5 ms·

The amount of crap kids are exposed to is insane. I doubt this bill will fix it, and will probably make things worse. But serious thought and political will n

The amount of crap kids are exposed to is insane. I doubt this bill will fix it, and will probably make things worse. But serious thought and political will needs to be given to how to protect kids. The best way to do that is empower, parents, not government. But nobody really wants to do that. Look at how crappy parental controls are. I’ve personally battled with my kids over online content. It’s absolutely nuts how difficult moderating your child’s content is. It’s like we are stuck in the 80s where parents are expected to just “watch tv with their kids and talk about it.” Tech could solve this problem, but there simply isn’t money in it. Politically, there’s no will to help parents either. So when you’re writing your Senators about this bill, make it clear they should be deferring to parents on this matter.

Larrikin 3y ago
Empower parents to do what exactly? Routers have the ability to pinpoint and target devices, shut them off at certain times, and have global filters. AdGuard gives even more fine grained website specific features, letting you shut off YouTube for all devices. Specific devices like the Switch and MacOS also let you setup times, block apps, block websites, and allow apps to only work for a certain time. Kids will try and get around the blocks to keep playing games, but punishing them for getting around the blocks and talking to them about it instead of trying to automate everything still works
- rlpb 3y ago
  I'd like parental controls at sub-app granularity. For example, to monitor a child's chats, with full knowledge of the child. To see all social media activity and add to the blocklist remotely. That kind of thing.
  - Larrikin 3y ago
    If you want to read your child's private messages then you need to demand access to their passwords. I expect that to go over just as well as it would with adults
- blzaugg 3y ago
  The parental controls on Nintendo Switch are a joke. Barely any options to be useful. For example, try blocking a specific app, like YouTube. I think that's one a the biggest problems, when a company adds parental controls. It's usually minimal effort. Just enough so they can say "see, we give parents control". It's a PR move.
  - zamadatix 3y ago
    More than doing the bare minimum as a PR move I think it just has to do with such options being of limited practicality. No amount of that kind of tinker knob beats the effectiveness and manageability of requiring approval to download anything, which the Switch does support.
- boppo1 3y ago
  >Routers have the ability to pinpoint and target devices, shut them off at certain times, and have global filters. This requires non-trivial networking knowledge. Tired layperson parents need an easier solution.
  - InCityDreams 3y ago
    I have a lot of my electronics fed from remote controlled switches. I press a button and off or on it is. I have one switch with five buttons - router, pc, monitor, etc. When the kids are a pain, i select what to switch off of theirs (so they can still play games, but perhaps won'thave the internet(....costs about €15 or so. Saves me a fortune when i leave the house, too (no 'standby' lights anywhere). Just like my pc, i decide, and I'm in charge.
  - Larrikin 3y ago
    My router has a setting called parental controls with dead simple settings. If you don't want to parent and take away the device for disobeying rules then you have time to learn how to open your router settings.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- pitched 3y ago
  Targeting services with the router doesn’t work against downloaded content. The OS sleep times can be bypassed by changing the system time and disabling wifi. There are also the free web proxy websites that let you bypass a whole lot of other things too. I encourage this hacking spirit in them though and let them have a whole day if they find a new workaround. Right now, I have the unlock code set to all-zero but they haven’t figured that one out yet! Best advice for getting them off devices I have is to take them away. If you need them distracted for a bit, a larger screen like a real TV or desktop doesn’t seem to hold them as tightly too.
  - askiiart 3y ago
    Do they read Hacker News, by any chance? Because if so, I think they just found another workaround.
    - pyuser583 3y ago
      Disconnecting from the Internet to avoid filtering isn’t exactly a hack.
      - askiiart 3y ago
        I was referring to this: > I have the unlock code set to all-zero but they haven't figured that one out yet!
- mptest 3y ago
  >Empower parents to do what exactly Oh idk, maybe not spend 100% of their conscious time/energy working to make someone else enough money to buy their fifth yacht??? And actually parent?? So kids aren't pawned off on to screens for 12 hours a day?? Seems pretty damn simple when most households need to be two income what the problem is. Parenting being pawned off on technology. All this "parenting" software is missing the point so hard it's comical. Maybe subsidize child care and recognize the economic value raising children has and how much unpaid work parents do for all our future? Then parents would actually have time and energy and money to parent.
- gjsman-1000 3y ago
  The macOS parental controls are garbage that rarely work correctly or as they appear they should - which Apple a few months ago even admitted to an irate journalist that, yeah, they have problems. I’ve tried using them - they are unusable. What’s the point of parental controls that randomly let you open private windows in Safari, without filtering, after a few hours of being logged in because the daemon crashed? It’s pointless and actively dangerous as a parent thinks they are working, but they aren’t. Windows parental controls - what’s the point when you can’t disable Windows Copilot or Edge Copilot or the Bing search suggestions in the taskbar or the Microsoft News feed on new Edge tabs? Or when it comes preloaded with the Movies and TV and Microsoft News apps full of junk? Or when Microsoft Office lets you embed videos from Bing without respecting parental control SafeSearch preferences? The parental controls on Windows are wildly insufficient. Nintendo Switch? I was stunned. Whole device, no granular per-user settings? What about families that can’t afford one per child? No ability to disable the eShop or force an eShop rating within the parental controls app? No ability to set a PIN code for just using the Switch? No ability to hide, say, M-rated titles for older kids from younger kids? Modern parental controls suck, either are incomplete or don’t work, and are unfit for purpose.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

