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OT, kinda. My eldest kid is in the final year of UK junior school so finally cut lose to walk to and from school as is culturally acceptable here.. I gave her a
by xd 4y ago
OT, kinda. My eldest kid is in the final year of UK junior school so finally cut lose to walk to and from school as is culturally acceptable here.. I gave her a phone so she could let us (mum/dad) know she was on her way home from school, deciding to go home to a friends etc.. the school caught wind and apparently it was against school policy so she was disciplined (along with a number of her peers) - the extent of which was limited when I and her mother (and her peers parents) told them we had given them the option irregardless of the school policy.
The school response was to put an air tag on her!... I gave her a phone because they can't take change (money) to school which could be used for a payphone; but they don't exist any more, barely anyway.. fuck air tags, I don't care about property I care about people and air tags are as abusive bit of tech as it gets, how is a kid supposed to grow up knowing they are being tracked 24/7.. my example is nothing compared to what happens to people with abusive partners.. this kinda tech can not be normalised.
- kaapipo 4y agoUmm...? Walk to school by themselves? How old was your eldest, again?
- b800h 4y agoFinal year of UK junior school is ten years old. By eleven, I was taking the train to another town for school. With a few other children, but no adults. I think the acceptability of this stuff comes down to the area you live in.
- jlokier 4y agoI walked myself to school at age 5. By 10 as in the GP comment, I had a fairly long walk up a hill. By 15 I walked 4.4 miles to school some days, most days I caught a bus. In retrospect biking would have been better. What about you?
- entropyie 4y agoYep, where I am this is completely acceptable also, although not as common as it should be... Often because of judgemental people like you scaring off parents. Children are more capable than they are given credit for in many (mostly US) circles. It also seems that global news has distorted adults' risk calculations... Statistically the biggest risk to my children right now is probably obesity... Which I offset by making sure they have some freedom to roam outside of the car.
- logifail 4y ago> My eldest kid is in the final year of UK junior school so finally cut lose to walk to and from school as is culturally acceptable here OT, even more, my youngest kid (aged 6) just started the first year of [primary] school, so is happily walking to and from school as is culturally acceptable here(!!) It would be so easy to end up thinking that tracking all kids solves loads of problems, but I firmly believe it really, really doesn't. <expletive> to your child's school! They should be ashamed of themselves.
- dqpb 4y ago> irregardless Sorry to nitpick, but you can just say regardless.
- xd 4y agoThanks, really! I appreciate it.. makes for a far better rant when the spelling/grammar is on point.
- fhsm 4y agoAs you’ve expressed interest… it seems to me that the nonsense word irregardless (which has become so prevalent as to have a understandable folk sense) arose as a portmanteau of irrespective and regardless. Both are useful words to know. Perhaps the extent to which one cares about the nonsensical composition of the word irregardless speaks to the same latent disposition that drive preferences among type systems. Whether “it works but is wrong” is nonsensical is debatable. My grandfather had a llama who duck typed his sexual partners. He was not, in a Darwinian sense, a successful animal but was beloved for his easy going disposition. Anyway, word are fun.
- jmull 4y agoIf you really like nitpicks: you can also just say irregardless. https://www.npr.org/2020/07/07/887649010/regardless-of-what-you-think-irregardless-is-a-word https://www.npr.org/2020/07/07/887649010/regardless-of-what-...
- CoastalCoder 4y agoMeh, you can say whatever the hell you want. If English actually had language police, I'd press charges against everyone who enters a conversation with "I mean, ..." or "So, ...". [0] But that's only in my little fantasy world :) In the real world, there's no agreed-upon arbiter of "acceptable" English. [0] And the "rule" about omitting final punctuation, in sentences that end with a quote, is stupid and I won't write that way. Now get off my lawn!!!
- 4y ago
- dzhiurgis 4y agoSorry, what? Phones are tracked too. Maybe your solution is a watch, but still kinda expensive. Lost my 2yo a couple of times and each time thinking to resurrect an airtag that currently tracks junk drawer. Feel wrong and I don’t think it would work on someone who changes clothes 5 times a day.
