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If it could be done technically, setting a child's phone to receive only messages that include a valid ID would discourage abuse by making abuse traceable. The

If it could be done technically, setting a child's phone to receive only messages that include a valid ID would discourage abuse by making abuse traceable. The school would insist that all children's phones are set up this way so that there's no stigma attached to a particular child not receiving SMS or whatever. But it's simpler to let the police handle the problem and determine whether it's harassment, or if it's a case of crybullying. A school's not going to be able to stop bullying. But with message tracking devices in everyone's hand and cameras everywhere, the SCHOOL's problems are solvable without having to go into childrens' phones.

josephcsible 4y ago
> The school would insist that all children's phones are set up this way Unless the school is paying for your kid's phone and plan, they should have exactly zero say in how it's set up.
- tailrecursion 4y ago
  The child's phone can be set up one way or another. In this hypothetical scheme (described above), a child complaining about anonymous abusive messages is ignored by the school. School's not responsible, because the child's phone is set up improperly. If phone were in order, phone would not receive anonymous messages. A child receiving a traceable abusive message is quickly resolved, and presumably this kind of abuse is rare, for obvious reasons. Everyone is happy. The school's happy because, under this scheme, they have virtually no work to do in connection with online harassment. The police are happy because fewer harassment cases are being opened (this is true only if most kids set their phone as instructed by the school). Kids are slightly less miserable because online bullying has been made more difficult to pull off. Finally, sticklers like the parent are happy because they can continue to set up their phone "wrong" and receive anonymous abuse. Which the school won't look into and will presumably pass off to the police.
  - josephcsible 4y ago
    > a child complaining about anonymous abusive messages is ignored by the school. School's not responsible, because the child's phone is set up improperly. Imagine if the police requested, but technically didn't mandate, that parents install location tracking apps on their children's phones, and that they then ignored missing persons reports for anyone who didn't do so.
    - tailrecursion 4y ago
      - mlyle 4y ago
        Please think about the site guidelines. In any case, I don't think a technical countermeasure that addresses a subset of cases erases the concern. You're presupposing harassment happens by SMS, which maybe was true 10 years ago. How would your solution work with students' frequent use of Discord?
        tailrecursion 4y ago
        I'm not a Discord user but if it's not possible for a user to block all incoming anonymous messages, Discord use would be disallowed by the school. The simple idea I've given doesn't work if kids can receive messages that aren't immediately traceable. Schoolchildren would have to stop using any service that doesn't have a block-anonymous setting, or, accept that the school will ignore any complaints about anonymous messages. I think the biggest problem with the whole thing is that the kids won't stop using the services they want to use. Apple could theoretically make a system setting to block unidentifiable messages (not phone calls) specifically to protect kids, in all apps on that phone. When you speak of erasing the concern, do you mean the concern about bullying or the concern about going into children's phones and looking at text messages?
        mlyle 4y ago

josephcsible 4y ago

> The school would insist that all children's phones are set up this way Unless the school is paying for your kid's phone and plan, they should have exactly zero say in how it's set up.

tailrecursion 4y ago
The child's phone can be set up one way or another. In this hypothetical scheme (described above), a child complaining about anonymous abusive messages is ignored by the school. School's not responsible, because the child's phone is set up improperly. If phone were in order, phone would not receive anonymous messages. A child receiving a traceable abusive message is quickly resolved, and presumably this kind of abuse is rare, for obvious reasons. Everyone is happy. The school's happy because, under this scheme, they have virtually no work to do in connection with online harassment. The police are happy because fewer harassment cases are being opened (this is true only if most kids set their phone as instructed by the school). Kids are slightly less miserable because online bullying has been made more difficult to pull off. Finally, sticklers like the parent are happy because they can continue to set up their phone "wrong" and receive anonymous abuse. Which the school won't look into and will presumably pass off to the police.
- josephcsible 4y ago
  > a child complaining about anonymous abusive messages is ignored by the school. School's not responsible, because the child's phone is set up improperly. Imagine if the police requested, but technically didn't mandate, that parents install location tracking apps on their children's phones, and that they then ignored missing persons reports for anyone who didn't do so.
  - tailrecursion 4y ago
    - mlyle 4y ago
      Please think about the site guidelines. In any case, I don't think a technical countermeasure that addresses a subset of cases erases the concern. You're presupposing harassment happens by SMS, which maybe was true 10 years ago. How would your solution work with students' frequent use of Discord?
      - tailrecursion 4y ago
        I'm not a Discord user but if it's not possible for a user to block all incoming anonymous messages, Discord use would be disallowed by the school. The simple idea I've given doesn't work if kids can receive messages that aren't immediately traceable. Schoolchildren would have to stop using any service that doesn't have a block-anonymous setting, or, accept that the school will ignore any complaints about anonymous messages. I think the biggest problem with the whole thing is that the kids won't stop using the services they want to use. Apple could theoretically make a system setting to block unidentifiable messages (not phone calls) specifically to protect kids, in all apps on that phone. When you speak of erasing the concern, do you mean the concern about bullying or the concern about going into children's phones and looking at text messages?
        mlyle 4y ago