5 ms·

This thread is person after person saying “oh wow, person who sells terrible thing for humanity doesn’t let their kids have unlimited access to terrible thing!

This thread is person after person saying “oh wow, person who sells terrible thing for humanity doesn’t let their kids have unlimited access to terrible thing! It’s so obvious. This isn’t news.” The news is that the CEO of youtube is saying that Youtube is something that should be limited and he thinks harm will come to his children if he does not. This may be obvious to people on this site but a lot of normal people think it’s fine. It’s shocking as for a lot of people it’s more like “CEO of cucumber farm limits cucumbers for their child!” As that’s how Google markets youtube for kids.

dmix 10mo ago
To me it seems like basic parenting to limit access to tech. It wasn’t healthy for kids to just play video games every day for 5hrs straight after school in the 90s either. But that also doesn’t mean they should never have had a PlayStation or all gaming is bad.
- ragequittah 10mo ago
  The research on video games indicates that it tends to enhance certain skills like spatial awareness and reflex time. They're also pretty decent social / competitive outlets. The research on social media indicates that it lowers attention span and increases anxiety, depression, and anger. And my personal opinion is it's the reason we're seeing crazy things that I can't fathom happening without it like the measles resurgence. Neither should be used for 5 hours a day but the consequences don't seem comparable to me. The only place they do align is you should probably be exercising more instead.
just_once 10mo ago
Hacker News is not representative of the average person in often very bad ways.
2OEH8eoCRo0 10mo ago
It's also person after person telling people to parent harder.
- irl_zebra 10mo ago
  It's a responsibility, probably (definitely, I think, but minimally probably) the most important job and responsibility one can have. If you're on HN, then you likely recognize the brain rotting effect of social media without moderation, and if that's the case, your responsibility is to parent to the minimum amount that you moderate your kids' usage.
  - 2OEH8eoCRo0 10mo ago
    Yep. And people parent harder by banning social media entirely. Problem solved!
    - bdangubic 10mo ago
      this is exactly what hard parenting is all about. I do “as long as you under my roof…” bit (6 more years to go…) :)
      - 2OEH8eoCRo0 10mo ago
        I think the problem is that parents don't know that it's bad so they don't limit but this CEO apparently knows! Many parents are addicts themselves
        bdangubic 10mo ago
        honest question - do you really think that (most) parents do not know that it is bad?! This “CEO” stuff is not new, Steve Jobs famously said the same thing about his own devices…
dachris 10mo ago
Lots of normal people don't think it's fine. Lots of parents limited their kids' TV (television, you know) time back in the day (mine sure did, thanks mum and dad, even though I didn't particularly approve of the restriction back then). Now you have to limit smartphone (and tablet and PC and TV) time. Lots of parents do this already, CEOs are not alone.
- Gud 10mo ago
  The television set was never in every kids pocket, though. And obviously "lol don't buy your kid a smartphone then lol". sure, easy to say, but the world is getting more and more connected.
  - danielbarla 10mo ago
    Availability is definitely a factor, but I feel that a far more important aspect is that a YouTube feel is personalised. It's A/B testing you for weeks on end, and has a pretty good idea of how to get maximum engagement. TV was never this targeted, nor was there feedback to ratchet up what it suggested to you.
    - Forgeties79 10mo ago
      Kids don’t stand a chance against decades of data/research and billions of dollars weaponized against human psychology to garner as much of your attention as possible at all times.
      - Gud 10mo ago
        By our generations “best and brightest”, supposedly. At least, most well compensated. Shame on you, if you work for these organisations.
      - codedokode 10mo ago
        Kids should own a device with "adult" bit set to 0, so that they can only use government-approved applications and sites. Why government? Because parents are too lazy or dumb to configure anything and 90% will just let their children access whatever they want and the rest 10% will feel like losers who cannot watch the things all their classmates are allowed to watch.
naian 10mo ago
I doubt “a lot of people” think spending all day watching YouTube is fine; this sounds hyperbolic.
- conception 10mo ago
  Studies on screen time with toddlers and infants don’t paint a rosy picture on it.
dzhiurgis 10mo ago
So you kinda saying youtube for kids should limit itself to N hours per day per IP address / device? Perhaps australia should’ve implemented such limitations. Burden of enforcement on big tech since the have billions to spend anyway.
tstrimple 10mo ago
Seems like a pathetic appeal to authority to me. Why should I care what weird idiosyncrasies billionaires have? I'm sure they have tons of things they don't want their children learning that a lot of people would consider to be trivial. In my mind this goes back to whether you model children as property that you own or individual humans you're hoping to introduce to the world in the best way you understand how. It sucks that other people's children are going to youtube to turn off their brains. But my kids are excelling because of it and similar services. My girls are constantly trying new things because of what they see on social media and youtube. My 12 year old daughter already plays flute, violin and cello but wants to pick up the saxophone because of content she has consumed. We get everything from weird science experiments to a desire to try sewing or knitting. When people talk about the "dangers" of the internet and social media I struggle to understand what they mean because it's always been an enabler to me to excel. Somewhere along the way so called "hackers" wanted to create safe spaces to completely isolate their children from any variables the world can throw at them and I just cannot understand the mentality.
theshrike79 10mo ago
I personally think Youtube itself is just fine. It has parental controls and I can block channels etc. What isn't fine is YOUTUBE FUCKING SHORTS. It's by far the worst of the infinite content producers in the world because automated uploads are so easy compared to the other platforms and there is no way to block it completely from kids without just banning all of Youtube. It _needs_ to have a separate setting.

