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> Bark places calls to law enforcement when it receives an alert about a kid threatening to harm themselves or others, he told me, but those alerts are reviewed

> Bark places calls to law enforcement when it receives an alert about a kid threatening to harm themselves or others, he told me, but those alerts are reviewed by a human first. “We’re not swatting kids,” he said. So any messages your kid sends to their friends could get routed to some random employee at this third-party service? Yikes.

Proofread0592 1y ago
I have a very skeptical worldview, and whenever I see any of these companies that offer to "protect your kids" by managing and monitoring their data, I always just assume they are gathering data to sell to advertisers. And sure maybe they don't go into business with that mentality, but when the company inevitably goes under, the first thing they're going to do is sell off the data to the highest bidder.
- drillsteps5 1y ago
  Worse yet, I guarantee that some of the detection is done by feeding the kids' messages to cloud LLMs. Thanks, no thanks
- bdangubic 1y ago
  if you gave your kid a device this is not an issue already. you are skeptical here but not when you allowed a child a device…?
- blendo 1y ago
  And a couple of the apps are from companies from Utah, so putting them on your kids phones is basically outsourcing their online information flow to the Mormon Church.
mjevans 1y ago
I'd say the parents should moderate it... but I've seen how busy work and everything else leaves modern parents. Society really needs to adjust to leave time for people to be humans, to correctly raise and guide the next generation into quality adults. We're really going to regret it when we end up in that cyberpunk dystopia ruled by corporations.
- jhbadger 1y ago
  Or maybe people are just overeacting. In the 1950s there was a movement that claimed that comic books were evil and rotting kids' minds. When I was growing up in the 1970s and 1980s it was TV. Then it was video games. Now it's social media, Kids like to do things that (at least to parents) look like wasting time. But if the parents look back to their own childhoods, they weren't using their time that productively either.
  - blendo 1y ago
    I tend to share your optimism, but it also seems smartphones have some very different qualities from previous tech. Yes, the sounds and images, but mostly a new kind of socially remote yet nearly instantaneous communication style. And a surprising amount of sexting. Getting to this: https://xkcd.com/1414/ https://xkcd.com/1414/
  - thepryz 1y ago
    It’s easy to suggest that this is the same scaremongering around media and new technologies occurred in the past, but I think that’s a mistake. The Internet, web forums, social media, etc. are different because of how people interact with them and because many of them use algorithms and dark patterns to manipulate and drive further engagement. To make matters worse, malicious actors have demonstrably used them to manipulate public opinion and distribute propaganda. Studies around illusory truth have shown that familiarity can overcome rationality and critical thinking. IOW, no matter how much you know something to be a lie, if you hear it often enough, you’ll begin to believe it. That’s all to say I think it’s important to be wary of how technology influences your life and consider how to cultivate balance in life that includes time away from devices to contemplate as well as to escape the machine.
    - card_zero 1y ago
      Dungeons and Dragons was different, because it encouraged the confusion of fantasy with reality. But in the case of algorithm-driven social media feeds the difference is different, I take it? The scale is bigger, I think that's the key thing. I can vaguely imagine an alternate history where D&D is as popular as TikTok, and then Russia and China are publishing their own Monster Manuals full of propaganda, and laws start to appear limiting it to over 18s due to the potential for brain rot as proven by studies.

Proofread0592 1y ago

I have a very skeptical worldview, and whenever I see any of these companies that offer to "protect your kids" by managing and monitoring their data, I always just assume they are gathering data to sell to advertisers. And sure maybe they don't go into business with that mentality, but when the company inevitably goes under, the first thing they're going to do is sell off the data to the highest bidder.

drillsteps5 1y ago
Worse yet, I guarantee that some of the detection is done by feeding the kids' messages to cloud LLMs. Thanks, no thanks
bdangubic 1y ago
if you gave your kid a device this is not an issue already. you are skeptical here but not when you allowed a child a device…?
blendo 1y ago
And a couple of the apps are from companies from Utah, so putting them on your kids phones is basically outsourcing their online information flow to the Mormon Church.

mjevans 1y ago

I'd say the parents should moderate it... but I've seen how busy work and everything else leaves modern parents. Society really needs to adjust to leave time for people to be humans, to correctly raise and guide the next generation into quality adults. We're really going to regret it when we end up in that cyberpunk dystopia ruled by corporations.

jhbadger 1y ago
Or maybe people are just overeacting. In the 1950s there was a movement that claimed that comic books were evil and rotting kids' minds. When I was growing up in the 1970s and 1980s it was TV. Then it was video games. Now it's social media, Kids like to do things that (at least to parents) look like wasting time. But if the parents look back to their own childhoods, they weren't using their time that productively either.
- blendo 1y ago
  I tend to share your optimism, but it also seems smartphones have some very different qualities from previous tech. Yes, the sounds and images, but mostly a new kind of socially remote yet nearly instantaneous communication style. And a surprising amount of sexting. Getting to this: https://xkcd.com/1414/ https://xkcd.com/1414/
- thepryz 1y ago
  It’s easy to suggest that this is the same scaremongering around media and new technologies occurred in the past, but I think that’s a mistake. The Internet, web forums, social media, etc. are different because of how people interact with them and because many of them use algorithms and dark patterns to manipulate and drive further engagement. To make matters worse, malicious actors have demonstrably used them to manipulate public opinion and distribute propaganda. Studies around illusory truth have shown that familiarity can overcome rationality and critical thinking. IOW, no matter how much you know something to be a lie, if you hear it often enough, you’ll begin to believe it. That’s all to say I think it’s important to be wary of how technology influences your life and consider how to cultivate balance in life that includes time away from devices to contemplate as well as to escape the machine.
  - card_zero 1y ago
    Dungeons and Dragons was different, because it encouraged the confusion of fantasy with reality. But in the case of algorithm-driven social media feeds the difference is different, I take it? The scale is bigger, I think that's the key thing. I can vaguely imagine an alternate history where D&D is as popular as TikTok, and then Russia and China are publishing their own Monster Manuals full of propaganda, and laws start to appear limiting it to over 18s due to the potential for brain rot as proven by studies.