4 ms·

The wide open internet is a pretty serious threat environment and it makes sense that parents want to protect their kids from strangers and horrific content. Bu

The wide open internet is a pretty serious threat environment and it makes sense that parents want to protect their kids from strangers and horrific content. But one thing I find pretty disturbing is parents monitoring the digital footprint of their children's real-world relationships. Most people would find it pretty creepy if you made your child wear a tape recorder to school or a friend's house, but the digital equivalent - reading text and instant message content - is surprisingly accepted. I had some friends who were monitored this way and it was very uncomfortable knowing that their parents were party to any conversation we had. My enormous volumes of unrestricted screen time led to my interest and eventual career in technology; I'm pretty grateful for them. On the other hand I do feel like success in modern life is down to resisting the siren song of empty-calories time sinks like social media, gaming, Reddit, Twitter, etc. and the successful adults of the next generation will be those whose parents inculcate self-control and moderation here.

mixmastamyk 4y ago
Schools have adult supervision already and don't need parental surveillance. Kids are most often molested/influenced by someone close, and internet only expands that reach. If you think parents doing their job is the primary problem here, I'm frankly a bit surprised. The truth is nothing is private, so better get used to it. I never used the internet until my mid-twenties, and it hasn't held my technology career back in the slightest.
- closeparen 4y ago
  >Schools have adult supervision already Students have a great deal more privacy at school than in digital-surveillance households: conversations at lunch and recess are not normally monitored or reviewable by staff members, for example. >The truth is nothing is private, so better get used to it. I think this kind of defeatism is bad, but even as far as it goes, the sense in which "nothing is private" refers to, like, the NSA and advertising bots. That is a very different thing from disclosure to people who have personal relationships and power dynamics with you. I would hope that kids don't "get used to it" and go on to perpetrate or accept that kind of behavior in their future relationships. >I never used the internet until my mid-twenties, and it hasn't held my technology career back in the slightest. While most kids using computers have nothing to do with technology careers, it is pretty clearly the case now that programming for the first time in CS101 would put you at an extreme (though not necessarily insurmountable) disadvantage. > parents doing their job Parents are reinterpreting "their job" to be much more intense over the last few decades already (helicopter parenting, stranger paranoia, driving everywhere, etc). In a remote-first world, they are poised to have essentially total visibility and control over every aspect of life. At some point their job has got to be to produce adults.
  - mixmastamyk 4y ago
    > Students have a great deal more privacy at school Not really. Maybe out on the school yard for a few mins, that's expected. You may have not read up on this, but schools have already turned into a surveillance dystopia: https://www.eff.org/press/releases/schools-are-spying-students-students-can-fight-back https://www.eff.org/press/releases/schools-are-spying-studen... It's almost as if an advertising-surveillance-company is in charge of our school's IT. > The truth is nothing is private --> defeatism One of my most painful career lessons was never put sensitive things in email! Wish my parents could have taught me that over something inconsequential a decade earlier. Never was and never will be private. That is the lesson. > CS101 Computer science is not software engineering, right? That one trips up a lot of folks. But this comparison stretches even farther, it is not even in the same neighborhood as social media, friends, or fomo. It's often an applied science class (aka programming) where it is very helpful to know a bit of algebra, typing, and the basics of computer hardware. CS theory often starts the second year. The two sets don't overlap at all, but lay folks tend to think so because computers are "magic": http://coding2learn.org/blog/2013/07/29/kids-cant-use-computers/ http://coding2learn.org/blog/2013/07/29/kids-cant-use-comput...

mixmastamyk 4y ago

Schools have adult supervision already and don't need parental surveillance. Kids are most often molested/influenced by someone close, and internet only expands that reach. If you think parents doing their job is the primary problem here, I'm frankly a bit surprised. The truth is nothing is private, so better get used to it. I never used the internet until my mid-twenties, and it hasn't held my technology career back in the slightest.

closeparen 4y ago
>Schools have adult supervision already Students have a great deal more privacy at school than in digital-surveillance households: conversations at lunch and recess are not normally monitored or reviewable by staff members, for example. >The truth is nothing is private, so better get used to it. I think this kind of defeatism is bad, but even as far as it goes, the sense in which "nothing is private" refers to, like, the NSA and advertising bots. That is a very different thing from disclosure to people who have personal relationships and power dynamics with you. I would hope that kids don't "get used to it" and go on to perpetrate or accept that kind of behavior in their future relationships. >I never used the internet until my mid-twenties, and it hasn't held my technology career back in the slightest. While most kids using computers have nothing to do with technology careers, it is pretty clearly the case now that programming for the first time in CS101 would put you at an extreme (though not necessarily insurmountable) disadvantage. > parents doing their job Parents are reinterpreting "their job" to be much more intense over the last few decades already (helicopter parenting, stranger paranoia, driving everywhere, etc). In a remote-first world, they are poised to have essentially total visibility and control over every aspect of life. At some point their job has got to be to produce adults.
- mixmastamyk 4y ago
  > Students have a great deal more privacy at school Not really. Maybe out on the school yard for a few mins, that's expected. You may have not read up on this, but schools have already turned into a surveillance dystopia: https://www.eff.org/press/releases/schools-are-spying-students-students-can-fight-back https://www.eff.org/press/releases/schools-are-spying-studen... It's almost as if an advertising-surveillance-company is in charge of our school's IT. > The truth is nothing is private --> defeatism One of my most painful career lessons was never put sensitive things in email! Wish my parents could have taught me that over something inconsequential a decade earlier. Never was and never will be private. That is the lesson. > CS101 Computer science is not software engineering, right? That one trips up a lot of folks. But this comparison stretches even farther, it is not even in the same neighborhood as social media, friends, or fomo. It's often an applied science class (aka programming) where it is very helpful to know a bit of algebra, typing, and the basics of computer hardware. CS theory often starts the second year. The two sets don't overlap at all, but lay folks tend to think so because computers are "magic": http://coding2learn.org/blog/2013/07/29/kids-cant-use-computers/ http://coding2learn.org/blog/2013/07/29/kids-cant-use-comput...