dmix 10mo ago

To me it seems like basic parenting to limit access to tech. It wasn’t healthy for kids to just play video games every day for 5hrs straight after school in the 90s either. But that also doesn’t mean they should never have had a PlayStation or all gaming is bad.

ragequittah 10mo ago
The research on video games indicates that it tends to enhance certain skills like spatial awareness and reflex time. They're also pretty decent social / competitive outlets. The research on social media indicates that it lowers attention span and increases anxiety, depression, and anger. And my personal opinion is it's the reason we're seeing crazy things that I can't fathom happening without it like the measles resurgence. Neither should be used for 5 hours a day but the consequences don't seem comparable to me. The only place they do align is you should probably be exercising more instead.

just_once 10mo ago

Hacker News is not representative of the average person in often very bad ways.

2OEH8eoCRo0 10mo ago

It's also person after person telling people to parent harder.

irl_zebra 10mo ago
It's a responsibility, probably (definitely, I think, but minimally probably) the most important job and responsibility one can have. If you're on HN, then you likely recognize the brain rotting effect of social media without moderation, and if that's the case, your responsibility is to parent to the minimum amount that you moderate your kids' usage.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 10mo ago
  Yep. And people parent harder by banning social media entirely. Problem solved!
  - bdangubic 10mo ago
    this is exactly what hard parenting is all about. I do “as long as you under my roof…” bit (6 more years to go…) :)
    - 2OEH8eoCRo0 10mo ago
      I think the problem is that parents don't know that it's bad so they don't limit but this CEO apparently knows! Many parents are addicts themselves
      - bdangubic 10mo ago
        honest question - do you really think that (most) parents do not know that it is bad?! This “CEO” stuff is not new, Steve Jobs famously said the same thing about his own devices…

dachris 10mo ago

Lots of normal people don't think it's fine. Lots of parents limited their kids' TV (television, you know) time back in the day (mine sure did, thanks mum and dad, even though I didn't particularly approve of the restriction back then). Now you have to limit smartphone (and tablet and PC and TV) time. Lots of parents do this already, CEOs are not alone.

Gud 10mo ago
The television set was never in every kids pocket, though. And obviously "lol don't buy your kid a smartphone then lol". sure, easy to say, but the world is getting more and more connected.
- danielbarla 10mo ago
  Availability is definitely a factor, but I feel that a far more important aspect is that a YouTube feel is personalised. It's A/B testing you for weeks on end, and has a pretty good idea of how to get maximum engagement. TV was never this targeted, nor was there feedback to ratchet up what it suggested to you.
  - Forgeties79 10mo ago
    Kids don’t stand a chance against decades of data/research and billions of dollars weaponized against human psychology to garner as much of your attention as possible at all times.
    - Gud 10mo ago
      By our generations “best and brightest”, supposedly. At least, most well compensated. Shame on you, if you work for these organisations.
    - codedokode 10mo ago
      Kids should own a device with "adult" bit set to 0, so that they can only use government-approved applications and sites. Why government? Because parents are too lazy or dumb to configure anything and 90% will just let their children access whatever they want and the rest 10% will feel like losers who cannot watch the things all their classmates are allowed to watch.

naian 10mo ago

I doubt “a lot of people” think spending all day watching YouTube is fine; this sounds hyperbolic.

conception 10mo ago
Studies on screen time with toddlers and infants don’t paint a rosy picture on it.

dzhiurgis 10mo ago

So you kinda saying youtube for kids should limit itself to N hours per day per IP address / device? Perhaps australia should’ve implemented such limitations. Burden of enforcement on big tech since the have billions to spend anyway.

tstrimple 10mo ago

Seems like a pathetic appeal to authority to me. Why should I care what weird idiosyncrasies billionaires have? I'm sure they have tons of things they don't want their children learning that a lot of people would consider to be trivial. In my mind this goes back to whether you model children as property that you own or individual humans you're hoping to introduce to the world in the best way you understand how. It sucks that other people's children are going to youtube to turn off their brains. But my kids are excelling because of it and similar services. My girls are constantly trying new things because of what they see on social media and youtube. My 12 year old daughter already plays flute, violin and cello but wants to pick up the saxophone because of content she has consumed. We get everything from weird science experiments to a desire to try sewing or knitting. When people talk about the "dangers" of the internet and social media I struggle to understand what they mean because it's always been an enabler to me to excel. Somewhere along the way so called "hackers" wanted to create safe spaces to completely isolate their children from any variables the world can throw at them and I just cannot understand the mentality.

theshrike79 10mo ago

I personally think Youtube itself is just fine. It has parental controls and I can block channels etc. What isn't fine is YOUTUBE FUCKING SHORTS. It's by far the worst of the infinite content producers in the world because automated uploads are so easy compared to the other platforms and there is no way to block it completely from kids without just banning all of Youtube. It _needs_ to have a separate setting.