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Given the audience here I would image the majority of the people on this site had computers supplied by our parents at a young age, and we often played violent

by syshum 5y ago

Given the audience here I would image the majority of the people on this site had computers supplied by our parents at a young age, and we often played violent video games, or spent hours talking to people online yet we did not become criminals Scape goating video games, or "the internet" for these types of things is a long disproven trope. There are more factors in criminality that just playing a violent game or having computer supplied to you by your parents. Putting the blame on these things however is easier that looking at other more human causes.

JadeNB 5y ago
Just to be clear, I am not arguing that having a computer plays any role in criminality—except possibly that it gives mischievous and easily bored youngsters a healthy outlet for their curiosity and restlessness, which presumably militates against criminality. I was agreeing with teddyh (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28898239 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28898239) and I agree with you. I just meant to clarify (for the benefit of those who, like me, read the comments before the article) that José is the hacker's mother, not the hacker, which puts a different, and much darker, spin on the statement that José thinks that the hacker's getting a computer young was a bad thing.
- erikerikson 5y ago
  You can fault the mother for thinking maybe if she never gave her son a computer a different outcome may have occurred? I see nothing of the generalization you accuse the mother of making, only a mother asking what wouldn't have allowed the eventual outcome she observed and we've now read about. Consider that the mother might simply be saying, "I wish reality had gone differently" but adding outcome specific details to say so. Of all the events in the casual chain, the alteration of many of them could have led to a better or worse outcome but the gift of the computer seems salient. I imagine most parents with children that die in car accidents question the gifting of a car. Doesn't mean they think cars are to blame, just fruitless, useless wishing that things had gone better.
  - wtallis 5y ago
    The parents think giving the kid a computer may have been their biggest mistake. That's not just a matter of them imagining things might have gone differently; they're saying the computer itself was one of the most significant causes of harm. It's like they're deliberately avoiding thinking about the real causes—the factors that led to their son experiencing a different and much worse outcome than the vast majority of people who spend "too much" time on computers as they're growing up.
    - erikerikson 5y ago
      > It's like they're deliberately avoiding thinking about the real causes I can see how you might get to that supposition. I guess I'm feeling a little more charitable. I expect they're likely muddling along in life like most of humanity trying to do it's best with only the most vague ideas of what it means to do that well.

by syshum 5y ago

JadeNB 5y ago

Just to be clear, I am not arguing that having a computer plays any role in criminality—except possibly that it gives mischievous and easily bored youngsters a healthy outlet for their curiosity and restlessness, which presumably militates against criminality. I was agreeing with teddyh (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28898239 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28898239) and I agree with you. I just meant to clarify (for the benefit of those who, like me, read the comments before the article) that José is the hacker's mother, not the hacker, which puts a different, and much darker, spin on the statement that José thinks that the hacker's getting a computer young was a bad thing.

erikerikson 5y ago
You can fault the mother for thinking maybe if she never gave her son a computer a different outcome may have occurred? I see nothing of the generalization you accuse the mother of making, only a mother asking what wouldn't have allowed the eventual outcome she observed and we've now read about. Consider that the mother might simply be saying, "I wish reality had gone differently" but adding outcome specific details to say so. Of all the events in the casual chain, the alteration of many of them could have led to a better or worse outcome but the gift of the computer seems salient. I imagine most parents with children that die in car accidents question the gifting of a car. Doesn't mean they think cars are to blame, just fruitless, useless wishing that things had gone better.
- wtallis 5y ago
  The parents think giving the kid a computer may have been their biggest mistake. That's not just a matter of them imagining things might have gone differently; they're saying the computer itself was one of the most significant causes of harm. It's like they're deliberately avoiding thinking about the real causes—the factors that led to their son experiencing a different and much worse outcome than the vast majority of people who spend "too much" time on computers as they're growing up.
  - erikerikson 5y ago
    > It's like they're deliberately avoiding thinking about the real causes I can see how you might get to that supposition. I guess I'm feeling a little more charitable. I expect they're likely muddling along in life like most of humanity trying to do it's best with only the most vague ideas of what it means to do that well.