- xd 4y agoThe fact you lost your child is the basis of your argument against me, beggars belief.. a phone is not by default a device to track a kid an air tag is.. my kid is 10 and yours is 2... waaaay different situation. Edit: I lost my kid plenty of times as well.. they love to run off don't they.
- dzhiurgis 4y ago
- xd 4y agoYeah they have I don't disagree .. kids growing up need trust was the point I failed to make.. they need to be able to do things without the fear of being tracked (the adult over the shoulder).. imagine for a second your parents putting an air tag on you as a kid.. depresses me at least. Edit: I'm sorry, you've called me "sus" because of what exactly? I never said I couldn't reason with my kids school.
- lotsofpulp 4y agohttps://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/locate-family-members-devices-find-app-mac-mhd3cb35e1ed/mac https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/locate-family-membe... The Find My functionality to locate friends or family was a thing on phones years before AirTags came out. Google even had a product called Latitude all the way back in 2010 if I recall correctly.
- xd 4y ago
- judge2020 4y agoAirtags are explicitly not meant to track people. Apple goes out of their way to ensure them and their accessory partners do not advertise them being on a person regardless of age or relation to the airtag owner. But that's the thing with technology, isn't it? New tech comes out, companies do the right thing, but the freedom of the technology itself enables bad actors to abuse or repurpose the technology. For example: With advancements in robotic technology, Boston Dynamics' policy to blacklist anyone who puts a gun on their dog does nothing when chinese companies are already selling it as a feature. You have to note that AirTags are not new. Tile has been around for a while and, if you live in a city, there was a high likelihood someone also has a tile and would be a beacon for your tile's pings, and Tile makes no attempt at preventing human tracking. This isn't a tech being normalized, it already is normalized and has been for a decade. Just as you can be a proponent of advancements in robotics technology while being against their use in war, you can be against anyone recommending 24/7 tracking of humans.
- thefz 4y ago> Airtags are explicitly not meant to track people. Apple goes out of their way The amount of Apple apologism in this site makes me think sometimes. They "went out of their way" by releasing a dumb Android app which everyone should have to install and know it exists as a band-aid after their technology has been shown to be used to harm and abuse people. They know airtags can be used for crime and don't care.
- pretext-1 4y ago> They know airtags can be used for crime and don't care. So can iPhones. Or Androids. Or ski masks, lock picks, tape. Should we stop selling useful items when they can be abused? Apple did way more to stop the abuse of AirTags than the competition and I don't see anyone complaining about Tile. Almost any tool can be abused or used to hurt someone. Stop trying to shift the blame from the perpetrator to the tool being used. Also: funny how the US doesn't ban guns even though they were literally invented to kill people but now fight about AirTags.
- 4y ago
- School-Cotton 4y agoHow will the school even know if she has a phone, as long as she keeps it turned off and hidden? She should just keep taking it anyway regardless of the bullshit policy and simply not use it at school.
- bobbylarrybobby 4y agoSome schools in the US have metal detectors. Not sure about the UK.
- andylynch 4y agoSome do, to detect knives - but I don’t think it’s widespread and certainly not outside high schools.
- nonethewiser 4y agoFuck air tags? That's your take away? Fuck the school for stalking your child.
- avh02 4y agonot the OP, but i think the OP meant the school told OP to put airtags on the child rather than the school themselves doing it, the sentence leans towards your interpretation though.
- kanbara 4y agowhy is the school monitoring how kids commute and using airtags? it's not airtags fault, it's your orwellian government. this is such a dumb take i can't even. airtags alert people when they are on someone's person that they are not registered to, on iPhone and Android. kids commute on the train in japan, germany and other places, this is absurd.
- 411111111111111 4y agoThe government was not involved in the patents anecdote.
- barry-cotter 4y agoAll schools are government schools because the government license them and will shut them down if they do not comply.
- 411111111111111 4y agoSo the UK doesn't have private schools which can set whatever house rules they want unless they're challenged in court about them? Yeah true story bro.
- cryptonector 4y agoSo take the air tag off, or put it in a faraday bag.
- bearmode 4y agoHe meant the school suggested putting an air tag on the kid rather than giving them a phone. The school isn't tracking the kid.
- cryptonector 4y agoOh, well, that's different.