Larrikin 3y ago

Empower parents to do what exactly? Routers have the ability to pinpoint and target devices, shut them off at certain times, and have global filters. AdGuard gives even more fine grained website specific features, letting you shut off YouTube for all devices. Specific devices like the Switch and MacOS also let you setup times, block apps, block websites, and allow apps to only work for a certain time. Kids will try and get around the blocks to keep playing games, but punishing them for getting around the blocks and talking to them about it instead of trying to automate everything still works

rlpb 3y ago
I'd like parental controls at sub-app granularity. For example, to monitor a child's chats, with full knowledge of the child. To see all social media activity and add to the blocklist remotely. That kind of thing.
- Larrikin 3y ago
  If you want to read your child's private messages then you need to demand access to their passwords. I expect that to go over just as well as it would with adults
blzaugg 3y ago
The parental controls on Nintendo Switch are a joke. Barely any options to be useful. For example, try blocking a specific app, like YouTube. I think that's one a the biggest problems, when a company adds parental controls. It's usually minimal effort. Just enough so they can say "see, we give parents control". It's a PR move.
- zamadatix 3y ago
  More than doing the bare minimum as a PR move I think it just has to do with such options being of limited practicality. No amount of that kind of tinker knob beats the effectiveness and manageability of requiring approval to download anything, which the Switch does support.
boppo1 3y ago
>Routers have the ability to pinpoint and target devices, shut them off at certain times, and have global filters. This requires non-trivial networking knowledge. Tired layperson parents need an easier solution.
- InCityDreams 3y ago
  I have a lot of my electronics fed from remote controlled switches. I press a button and off or on it is. I have one switch with five buttons - router, pc, monitor, etc. When the kids are a pain, i select what to switch off of theirs (so they can still play games, but perhaps won'thave the internet(....costs about €15 or so. Saves me a fortune when i leave the house, too (no 'standby' lights anywhere). Just like my pc, i decide, and I'm in charge.
- Larrikin 3y ago
  My router has a setting called parental controls with dead simple settings. If you don't want to parent and take away the device for disobeying rules then you have time to learn how to open your router settings.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
pitched 3y ago
Targeting services with the router doesn’t work against downloaded content. The OS sleep times can be bypassed by changing the system time and disabling wifi. There are also the free web proxy websites that let you bypass a whole lot of other things too. I encourage this hacking spirit in them though and let them have a whole day if they find a new workaround. Right now, I have the unlock code set to all-zero but they haven’t figured that one out yet! Best advice for getting them off devices I have is to take them away. If you need them distracted for a bit, a larger screen like a real TV or desktop doesn’t seem to hold them as tightly too.
- askiiart 3y ago
  Do they read Hacker News, by any chance? Because if so, I think they just found another workaround.
  - pyuser583 3y ago
    Disconnecting from the Internet to avoid filtering isn’t exactly a hack.
    - askiiart 3y ago
      I was referring to this: > I have the unlock code set to all-zero but they haven't figured that one out yet!
mptest 3y ago
>Empower parents to do what exactly Oh idk, maybe not spend 100% of their conscious time/energy working to make someone else enough money to buy their fifth yacht??? And actually parent?? So kids aren't pawned off on to screens for 12 hours a day?? Seems pretty damn simple when most households need to be two income what the problem is. Parenting being pawned off on technology. All this "parenting" software is missing the point so hard it's comical. Maybe subsidize child care and recognize the economic value raising children has and how much unpaid work parents do for all our future? Then parents would actually have time and energy and money to parent.
gjsman-1000 3y ago
The macOS parental controls are garbage that rarely work correctly or as they appear they should - which Apple a few months ago even admitted to an irate journalist that, yeah, they have problems. I’ve tried using them - they are unusable. What’s the point of parental controls that randomly let you open private windows in Safari, without filtering, after a few hours of being logged in because the daemon crashed? It’s pointless and actively dangerous as a parent thinks they are working, but they aren’t. Windows parental controls - what’s the point when you can’t disable Windows Copilot or Edge Copilot or the Bing search suggestions in the taskbar or the Microsoft News feed on new Edge tabs? Or when it comes preloaded with the Movies and TV and Microsoft News apps full of junk? Or when Microsoft Office lets you embed videos from Bing without respecting parental control SafeSearch preferences? The parental controls on Windows are wildly insufficient. Nintendo Switch? I was stunned. Whole device, no granular per-user settings? What about families that can’t afford one per child? No ability to disable the eShop or force an eShop rating within the parental controls app? No ability to set a PIN code for just using the Switch? No ability to hide, say, M-rated titles for older kids from younger kids? Modern parental controls suck, either are incomplete or don’t work, and are unfit for purpose.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]