certain people (e.g. family members) to be contacted or messaged. If your child has their own Apple ID, Screen Time works across any other Apple devices linked to that Apple ID.
- 35fbe7d3d5b9 6y ago
  Exactly this. It's extremely effective, as Apple gives you a ton of constraints you can set: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201304 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201304 In my case, we've turned off all web access, have certain educational games available for a limited amount of time, and only allow outbound texts to grandma. It's extremely robust – most of the hacks I've read about (or heard from parents with older children!) involve trying to record the screen while you type in the unlock code to change a restriction. Physical attacks are also popular: shoulder surfing is a given, but one coworker said their kid put a tiny layer of hand lotion over the screen to capture where they touched and then attack the code. Clever.
  - smabie 6y ago
    Really got to applaud the lotion attack.

drdaeman 6y ago

> Of course it is! No, definitely not “of course”. Creativity is not defined by the technology or even the result, but is a... well, property of a process. I - personally - can snap a video without being creative at all, and the video may happen to be good. Like how a talking parrot can drop a joke at an appropriate moment, without understanding it at all ;) It all really depends on what goes in one’s head as they do something. That is - to recognize if the kid (or whoever, age does not matter here) is creative just talk to them and learn what the heck are they thinking. Like asking to share what’s their passion for that hobby, or teach how they do it - even the most basic replies would quite probably involve some descriptions of the logical processes running in one’s head. (I do not mean to argue if your kid having a passion for recording videos is creative or not. Just saying that it’s not universally applicable “of course”.)

johnfn 6y ago
"Of course" in the sense that it is literally creative - an act of creation. I'd argue that whether the exact pattern of neurons firing in her head measures up the standards you have is less important than the fact that she's actively using her phone to create content rather than passively ingesting it.