17 ms·

I get that this is HN, and "tech" is the solution to everything, but an android app or consumer router setting are not going to protect your kids from: predator

I get that this is HN, and "tech" is the solution to everything, but an android app or consumer router setting are not going to protect your kids from: predatory YouTube content (we all remember the epidemic of Spiderman humping Elsa, right?) or excessive advertising on YouTube that their brains aren't even capable of recognizing/processing (we all know about Logan Paul content that is basically a 20 minute ad being targetted at pre-teen kids, at-one-time available on YT Kids app, right?). It's not going to protect them from being pressured for nudes. It's not going to stop them from committing felonies and producing and transmitting underage pornography. It's not going to stop rumors and gossip and drama from spreading across Facebook even if your router is off for the night. My brother is a middle school math teacher. Find the nearest middle school teacher you know and ask them how pervasive these issues are. Just from their small middle school, they had dozens and dozens of students disciplined, just for nudes. One was supposedly going to be charged after the 6th+ time of soliciting nudes from a fellow student and then sharing them. The quiet nerdy kid built a categorized Dropbox collection from the entire school and was quietly sharing it. It means so little to them. I'm actually sort of getting worked up here thinking about this. If you've sat on your hands until your kid is 12, you have no trust or dialog with them, god bless your hearts for thinking a firewall or Android app is going to help a single ounce. All you've done is setup a tiny puzzle. Most of us likely know the workarounds, they will figure it out, just like I did 15 years ago. Of course, I think "tech" is probably an invaluable tool for setting time limits and helping with screen addiction, but it's not going to fix any of the other psychologically damaging aspects of youth+tech. EDIT: I really appreciate and would like to echo jedberg and ziddoap's comments here as well.

cpach 7y ago
”One was supposedly going to be charged after the 6th+ time of soliciting nudes from a fellow student and then sharing them. The quiet nerdy kid built a categorized Dropbox collection from the entire school and was quietly sharing it.” Ouch. That’s nasty. I wonder though, is it really a technological problem? I wonder how those guys were raised and what role models they had if they so blatantly ignores other persons’ privacy. Of course it’s technology that enables the rapid spread of photos etc. But their parents and other adults around them are still responsible for trying to teach them how to behave decently.
- colemickens 7y ago
  That's exactly my point. I knew enough to be "destructive" in middle school with the school computers, but I chose not to, because of how I was raised. It wasn't that the school group policy was effective, but rather that I understood running "fdisk" on the school PC would have more serious consequences than if I just showed people how to use OLE and Sound Recorder to unmute the computer speakers. Technology makes a lot of things easier. I think the most effective thing is raising kids so that they want to do the right thing. But I also sort of think this all bottoms out on active, involved, caring parenting.

cpach 7y ago

”One was supposedly going to be charged after the 6th+ time of soliciting nudes from a fellow student and then sharing them. The quiet nerdy kid built a categorized Dropbox collection from the entire school and was quietly sharing it.” Ouch. That’s nasty. I wonder though, is it really a technological problem? I wonder how those guys were raised and what role models they had if they so blatantly ignores other persons’ privacy. Of course it’s technology that enables the rapid spread of photos etc. But their parents and other adults around them are still responsible for trying to teach them how to behave decently.

colemickens 7y ago
That's exactly my point. I knew enough to be "destructive" in middle school with the school computers, but I chose not to, because of how I was raised. It wasn't that the school group policy was effective, but rather that I understood running "fdisk" on the school PC would have more serious consequences than if I just showed people how to use OLE and Sound Recorder to unmute the computer speakers. Technology makes a lot of things easier. I think the most effective thing is raising kids so that they want to do the right thing. But I also sort of think this all bottoms out on active, involved, caring parenting.