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Parental control software is counterproductive, and will generally only lead to them trying to outsmart you, which is a bad precedent. If you really want to kee
by mouse_ 4y ago
Parental control software is counterproductive, and will generally only lead to them trying to outsmart you, which is a bad precedent. If you really want to keep your kids safe online, the most important thing to do is establish trust and understanding with them that the boundaries you set are important and reasonable. You need to respect them as people, and they need to understand and appreciate why you set the limits that you do.
On top of that, you need to supervise them, and even then, they should not be allowed to use social media, which ought to be 18+ anyways.
I understand this is all a lot to ask in our society. There is no "good" answer to this problem. But we should all try to do the best we can, and not forget that big tech puts hundreds of millions, if not billions, into making social media as addictive as possible. I'd say we're at a point where it's sensible to conclude it's now more addictive and harmful than tobacco, though our society has yet to come to terms with this fact. Even if we put a stop to it now (we won't), our current social media infrastructure will likely haunt us for centuries.
- Dalewyn 4y agoWhat's sad is parents today all grew up with the internet. They should know how children should interact with it. To put it into context: Facebook was founded in 2004. That is 19 years ago. Youtube was founded in 2005. That is 18 years ago. Twitter was founded in 2006. That is 17 years ago. Google was founded in 1998. That is 25 years ago. The World Wide Web (remember that name?) came to be in 1989. That is 34 years ago. Social media is old enough to be in the history books, let alone the internet at large. What the hell are the parents and would-be parents of today doing to be this fucking incompetent?
- sli 4y agoYou're very much overestimating the average persons knowledge or ability to care about the internet beyond their relatively narrow use of it. It's hard to think critically about things that one takes for granted, and non-tech people frequently just take tech for granted. Tech people frequently do the same thing and appear completely out of touch with the average person's needs, but we call those "disruptive startups" instead.
- Dalewyn 4y agoYou don't need an in-depth knowledge of cars to teach your kids how to drive a car. Likewise, you don't need an in-depth knowledge of computers to teach your kids how to handle the internet. Even moreso if you literally grew up with the thing, seeing both the absolute best and worst the internet has to offer.
- sli 4y agoThat still seems like a number of assumptions to make about the general population that just doesn't ring true in my experience. I have quite a handful of friends that grew up on the internet same as me and yet are just not all that internet savvy. They just don't really care enough. It's not uncommon and it's not even bad, some folks just don't think about it.
- nonethewiser 4y agoHow many kids do you have? Not setting restrictions because they will resist them doesn’t make sense. It seems like you started from the premise that parental controls are bad.
- novok 4y agoIt works pretty well for young age ranges, especially in the 'time limits' and other more objective controls. You have the bias of the average HNer who is into computers and was into them since they were children. There is also a good chunk of kids that just wont bother and go do something else, like read a book or play with sibilings. And a partial low labor solution is better than no solution or a high labor one that takes time from other higher value things for the parents.
- eru 4y ago> Parental control software is counterproductive, and will generally only lead to them trying to outsmart you, which is a bad precedent. Not necessarily..